Our mission at BrokerNotes has always been to simplify the process of finding and comparing reputable brokers online by providing objective, factual data. We understand, however, that not all traders visiting our site want to scrutinise hundreds of data points – they just want to know ‘is this broker good or not?’
This is why we created BROKERDNA™, a proprietary scoring system which indicates how reputable, suitable and affordable a broker is based on 31 objective factors.
How BROKERDNA™ is calculated
The BROKERDNA™ algorithm takes into account 31 factors to calculate a broker’s BROKERDNA™ score. This is not (and cannot) be influenced by our commercial relationship with that broker. In other words, if a broker wants to improve their score they must improve their offering to traders.
Every broker starts with a score of 100% and has points subtracted for each negative factor as outlined in the table below.
It’s important to note that not all of these negative factors are inherently bad. It’s perfectly normal, for example, for a broker not to offer Islamic accounts or MT4. However, the presence of these features are strong indicators that the broker caters to a wider audience and has a broader feature set.
Each negative factor is weighted in accordance with its importance, based on our experience helping millions of traders find a broker. In general, we have placed a higher weighting on factors that indicate trust (e.g. years the broker has been in business), and a lower rating on factors that are ‘nice to have’ features. You can see the weightings in the table below.
How to interpret BROKERDNA™
- A score above 9.7 means that the broker is in the top 5% of brokers (out of 100+ brokers). These brokers must have passed all seven of our trust factor tests.
- A score above 9.5 means that the broker is in the top 10%. These brokers must have passed all seven of our trust factor tests (below).
- A score above 9.2 means the broker is in the top 25%
Factors we take into consideration
All brokers start with a score of 10 and lose points as per the table below.
| Factor | Subtract points if | Handicap |
| Regulator | Is not FCA, CySEC or ASIC Is unregulated/suspended | -1 -10 |
| Penalties | 1+ in the last five years | -1 |
| Year established | Less than 5 years ago | -1 |
| Physical location | HQ is not made public or is not in a major city in Europe, US, UAE or Australia | -1 |
| Segregated bank accounts | No | -1 |
| Tier-1 bank accounts | No | -1 |
| Number of clients | Less than 30,000 | -1 |
| Fund protection | No FSCS or SDPS No negative balance protection | -0.3 -0.3 |
| Fees | EUR/USD spread over 0.8pts Min. deposit over $250 | -0.3 -0.3 |
| Withdrawal time | More than 3 days | -0.3 |
| Customer support | Doesn’t offer 24/7 phone | -0.3 |
| Platforms | Doesn’t offer MT4 | -0.3 |
| Mobile | Doesn’t offer mobile apps | -0.3 |
| Instruments | Doesn’t offer FX Doesn’t offer Crypto Doesn’t offer commodities Doesn’t offer stocks Doesn’t offer indices | -0.1 -0.1 -0.1 -0.1 -0.1 |
| Features | Doesn’t offer scalping Doesn’t offer hedging Doesn’t offer DMA | -0.1 -0.1 -0.1 |
| Accounts | Doesn’t offer professional or VIP accounts Doesn’t offer Islamic accounts Doesn’t offer micro/mini accounts | -0.1 -0.1 -0.1 |
| Funding methods | Doesn’t offer PayPal Doesn’t offer credit cards | -0.1 -0.1 |
| Languages | Less than 10 languages offered | -0.1 |
| Inactivity fee | Charges inactivity fee | -0.1 |