Brokers, ranked on what each trade really costs

Every broker gets five sub-scores — fees, execution, platform, support and safety — each with a written one-line justification on its scorecard. The overall score is a weighted rollup; the weights were fixed before any broker was reviewed. Brokers we have not verified against their own documents are flagged and left out of the ranking.

No. Some "Visit" links pay us a referral commission if you open an account, at no cost to you. Scores are set independently of any deal, and brokers we have no arrangement with are scored exactly the same way.

Not necessarily. Zero-commission accounts usually recover the cost through a wider spread. The True Friction calculator puts a standard account and a raw/ECN account side by side on your own monthly volume, so you can see which one costs less for the way you trade.

Regulation decides what protection your deposit has if the broker fails — segregated client funds, compensation schemes, and where a dispute can be taken. It feeds the Safety sub-score on every broker scorecard.

Overnight swap. A negative swap is charged every night the position stays open, whether the trade wins or loses. The Overnight Swap Drag calculator shows how much of your target a multi-day hold gives back.