Editorial Standards

Methodology

How BrokersRoom Works

Complete documentation of our editorial process: How we forecast markets, rate brokers, maintain track records, and verify sources. Transparent, falsifiable, verifiable.

Last updated: May 26, 2026

This page documents how BrokersRoom works — from data source to publication, from broker rating to track record evaluation. It is the foundation on which our analyses, forecasts, and rankings stand. Anyone who wants to question a statement on BrokersRoom will find here the process that led to it.

We update this page when our process changes. Substantive changes are documented with date at the bottom of the page.

1. How We Forecast Markets

Our forecast process combines three analytical layers, each with its own data sources and weighting in the final outlook.

Fundamental Data forms the basis of every analysis. We source economic data from official sources — US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Eurostat, Statistisches Bundesamt, OECD, IMF. Central bank statements from the Federal Reserve, ECB, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, and People's Bank of China are analyzed in full text, not just press release summaries. For commodity markets, we draw data from OPEC, the World Gold Council, the International Energy Agency, and EIA. For crypto markets, we use on-chain data from Glassnode, Coinbase Institutional, and CoinShares.

Sentiment Indicators complement the fundamental data. These include weekly CFTC Commitments of Traders Reports, AAII Investor Sentiment Survey, Fear & Greed Index, and the CME FedWatch Tool for market pricing of US rate expectations. For forex and precious metal pairs, retail positioning data from OANDA, IG, and Saxo is evaluated in aggregate.

Technical Analysis forms the third pillar, especially for short-term outlooks. We use standard indicators (50/100/200-day moving averages, RSI, MACD, Bollinger Bands) as well as horizontal support and resistance zones from the TradingView data feed. For longer-term outlooks, technical analysis takes a back seat to fundamental data.

What Our Calls Mean

We publish market outlooks on four time horizons with varying granularity.

Daily Quick-Calls are brief directional assessments for the next 24 hours, primarily driven by the event calendar (central bank dates, economic data releases). They have the highest volume and lowest confidence.

Weekly Outlook is published every Sunday and covers the five to seven most important major markets: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, DAX, S&P 500, Gold, Brent Crude, BTC/USD. Here we formulate concrete directional bias with supporting levels.

Monthly Long-Range Forecasts appear on the first business day of each month and cover a three-month horizon. These are our most important calls — they are included in the track record and evaluated retrospectively.

Quarterly Outlooks appear once per quarter with a twelve-month horizon. These are evaluated at year-end.

Each call contains three elements:
• Direction: BULLISH, BEARISH, or NEUTRAL/RANGE-BOUND
• Confidence Score: between 50% and 95%, based on convergence of the three analytical layers
• Trigger Levels: specific prices at which we would revise our call

What We Don't Do

We do not issue trading signals. Our forecasts are editorial market assessments, not actionable recommendations with entry, stop-loss, and take-profit. We make no statements about individual portfolio allocation. We do not provide personalized advice. Anyone wanting to make a concrete investment decision should consult a licensed investment advisor — we are expressly not one.

2. How We Rate Brokers

Every broker we track is rated in twelve categories. The weighting of categories reflects our assessment of what actually matters for performance and security when choosing a broker.

Regulation & Trust (15%) — License status with FCA, BaFin, CySEC, ASIC, or comparable Tier-1 regulators. Investor Protection Fund coverage. History of regulator sanctions or warnings. Negative balance protection status.

Fees & Spreads (20%) — All-in cost for a standard lot EUR/USD including spread, commission, and overnight charges. Inactivity fees. Deposit and withdrawal fees. Higher weighting because this is the direct lever on trader returns.

Platform & Tools (10%) — Availability of MetaTrader 4 and 5, cTrader, proprietary platforms. Charting depth. Order type variety. Web and desktop versions.

Mobile Experience (5%) — App functionality on iOS and Android. Ratings in App Store and Google Play. Speed of mobile order execution.

Range of Markets (10%) — Number of tradable instruments. Breadth of asset classes (Forex, CFDs on indices, stocks, commodities, crypto). Bonus for DACH-relevant markets if DAX components are available.

Order Execution (10%) — Average execution speed. Slippage statistics (if published). Re-quote frequency. We use independent data from Finance Magnates and Brokerchooser.

Education & Research (5%) — Quality and depth of learning materials. Independent market research. Webinar program. Higher weighted for beginner brokers.

Customer Support (5%) — Availability (24/5, 24/7, business hours). Languages, especially German. Response times. We test support randomly.

Deposit & Withdrawal (5%) — Payment methods. Withdrawal speed. Minimum amounts. Hidden conversion fees.

Account Opening (5%) — Onboarding speed. KYC requirements. Minimum deposit. UX in the sign-up process.

User Reviews (5%) — Aggregated ratings from verified sources: Trustpilot, Google Play, App Store, ForexPeaceArmy. We filter out known bot reviews.

Innovation & Growth (5%) — New features, market expansion, hiring signals from LinkedIn data. Is the broker rising or shrinking?

How the Final Score Is Calculated

Each category is rated between 1 and 10. The composite score is a weighted average according to the percentages listed above, rounded to one decimal place. A broker with 8.2 in Regulation, 7.5 in Fees, 8.0 in Platform etc. does not receive a simple average, but a weighted calculation reflecting our priority weighting.

For the 5-star display on overview pages, we divide the 10-point score by two. A broker with a composite of 8.2 is displayed as 4.1/5.

Update Rhythm

Fee data is updated monthly. Regulation status is checked quarterly. Platform, mobile, and user review data every six months. Innovation/growth signals are monitored continuously but only incorporated into the score when significant changes occur.

3. Track Record and Hit Rate

Every Monthly Long-Range Forecast and every Quarterly Outlook is evaluated retrospectively. We publish the results publicly — including the calls we lost.

When a Call Counts as a Hit

A forecast counts as a Hit if both conditions are met:

1. Direction-Correct: The market moved in the expected directional bias (for BULLISH call: market is higher at evaluation time than at call time; for BEARISH: lower).
2. Within Published Range: The market reached a price within our published trigger range at evaluation time.

For BULLISH calls on Gold with a range of $5,000–5,400 at year-end, a year-end price of $5,180 counts as a hit, a price of $4,900 as a miss (correct direction but range not reached), a price of $4,400 as a clear miss.

When a Call Counts as a Miss

A forecast counts as a Miss if the direction was wrong (BULLISH vs BEARISH) or if the range was clearly missed (more than 10% distance to the nearest range edge).

Partial and Open Status

Partial-Hit: Direction was correct, range narrowly missed (within 10% distance). These calls are reported separately and not counted as full hits.

Open: Calls whose evaluation time has not yet been reached. Published with clear target date.

How We Publish Track Record

Quarterly, a Forecast Scorecard appears listing all completed calls from the previous quarter — call, evaluation time, hit/miss/partial, distance to target. At year-end, an Annual Performance Review appears with all calls of the year and an aggregated hit rate.

Important: Historical calls are never edited or deleted after the fact. Changes to a published forecast appear as a visible update with date; the original text remains viewable.

4. Editorial Standards

Who We Are

BrokersRoom is operated by a solo founder with an editorial background in finance. The "Research Desk" we cite as author in our articles is an editorial team label describing the production process, not a larger newsroom structure. We state this transparently because many competitors deliberately create the impression of a larger editorial team.

Responsible for content according to § 18 para. 2 MStV is the operator (see Imprint).

How Our Content Is Created

We use AI-powered tools in the research and creation process. This includes:

1. Data Aggregation: Automated querying of economic calendars, central bank RSS feeds, broker websites, and price APIs through our own cron jobs and crawlers.
2. Initial Analysis Drafts: AI models (especially large language models) are used for structured preparation of data situations, creation of initial text drafts, and consistency checking across multiple articles.
3. Editorial Processing: Every published text is editorially reviewed before publication, facts are manually verified, editorial voice and analytical conclusions are set by humans.
4. Publication Approval: No article appears without human final review and approval.

We consider this transparency important because it is the only honest way to publish in an industry where AI-generated content is now standard. Hidden AI use we consider trust-destroying.

Source Verification

Every factual statement in our articles is verified against at least one primary source. For market data, these are the original data from exchanges, central banks, or recognized data providers. For broker data, these are the official statements of the broker itself plus at least one independent verification (regulator register, Trustpilot, Brokerchooser).

For quotes, we provide the original source. For investment bank forecasts (Goldman, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, etc.), we link to the original research publication or Reuters/Bloomberg reporting on it.

Correction Policy

When we discover errors, we add a visible correction at the end of the affected article under the heading "Correction from [Date]". The original text remains unchanged and visible. We do not delete statements and do not silently overwrite claims.

For significant changes in factual circumstances (e.g., market reaches a trigger level published in our forecast), we add an update block to the article — the original call remains visible.

5. Disclosure Policy

Affiliate Relationships

BrokersRoom earns the majority of its revenue through affiliate commissions. When readers open an account with a broker through a link on our website, we receive a commission from the broker. These commissions vary widely — from a few euros to several hundred euros per qualified new account opening.

Important: Commission amounts do not influence our ratings or rankings. We do not publish pay-to-rank positions. If a higher-paying broker scores worse than a lower-paying one, they are ranked accordingly.

We do not publish a complete list of specific commission amounts per broker — this is not common industry practice and is subject to confidentiality clauses in our affiliate contracts. However, we make transparent that these relationships exist.

Conflicts of Interest

When we write about a broker with whom we have a special relationship (beyond the normal affiliate relationship), we declare this in the respective article. Examples of relationships requiring declaration would be: paid content (does not occur with us), own investments in the broker (does not occur with us), or close personal connections.

We test brokers with our own live accounts, the costs of which we bear ourselves. We do not accept sponsor accounts from brokers because this would compromise our rating independence.

6. What We Are Not

We are not investment advice within the meaning of § 85 WpHG. We are not an asset manager, not a financial advisor, and not a licensed investment advisor. Our content is editorial market assessment serving as information — not as recommendation for individual investment decisions.

Specifically, this means:

• Our forecasts describe our assessment of the probability distribution of future market movements. They are not a guarantee that these movements will occur.
• Our broker rankings describe our assessment of the relative quality of different providers. They are not a recommendation that a particular broker is suitable for you personally.
• Past forecast accuracy is not an indicator of future accuracy.
• Trading CFDs, foreign exchange, and cryptocurrencies involves significant risk of loss. Most retail investors lose money trading CFDs.

Anyone wanting to make a concrete, individual investment decision should consult a licensed investment advisor or tax consultant specializing in capital investments. BrokersRoom does not replace such advice.

Last Update to This Page

May 26, 2026 — Initial publication.

Substantive changes to our methodology will be documented here. For questions about methodology, you can reach us via the Contact page .