How brokers are checked

The first filter: can a UAE resident use it

A broker is only ranked here if a resident of the UAE can open an account, fund it and withdraw from it. That means checking the entity that serves the UAE, the funding methods actually offered, and whether a local UAE bank transfer is supported. A broker that cannot clear this step is not compared on anything else, because a cost comparison on an account you cannot open is meaningless.

Leverage is treated as a cap, not a target. The maximum available in the UAE is up to 1:500 on standard forex accounts, within DFSA/SCA-compliant limits, and it varies by instrument. At that cap, a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin. The desk states that figure as an illustration of the arithmetic, not as a suggestion to use the cap.

How a reader can reproduce any number here

A reader can reproduce any number on this site with three inputs: the broker's contract specification, the reference price, and the formula stated in words. For margin, take the lot size, multiply by 100 oz, multiply by the price, divide by the leverage cap. For a 0.10-lot gold position at 1:500 and a price of 4275.0, the arithmetic gives about $85.50. For pip value, multiply lots by 100 oz and by 0.01; one standard lot gives $1.00 per pip. For position size, divide the risk in USD by the pip value per lot and by the stop distance in pips.

To reproduce a broker fact, open the broker's own document and compare it with the wording and the last-checked date shown on the site. The regulator caveat, that FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK), CySEC and FSCA, should match the broker's disclosure page. The leverage cap of 1:500 within DFSA/SCA-compliant limits should match the UAE account documentation. The funding list, cards, bank transfer, e-wallets and local UAE bank transfer, should match the payments page. If your document says something different, the site's date tells you when it last checked, and the disagreement is resolved in favour of the governing document.

The AED figures are reproduced by taking the USD result and applying the conversion rate shown with the figure; they are indicative and will not match a live FX quote exactly. The reference price of 4275.0 is an example, so replace it with the price on your platform before relying on any output. If your reproduced figure differs from the site's, the difference is almost always the price, the leverage cap or the lot size, and checking those three in that order will locate it. The site publishes the formula precisely so that this check is possible without asking anyone.

The known limits of the method

The method cannot tell you what your broker will charge you, because spread, commission, swap and minimum deposit are account-specific and are not published here as numbers. It can tell you the contract size, the pip size, the leverage cap and the margin formula, and it can show a worked margin figure such as about $85.50 for a 0.10-lot gold position at 1:500. It cannot tell you whether that position is suitable for you, because suitability depends on your circumstances, your other exposure and your risk tolerance, none of which the site can see.

The method also cannot guarantee that a broker document will not change between reviews. A figure is accurate as of its last-checked date, and the date is shown so you can judge the age. The AED conversions are indicative, not tradeable rates. The reference price of 4275.0 is an example, not a forecast, and the live price will differ. The site does not model slippage, gap risk, weekend gaps in gold or the effect of news on execution, because those are properties of the market and the broker's execution, not of a formula.

A further limit is that the method treats the leverage cap as a cap, not as a setting to aim at. Using the full 1:500 available in the UAE within DFSA/SCA-compliant limits raises the margin efficiency but also raises the loss per pip relative to your balance, and the calculators show the arithmetic without recommending the setting. The method does not rank brokers, does not score them and does not predict their behaviour. It reports what a document says, dates it, and shows the formula, so the limit is always visible alongside the number.

What is deliberately not published and why

The site deliberately does not publish a spread, a commission, a swap or a minimum deposit as a number, because those figures are account-specific and change with the market and the account type. Publishing one number would be accurate for some readers and wrong for others, and a wrong cost figure is worse than no figure. Instead, the page says what each cost consists of and what it depends on, so a reader knows which question to ask the broker. This is a deliberate limit, not an omission.

The site also does not publish a recommended leverage setting, a target return, a win rate, a performance track record or any author name, because none of those can be stated accurately from the documents the site uses. The leverage cap of 1:500 within DFSA/SCA-compliant limits is published as a cap, with the worked margin example of about $85.50 for a 0.10-lot position, but the site does not suggest using the full cap. Trading gold on leverage is high-risk, and a site that published a target return would be implying a guarantee it cannot make.

Finally, the site does not publish a ranking of brokers, a score, or a prediction of a broker's future behaviour, because those are opinions rather than facts that can be dated and re-checked. It does not publish a funding method that is not on the broker's list, and it does not name a payment provider beyond cards, bank transfer, e-wallets and local UAE bank transfer. What is left out is left out on purpose, so that what is published can be traced to a document, dated, and reproduced by a reader.

The limits of this testing

The desk tests by reading documents and comparing published terms; it does not trade client money and cannot verify execution quality from the inside. Slippage, fill quality and platform behaviour under stress are outside what a document review can prove. Those are stated as unknown rather than implied to be good.

A broker's terms change. A figure that was correct on the date read can be wrong later, and the date is there so a reader can judge how old the check is. Anything that has merely changed since the check is a re-check, not an error, and the corrections page explains how that distinction is handled.

Where the numbers come from

Every figure comes from the broker's own documents, and the date the document was read is recorded next to it. Gold is quoted here as XAU/USD with 1 lot equal to 100 oz and one pip equal to 0.01, against a reference price of about 4275.0. Cost is described by what it consists of, such as the spread, commission or swap where the broker publishes them, and by what it depends on, such as account type, instrument and market conditions.

The desk does not publish a spread, commission, swap or minimum deposit as a number unless the broker's own document states it. Where a figure is missing, the page says so rather than filling the gap with an estimate.

The formula each calculator uses, in words

The margin calculator multiplies the position size in lots by the contract size of 100 oz, then by the reference gold price in USD, then divides by the leverage cap. In words: lots × 100 × price ÷ leverage. At 1:500 with a 0.10-lot position and a reference price of 4275.0, that is 0.10 × 100 × 4275.0 ÷ 500, which gives about $85.50. The result is shown in USD and converted to AED for display only. The calculator does not add any buffer, because the broker's own margin requirement is the only figure that matters at order time.

The pip-value calculator multiplies the number of lots by 100 oz, then by the pip size of 0.01, to give the value of one pip in USD. In words: lots × 100 × 0.01. For one standard lot of gold, one pip is therefore $1.00; for 0.10 lots it is $0.10. The calculator does not assume a spread or a commission, because neither is published as a fixed number here. It answers only what a one-pip move is worth at a given position size, which is the input a reader needs before applying their own cost assumptions.

The position-size calculator works backwards from a risk amount: it divides the risk in USD by the pip value, then by the stop distance in pips, to give the number of lots. In words: risk ÷ (pip value per lot × stop in pips). Because pip value per lot is fixed at $1.00 for gold, the formula reduces to risk ÷ stop in pips. The calculator does not choose a stop distance for you and does not imply that any particular risk level is suitable; it only turns the three inputs you supply into a lot size. Leverage is not part of this formula, because leverage changes margin, not risk.

What happens when two sources disagree

When two sources disagree, the broker's own document wins, and the site records the disagreement rather than hiding it. If the platform shows a different contract size from the instrument sheet, the instrument sheet is treated as the reference and the platform display is noted as the place where execution actually happens. If the UAE account page and the global page state different leverage, the UAE page is used for UAE readers, because the entity that serves the UAE is FxPro Global Markets MENA Ltd. The regulator caveat is taken from the broker's disclosure, not from a third-party summary.

A disagreement is not resolved by averaging the two figures or by picking the more favourable one. It is resolved by identifying which document governs the reader's account, and then stating that figure with its date. If the governing document cannot be identified, the site says the figure depends on the account and does not publish a single number. That is why no spread, commission, swap or minimum deposit appears as a number here: those are the figures most likely to differ between sources, and a single number would misrepresent at least one reader's account.

The site also keeps a note of the disagreement so that a later review can check whether it has been resolved by the broker. A disagreement that persists is described in terms of what it depends on, not presented as a settled fact. This is slower than picking a number, but it is the only way to stay accurate when the broker's own pages are not identical. The reader sees the governing figure, the date, and a plain statement that another source says something different, which is more useful than a false certainty.

The source of each class of figure on the site

Every figure on this site falls into one of four classes, and each class has a named source. The broker's live price and quote feed for gold (XAU/USD) comes from the platform itself, whether MT4, MT5, cTrader or FxPro Edge, and is shown as a reference price such as 4275.0. Contract specifications, including 1 standard lot = 100 oz and one pip = 0.01, come from the broker's published instrument sheet. Leverage figures, such as the 1:500 cap available in the UAE within DFSA/SCA-compliant limits, come from the broker's account documentation. Funding methods, including cards, bank transfer, e-wallets and local UAE bank transfer, come from the broker's payments page. No figure is invented or estimated.

Margin and pip-value numbers shown in the calculators are derived from the broker's own contract specification and the leverage cap, not from a third-party data vendor. For example, the worked figure of about $85.50 margin for a 0.10-lot gold position at 1:500 is calculated from the reference price and the contract size of 100 oz per lot. The regulator caveat, that FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK), CySEC and FSCA, is taken from the broker's regulatory disclosure. Any figure that depends on the account type, the platform or the instrument is labelled as such rather than presented as a single fixed number.

The AED amounts you see are conversions from the USD figures at a rate the site records when the page is generated, so they are indicative and not a live FX quote. The site does not publish a spread, a commission, a swap or a minimum deposit as a number, because those depend on the account and the market at the time you trade. Where a cost is discussed, the page says what the cost consists of and what it depends on. This keeps every stated figure traceable to a document the broker publishes, and keeps anything variable clearly marked as variable.

How a broker fact is dated and re-checked

Every broker fact on the site carries a last-checked date, and that date is the day a person compared the site's wording with the broker's own document. The regulator caveat, that FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK), CySEC and FSCA, is dated against the broker's disclosure page. The leverage cap of 1:500 within DFSA/SCA-compliant limits is dated against the UAE account documentation. The funding list, cards, bank transfer, e-wallets and local UAE bank transfer, is dated against the payments page. The platforms, MT4, MT5, cTrader and FxPro Edge, are dated against the platform page. A date is not a guarantee of permanence; it is a record of when the check happened.

Re-checking is triggered by three things: the scheduled review cycle, a visible change on the broker's page, and a reader report of a discrepancy. When a re-check happens, the reviewer reads the broker document again rather than editing the old text, and then updates the site to match. If the document has not changed, the date is refreshed and the wording is left alone. If the document has changed, the wording changes and the date changes together, so a reader can see that both moved. The date is never refreshed without a check, because a date that moves without a check is worse than no date.

The date is shown next to the figure it applies to, not in a single page-level stamp, because different facts are checked on different schedules. A price is not dated in the same way, because it refreshes automatically and its age is seconds, not days. The separation matters: a reader who wants to know how current the leverage cap is should look at the leverage date, and a reader who wants to know how current the price is should look at the live quote. The site does not blend the two into one timestamp.

Why the live price can differ from a broker quote

The live price on this site is a reference feed, not your broker's executable quote, so it can differ from what you see in MT4, MT5, cTrader or FxPro Edge. A broker quote includes the spread at that moment, the liquidity available at each price level, and the broker's own markup, none of which a reference feed can reproduce. The reference price of 4275.0 is an example used to make the margin arithmetic concrete; the price you can trade at will be on one side of the market or the other, and the gap between them is the cost of entering.

Gold (XAU/USD) also trades across sessions and can gap over weekends and around major news, so a reference price captured at one moment may be stale by the time you place an order. The broker's quote is the only price that can be executed, because it is the price the broker's liquidity providers are streaming to your platform. The site's price is useful for understanding the formula and the scale of a move, not for deciding an entry. Any calculator output should be re-run with the price shown on your platform before you size a position.

The difference is also a reminder that margin is calculated at the broker's price, not at the site's reference price. At 1:500, a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin at a reference price of 4275.0, but the same position will need a slightly different amount at the broker's price, because the formula multiplies by price. The direction of the difference depends on whether the broker's price is above or below the reference. The site shows the formula so you can substitute the broker's price and see the effect for yourself.

What is refreshed automatically and what is reviewed by hand

The reference gold price is refreshed automatically from the broker's quote feed while the page is open, so the worked examples can move with the market. Everything else is reviewed by hand on a set cycle. Contract specifications, the 100 oz lot size and the 0.01 pip size are checked against the broker's instrument sheet. The leverage cap of 1:500 within DFSA/SCA-compliant limits is checked against the UAE account documentation. The regulator caveat, that FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK), CySEC and FSCA, is checked against the broker's disclosure page. Automatic refresh is limited to prices, because a price is the only figure that changes minute to minute.

Funding methods are reviewed by hand because the list changes less often than a price but still changes: cards, bank transfer, e-wallets and local UAE bank transfer are checked against the broker's payments page rather than assumed. The platforms listed, MT4, MT5, cTrader and FxPro Edge, are checked against the broker's platform page. The AED display rate is refreshed with the page build and is not treated as a live quote. Nothing that depends on your account type, your verification status or your trading history is automated, because the site cannot see those things and will not guess them.

The hand-review cycle is the reason a figure can be a few days old while a price is a few seconds old. Each reviewed figure carries the date it was last checked, so you can see the age before you rely on it. If a review finds that a broker document has changed, the page is updated to match the document rather than to match the previous wording. Automatic refresh never overwrites a reviewed figure, and a reviewed figure never silently replaces an automatic price; the two run on separate tracks so a reader can tell which is which.