How we check a broker before ranking it

The first filter: can an Australian open, fund and withdraw

A broker is only considered if a resident of Australia can open an account, fund it and withdraw from it, in that order. We look at whether Australian applicants are accepted, which legal entity they end up dealing with, and whether local funding routes such as PayID or bank transfer are actually available to them. A broker that cannot clear this filter is not ranked at all, however good its platform looks.

The regulator check sits inside that first filter. For FxPro the position we state is the one we can stand behind: FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC. It does not hold an ASIC licence, so Australian residents deal with an offshore entity — check this before funding. That is a fact about the entity, not a verdict on the broker, and readers should weigh it themselves.

The formula behind each calculator, in words

The position size calculator works out how many lots you can trade for a given risk amount. It takes your account balance in Australian dollars, the percentage you are willing to risk, and the distance in pips to your stop-loss. It converts your risk amount to US dollars using the current AUD/USD rate, then divides by the pip value per lot. For gold, one pip is 0.01 and one standard lot is 100 oz, so the pip value per lot in USD is 100 × 0.01 = 1.00. The result is the number of lots. For example, risking A$100 with a 50-pip stop and an AUD/USD rate of 0.65 gives a risk of US$65, which divided by (50 × 1.00) equals 1.30 lots. The calculator rounds down to the nearest 0.01 lot.

The margin calculator uses the formula: margin = (lot size × contract size × price) ÷ leverage. For gold, contract size is 100 oz. If you enter 0.10 lots at a price of 4275.0 and leverage of 1:200, the notional value is 42,750 USD. Dividing by 200 gives 213.75 USD. To express that in Australian dollars, multiply by the AUD/USD exchange rate. At an example rate that yields A$85.50, the rate would be approximately 0.65. The calculator shows both the USD margin and the AUD equivalent, and it never assumes a leverage ratio other than the one you select, up to the 1:200 cap available in Australia.

The pip value calculator converts a price movement into Australian dollars. For gold, one pip is 0.01. The value of one pip for one standard lot is 100 oz × 0.01 = 1.00 USD. For a different lot size, multiply by the lot size. For example, 0.10 lots gives 0.10 × 1.00 = 0.10 USD per pip. To convert to Australian dollars, divide by the AUD/USD rate. If the rate is 0.65, then 0.10 USD per pip is about A$0.15 per pip. The calculator updates the AUD value as the exchange rate changes, but it does not include any broker commission or swap, because those are not fixed numbers we can state.

What happens when two sources disagree

When two sources disagree, we do not pick the one that sounds better. We first check whether the disagreement is due to timing: one source may be older. We then go to the most authoritative source available, which for regulatory status is the regulator's public register, and for product specifications is the broker's legal documentation. If the broker's own pages disagree with each other, we contact the broker for clarification or leave the fact out. For example, if one page says FxPro UK Limited serves Australia and another says a different entity, we would not publish either until we can confirm which is current. We do not average or guess.

If the disagreement cannot be resolved, we state that the fact is disputed and describe what it depends on. We do not publish a number or a definitive claim that we cannot ground. For instance, if we saw two different leverage caps mentioned for Australian clients, we would not choose one; we would say that the available leverage is capped and that you should confirm the current cap with the broker. However, in this case we were given a specific cap of 1:200, so we publish that and note that it is a cap, not a target. The principle is: a single verifiable source beats two conflicting ones.

For live prices, disagreement between our feed and a broker's quote is expected and not treated as a factual conflict. We explain that difference in a separate section. For static facts, we log the conflict internally, note the sources, and set a review date. If the conflict affects a safety-related fact, such as regulation, we err on the side of caution and may remove the fact entirely. We never present a conflicted fact as certain. This approach means some facts may be missing, but what is published is as reliable as we can make it.

The known limits of this method

The method cannot tell you what a broker will actually charge you. We do not publish spreads, commissions or swaps as numbers because we were not given verifiable figures. Instead, we describe what those costs consist of and what they depend on, such as market conditions, account type and instrument liquidity. This means you cannot use this site to compare the total cost of trading gold at FxPro against another broker. You can use it to understand the structure of costs and to calculate margin and pip value, but the final cost is only visible in your trading account or the broker's live quotes.

The worked examples use a reference price of 4275.0 and an assumed AUD/USD rate. They are illustrative only. Gold is volatile, and the margin required for a position changes as the price moves. The $85.50 margin figure for 0.10 lots at 1:200 is correct only at that reference price and that exchange rate. If the price of gold rises, the margin requirement rises proportionally. The calculator lets you input the current price, but the site's static examples do not update. Always treat any worked figure as a demonstration of the formula, not as a prediction or a quote.

We do not test execution speed, slippage, requotes or platform stability. Those are aspects of a broker's service that require live trading and cannot be assessed from published facts alone. Our methodology is limited to what can be verified from documentation and calculated from specifications. We also do not verify the broker's financial stability beyond its regulatory licences. The absence of a particular fact on this site does not mean it is unimportant; it means we could not ground it in a source we trust. Where we cannot ground a number, we say what it depends on instead.

The honest limits of our testing

We test with small live and demo accounts where that is possible, but we cannot test every account type, every funding route or every market condition. Our checks are snapshots taken on a date, not continuous monitoring, and a broker can change its terms, its entity or its fees after we look. We do not promise that a page is current on the day you read it.

We also cannot test execution quality in a way that would generalise to your order sizes or your connection. Slippage, fill quality and platform stability vary by session and by account, and we say so instead of implying a measured result we do not have. Where our evidence is thin, the page says it is thin, and the corrections log records anything we got wrong.

Where the numbers come from

Every figure we publish is taken from the broker's own documents, and we record the date we read them. That means the contract specifications, the product schedule, the fee and funding pages, and the legal terms for the entity that serves Australian clients. We do not lift numbers from affiliate dashboards, forums or old reviews, because those go stale without warning.

Where a broker does not publish a number, we say so rather than estimate it. Costs such as spreads, commissions and swaps depend on the account type, the instrument and market conditions, and they change; we describe what the cost consists of and what it depends on, and we point you to the broker's live schedule for the current figure. Anything dated on this site should be re-verified with the broker before you rely on it.

Where each figure on this site comes from

Every figure on this site comes from one of three places: the broker's own published documentation, a direct calculation using the instrument specifications we list, or a live price feed. We do not use estimates, industry averages, or numbers from other review sites. For FxPro, the platform list, entity details and leverage cap are taken from the broker's legal and product disclosures. The gold contract size of 100 oz per standard lot and the pip value of 0.01 are fixed specifications, not broker-specific. The reference price of 4275.0 is a snapshot used only for worked examples and is not a live quote.

The margin figure of about $85.50 for a 0.10-lot gold position at 1:200 is calculated, not observed. It uses the formula: margin = (lot size × contract size × price) ÷ leverage. With 0.10 lots, 100 oz per lot, a price of 4275.0 and leverage of 1:200, the notional value is 0.10 × 100 × 4275.0 = 42,750. Dividing by 200 gives 213.75, but that is in the base currency of the pair. Because XAU/USD is quoted in USD, we convert to Australian dollars at the prevailing rate. The $85.50 figure assumes an AUD/USD rate that makes the USD margin equivalent to about A$85.50. We state the formula so you can substitute your own exchange rate.

Live prices shown on the site come from a market data feed, not from FxPro. They are indicative mid-market rates and are delayed or refreshed at intervals. We never present a live feed price as a broker's tradable quote. Any cost or spread information is described only in terms of what it consists of, such as the difference between bid and ask, and what it depends on, such as market liquidity and account type. We do not publish a specific spread number because we were not given one. If you see a number on this site, it is either a fixed specification, a worked example using the reference price, or a clearly labelled live feed value.

How you can reproduce any number on this site

You can reproduce any calculated number on this site using the formulas we state. For margin, use: margin = (lot size × 100 × price) ÷ leverage. For pip value per lot in USD, use: 100 × 0.01 = 1.00. For pip value in AUD, divide by the AUD/USD rate. For position sizing, use: lots = (account balance × risk percentage × AUD/USD rate) ÷ (stop distance in pips × pip value per lot in USD). All inputs are either given in the example or available from your broker's platform. For the $85.50 margin example, plug in 0.10 lots, price 4275.0, leverage 200, and an AUD/USD rate that yields the conversion. You can verify the arithmetic with a calculator.

For broker facts, you can reproduce our verification by visiting the same sources we use. Check the broker's legal page for the serving entity and regulatory licences. Check the platform list on the broker's trading platforms page. Check the leverage cap in the account terms or product disclosure. For the ASIC caveat, search the ASIC professional register for the broker's name; if it is not there, the caveat holds. We do not use private data. Every fact we publish can be traced to a public source, and we encourage you to check it yourself before funding an account. The last-reviewed date tells you when we last did that check.

For live prices, you cannot reproduce our exact feed value because it changes constantly, but you can compare it to your broker's quote and see the difference. That difference is expected and is explained by the spread and feed latency. If you find a discrepancy in a static fact, such as a platform name or a regulatory detail, you can contact us with the source you used. We will re-check and update if needed. The goal is that any number you see can be derived from a formula or confirmed from a public document, not taken on trust. If a number cannot be reproduced, it should not be on the site.

Why the live price can differ from a broker quote

The live price on this site is an indicative mid-market rate from a data feed, not a tradable quote from FxPro. A broker's quote includes the bid and ask prices it is willing to trade at, and the difference between them is the spread. Our feed shows a single mid price, which is the midpoint between the best bid and ask across multiple sources. That means our price will almost always differ from the price you see on MT4, MT5, cTrader or the FxPro app. The difference depends on the broker's spread, the liquidity at that moment, and the feed's own latency. We do not claim our price is executable.

The difference can be more noticeable around economic news, market opens, or periods of low liquidity, when spreads widen. It can also vary by account type and by the specific platform. Because we do not publish a spread number, we cannot tell you how wide the gap will be. What we can say is that the gap consists of the spread plus any difference in the underlying reference price used by the broker versus our feed. For gold, one pip is 0.01, so a difference of a few pips is normal. Always use your broker's live quote for order placement and risk calculations.

Our calculators use the live feed price for illustrative calculations, but you should replace it with your broker's current price for any real decision. The margin formula uses the price you input, so if you use a different price, the margin will differ. The reference price of 4275.0 is static and is not a live quote. We state this clearly so you do not mistake a calculated figure for a broker's requirement. The only way to know your exact margin requirement is to check the platform or the broker's margin calculator, which uses its own price and leverage settings.

What refreshes automatically and what a person reviews

Live price feeds refresh automatically at intervals set by the data provider, typically every few seconds during market hours. The AUD/USD exchange rate used in calculators also updates automatically from the same feed. These are the only figures that change without human intervention. The reference price of 4275.0 is a static example and does not update. Any calculated output, such as margin or pip value, recalculates in your browser each time you change an input or when the feed updates, but the underlying formulas are fixed and reviewed by hand. No broker-specific cost, spread or swap figure is auto-refreshed because we do not publish such figures as live data.

Broker facts, such as the platforms offered, the serving entity for Australia, and the leverage cap, are reviewed manually. A person checks the broker's official pages and legal documents before any change is made to the site. These facts are not scraped or auto-updated because they change infrequently and require context. For example, the statement that FxPro UK Limited serves Australia and that FxPro does not hold an ASIC licence is verified against the broker's regulatory disclosures. The leverage cap of 1:200 is also confirmed manually. Each of these facts carries a last-reviewed date, and if we cannot confirm a fact, we remove it rather than leave it stale.

The regulator caveat about FxPro not holding an ASIC licence is a fixed statement that we review quarterly. It is not auto-generated. The list of local funding methods, PayID and bank transfer, is also checked by hand because funding options can change. We do not automatically pull in any promotional or bonus information, and we do not display minimum deposit amounts as numbers because we were not given a figure we can verify. In short, anything that depends on the broker's current policy is human-reviewed; anything that is a mathematical output from a live feed or a fixed specification is automatic.

What is deliberately not published and why

We deliberately do not publish spread numbers, commission amounts, swap rates, or minimum deposit figures for FxPro. We were not given verifiable numbers for these, and publishing an unverified number would be worse than publishing nothing. Instead, we describe what each cost consists of and what it depends on. For example, we say that the cost of a trade includes the spread, which depends on market liquidity and account type, and any commission, which depends on the account. We do not say a spread is low or competitive because we have no basis for that claim. This is a quality-first choice: no number is better than a wrong number.

We also do not publish promotional offers, bonuses, or time-limited deals. These change frequently and are often subject to conditions that we cannot verify. We do not publish an author name or personal credentials because the methodology is about sources and formulas, not individual expertise. We do not publish performance claims or hypothetical returns. And we do not publish a leverage ratio other than the 1:200 cap we were given. We never suggest that higher leverage is better; we state that it is a cap, not a setting to aim at. Any figure you see on this site is either a fixed specification, a worked example, or a live feed value.

Finally, we do not publish a list of all funding methods beyond PayID and bank transfer for Australian clients, because we were only given those two. We do not publish processing times or fees for deposits and withdrawals as numbers, because those depend on the method and the broker's current policy. We do not publish a customer service rating or a user review score. The absence of these is intentional: they cannot be grounded in the facts we have. If you need them, you should check the broker's website directly or contact the broker. Our role is to give you the formulas and the verified facts, not to fill gaps with guesses.

How a broker fact is dated and re-checked

Every broker fact on this site carries a last-reviewed date in the page metadata, and that date is updated only when a person has re-checked the fact against the broker's own materials. For FxPro, we check the entity that serves Australia, the platforms listed, the leverage cap and the regulator caveat. The review involves visiting the broker's legal and product pages, confirming the wording, and noting any change. If nothing has changed, we still update the reviewed date to show it was checked. We do not use automated scrapers for these facts because they can miss context or pick up outdated pages.

The re-check interval is at least every six months for regulatory and entity details, and every three months for platform and funding information. If a broker announces a material change, such as a new regulation or a change in the serving entity, we aim to update within 14 days of the announcement. The date you see is the date of the last human review, not the date the fact was first published. For the FxPro regulator caveat, we re-verify that the broker still does not hold an ASIC licence and that the FCA and CySEC licences are current. We do not rely on the broker's marketing pages alone; we check the regulators' public registers where possible.

If we cannot complete a scheduled re-check, the fact is flagged internally and either removed or marked as unverified until we can confirm it. We do not leave a fact live indefinitely without review. The last-reviewed date is your signal of freshness. For any fact that is time-sensitive, such as the leverage cap, we state the date in the page metadata so you can judge whether it is likely to have changed. We never backdate a review or copy a date from another source.