How we score reliability
A score built only from facts we collect and can show: no user reviews, no opinion, the same method for every firm, partners included. A bad point of a partner is never hidden.
Principles
- Every part of the score shows its fact, its source and its date. If a fact is missing, the part says so and earns nothing: it is never filled with a default.
- A total is shown only when enough is measured; otherwise the firm page says “Insufficient data”.
- Partners and non-partners follow the same rules. Being a partner changes nothing in the score, and a partner's bad point is never hidden.
- We describe what a source says (a regulator list, a rule page), with its date and its link. We never judge or accuse a firm.
The parts and their weight
| Part | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Regulator warningsWarnings naming the firm, by its official domain or its name, on the lists of AMF, CONSOB, FSMA, KNF, CNMV, BaFin and of the IOSCO I-SCAN members (FCA included). Clone sites and look-alike names are left out. | 28 | 0 warnings: 28 · 1 warning: 8 · 2+ warnings: 0 |
| Financial licenceWhether the company that sells the service to the trader holds a financial licence, read on the official register of the regulator. Full points for a licence of that company; part of the points when only another company of its group holds one; 0 when none is found on the registers searched or when the firm writes that it is not regulated. A group licence read on the register counts even when the firm also writes that it is not regulated; any other mix of facts on the same check counts the weakest. Each licence check replaces all earlier ones: the latest counts. Most prop firms sell their challenges without any financial licence: the score says so, for partners too. Not checked yet: no total. | 20 | licence of the seller: 20 · licence of another group company only: 10 · none found: 0 · declared not regulated: 0 |
| Rule changes against traders (12 months)Changes of the firm's rules over the last 12 months that make a challenge harder for the trader (see the table below). Scored once we have followed the firm for 90 days. | 20 | 0 against traders: 20 · 1 against traders: 12 · 2 against traders: 6 · 3+ against traders: 0 |
| Legal identityLegal entity name, country of registration and age of the company, each read on a document of the firm with its date. | 12 | legal name: 7 · country: 3 · 3 years or more: 2 |
| Public, quotable rulesNumber of rule types we can quote word for word from the firm's own pages today. | 12 | 8+ rule types: 12 · 4-7 rule types: 8 · 1-3 rule types: 4 · 0 rule types: 0 |
| Operating statusOperating, payouts suspended or closed, from a dated source; “operating” requires a successful reading of the firm's pages in the last 60 days. | 8 | operating: 8 · payouts suspended: 0 · closed: 0 |
| Verified payout proofsVerified payout proofs: planned. Weighs 0 until it is measured. | 0 | Planned |
The total
The total is the share of the points earned among the points measured, on 100. It is shown only when the regulator part and the licence part are measured and the measured parts weigh at least 75 of the 100 points. A closed firm shows “Closed” instead of a total.
Freshness
The regulator lists must have been read in the last 7 days, the firm's pages in the last 60 days, the licence checked in the last 365 days, and the rules followed for 90 days at least. Otherwise the part is “Not measured”. The score is computed from the facts of the day each time the page is built.
Which rule change counts against traders
Each rule is compared with its previous value for the same program. A correction of our own reading is not a change of the firm. A change on several account sizes on the same day counts once. Anything the table below cannot order is “neutral or not classifiable”, never guessed.
| Rule | Counts against traders when |
|---|---|
| Maximum daily loss (%) | the limit or share goes down |
| Maximum daily loss | the limit or share goes down |
| Maximum loss (%) | the limit or share goes down |
| Maximum loss | the limit or share goes down |
| Profit split | the limit or share goes down |
| Profit target, phase 1 | the number goes up |
| Profit target, phase 2 | the number goes up |
| Minimum trading days | the number goes up |
| Price | the number goes up |
| Daily loss basis | the reference becomes the higher of balance and equity |
| Maximum loss type | it moves from static to trailing, or from end-of-day to intraday trailing |
| News trading rule | it moves from allowed to restricted or forbidden, or the restricted window gets longer |
| Payout cap | a cap appears, the amount goes down for the same scope, or a cap per payout cycle or per payout becomes a total cap (per account, per user or in total) of the same amount or less |
| Daily loss reset time | never (no order: neutral) |
| Consistency rule | never (no order: neutral) |
| Expert advisors allowed | never (no order: neutral) |
| Weekend holding | never (no order: neutral) |
| Payout frequency | never (no order: neutral) |
| Payout method | never (no order: neutral) |
| Trading platforms | never (no order: neutral) |
| Excluded countries | never (no order: neutral) |
| Account sizes | never (no order: neutral) |
Changes to this method
- New part “Financial licence”, 20 points, the same for every firm, partners included. Before, the score did not look at licences at all; a missing licence now counts as a measured fact worth 0. The other parts keep their relative weights, each multiplied by 0.8: regulator warnings 35 → 28, rule changes 25 → 20, legal identity 15 → 12, public rules 15 → 12, status 10 → 8. Inside a part, the points are rounded to whole numbers by the largest remainder (equal remainders: the original order), so that they still add up to the part: legal identity 8/4/3 becomes 7/3/2. A total now needs the licence check. For 90 days, a firm page whose score went down shows its score under the previous method.
What the score never uses
- User reviews, ratings or comments.
- Commissions: the score never reads what we earn from a firm, nor whether its link is a partner link.
- Anything we cannot show with a source and a date.