Methodology
How we research trading platforms
A published, weighted framework applied identically to every platform we study — so readers can check our reasoning instead of trusting our conclusion.
Principle: describe, do not rank
We do not produce league tables. Ranking implies a recommendation, and a recommendation requires knowledge of an individual's circumstances that we do not have. Instead we score documented attributes and publish the weighting so readers can reweight for themselves.
Weighted criteria
Regulatory verifiability
25%Entity naming, licence numbers checkable on a public register.
Cost transparency
25%Full fee schedule: spreads, commissions, financing, conversion, inactivity.
Risk-control disclosure
20%Numerical margin thresholds, close-out ordering, gap handling.
Documentation quality
15%Precision and accessibility of terms and execution policies.
Product usability
10%Demo availability, order-type coverage, mobile parity.
Educational value
5%Whether learning material instructs rather than advertises.
Evidence rules
- Primary documents outrank marketing pages, always.
- A regulator's own register outranks a badge image on a website.
- Aggregate user-review scores are excluded; they are trivially manipulated.
- Unverifiable execution statistics are reported as claims, never as findings, and are excluded from scoring.
- Where information is simply absent, we score the absence rather than assuming the worst.
Review cadence
Platform terms change. Every research note carries a last-reviewed date and is scheduled for re-examination at least twice a year, or immediately when a material change is observed. Our Global Reserve research note follows this cadence.
What we deliberately exclude
- Profitability claims of any kind.
- Bonus and promotional offers, which change constantly and distort comparison.
- Aesthetic preference dressed as objective assessment.
- Any comparison based on marketing language rather than identical scenarios.
Reproducibility
Anyone can apply this framework themselves — that is the point. Our 12-point platform checklist is the reader-facing version, written so the same questions can be asked of any provider without specialist knowledge.
Errors in our application of this methodology are corrected publicly under the editorial policy. Global Reserve Research has no commercial relationship with any platform it assesses.