How Brokers Are Ranked

The first check: can a Kenyan resident actually use it

The first check is whether a resident of Kenya can open an account, fund it and withdraw from it. A broker that fails that test is not ranked at all, because a low cost is meaningless if the money cannot go in or come out. Funding is checked against local reality, including M-Pesa where the broker supports it.

Only after that gate is passed does the desk look at the platform set, the instruments offered and the cost structure. Gold (XAU/USD) is the instrument under review, with 1 lot equal to 100 oz and one pip equal to 0.01, and the reference price used in worked examples is about 4275.0.

Where the numbers come from

Every figure comes from the broker's own documents, and each page records the date the document was read. Costs are described by what they consist of, such as the spread, commission and swap, and by what they depend on, such as account type and market conditions. The desk does not publish a number it cannot point to in a broker document.

Leverage is treated as a cap, not a setting to aim at. At the cap that applies to the entity serving Kenya, a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin, and that worked figure is used to show what margin means in practice rather than to suggest a target.

The limits of the testing

The testing is documentary and hands-on at the platform level, not an audit of the broker's finances. The desk cannot verify execution quality across all market conditions, and it does not test every account type. Where a claim depends on the broker's own reporting, the page says so.

A ranking reflects what was true on the date the documents were read. If a broker changes its terms, the page is re-checked rather than treated as wrong, and any correction is logged with a date. Readers should confirm current figures with the broker before acting.

How each class of figure on this site is sourced

Market prices shown here come from a live XAU/USD feed and are presented against a reference price of about 4275.0 for illustration, while contract facts such as 1 lot = 100 oz and one pip = 0.01 come from the instrument specification itself. Broker-specific facts, including the platforms FxPro offers (MT4, MT5, cTrader and the FxPro app) and the regulator caveat that FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK), CySEC and FSCA but not by the CMA of Kenya, are taken from the broker's own published material. Nothing on this page is drawn from a paid ranking or affiliate score.

Cost figures are described by what they consist of rather than by a quoted rate, because the spread, commission and swap a Kenyan trader actually pays depend on the account type, the time of day, the size of the order and the liquidity at that moment. The margin example we publish, where a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 at the applicable leverage cap, is derived arithmetically from the contract size, the reference price and that cap. We do not publish a spread, commission, swap or minimum deposit as a number for any broker.

Regulatory facts are sourced from the named authorities rather than from the broker's marketing pages, which is why the Kenya caveat is stated in full wherever FxPro appears. The leverage figure we reference is the cap that applies to the entity serving Kenya, and it is treated as a ceiling rather than a recommended setting. Funding information is limited to M-Pesa, the route Kenyan readers actually recognise, and we say nothing about deposit channels we have not confirmed. Where a class of figure has no verifiable source, it is left out rather than estimated.

The arithmetic behind every calculator on the page

Each calculator works from the contract specification first: gold is quoted as XAU/USD, one standard lot is 100 oz, and one pip is 0.01. A pip value in dollars is therefore the pip size multiplied by the number of ounces in the position, so the figure scales in direct proportion to lot size. The profit or loss on a closed position is the difference between entry and exit price in dollars per ounce, multiplied by 100 oz for each standard lot traded. Every output on the page is built from those three inputs and nothing else.

The margin calculator divides the notional value of the position by the leverage cap that applies to the entity serving Kenya. Notional value is the reference price multiplied by 100 oz for each lot, so a 0.10-lot position at about 4275.0 gives the roughly $85.50 margin figure we quote. The calculator does not assume any additional buffer, and it does not model a margin call level, because the buffer a broker applies and the level at which positions are closed are broker-specific and were not supplied to us.

The currency conversion step is shown separately so a Kenyan reader can see the shilling equivalent of a dollar figure without it being buried in the result. We convert at a rate we display alongside the output rather than a hidden constant, so the reader can see exactly what rate produced the KSh figure and substitute their own if they prefer. No calculator on this site compounds fees into the result, because we do not publish fee numbers; any cost the reader pays has to be added by them from their own broker statement.

What updates on its own and what a person checks

The live XAU/USD price is the only element that refreshes automatically, and it does so continuously while the page is open. Everything else on the page is a stored value that changes only when a person edits it. That split is deliberate: a price is a fact that changes by the second and is safe to automate, while a broker fact such as which platforms are offered or which regulator licenses the firm is a claim that needs a human to read the source before it is repeated. Automation is confined to the part of the page where being slightly stale is harmless.

Broker facts are reviewed by hand on a scheduled basis and whenever a reader flags something that looks wrong. The review means opening the broker's own documentation and the regulator's register, not re-reading our previous version of the page. The Kenya leverage cap, the platform list and the regulatory caveat are all on that manual list. The margin example is recalculated by hand when the reference price or the cap changes, because a worked figure that drifts out of step with its inputs is worse than no example at all.

Reference prices and worked examples sit in between: they are not streamed, but they are regenerated when the underlying inputs change rather than left to age indefinitely. A reader should treat any figure carrying a date as accurate to that date and no further. Where a value has not been re-checked within its review window, the honest position is that it is due for review, and we would rather show that than imply a freshness we cannot support.

Where this method is weaker than it looks

The method cannot tell you what you will actually pay, because the cost of a trade is set at execution by the spread, the commission on your account type and any swap for positions held overnight, and none of those were supplied to us as figures. We can describe what a cost consists of and what it depends on, and that is the limit. A reader who needs the real number has to read their own broker statement or the platform's own cost display at the moment of trading. Any page that quotes a single spread as if it were universal is simplifying past the point of usefulness.

The margin example is arithmetic, not advice. It shows what a 0.10-lot gold position requires at the applicable cap and the reference price, and it will be wrong for any other lot size, any other price, or any broker that applies a different cap to the entity serving the client. The cap that applies to the entity serving Kenya is a ceiling, not a target, and using the full cap leaves very little room between the position and a margin call. The example illustrates the formula; it does not recommend a position size.

Regulatory status is the area where staleness does the most damage, because a licence can be added, restricted or withdrawn between reviews. We state the caveat exactly as given, that FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK), CySEC and FSCA but not by the CMA of Kenya, and we do not extend it to cover any future change. The method also cannot verify execution quality, slippage or withdrawal speed, because those are experienced rather than published, and we do not present reader experience as measurement.

How a broker fact gets a date and a re-check

Every broker fact on the site carries the date it was last confirmed against a primary source, and that date refers to the check, not to when the page was written. A fact without a confirmation date is treated as unconfirmed and is either re-checked or removed. The primary sources are the broker's own published terms and documentation and the register of the relevant regulator. Where the two do not line up, the regulator's register wins, because it is the record that determines whether the firm may serve a client at all.

Re-checks run on a fixed cycle and are triggered early by specific events: a change to the entity serving Kenya, a change to the leverage cap, a platform being added or retired, or a reader report that a figure no longer matches what they see. The Kenya cap and the regulatory caveat are treated as the highest-priority items on that list, because an error there misleads a reader about who supervises their account. A platform list is lower priority but still manual, since a broker can add or drop a platform without any regulatory filing.

When a fact is re-checked and found unchanged, the confirmation date moves forward and nothing else changes. When it is found changed, the old figure is replaced rather than kept alongside the new one, so the page never shows two versions of the same fact. The date is the reader's signal for how much weight to put on a claim, and we would rather show an older date honestly than refresh the stamp without doing the check behind it.

What happens when two sources contradict each other

When two sources disagree, the regulator's register outranks the broker's marketing material, and the broker's own legal documentation outranks anything written about the broker by a third party. That ordering settles most conflicts without judgement. The practical case is a claim about which entity serves Kenya or which regulator supervises it; the register answers that, and if the broker's page says something broader, the page is the thing that is wrong. We follow the register and state the caveat in the narrow form the register supports.

When the conflict is about something the register does not cover, such as which platforms are offered, we drop the disputed detail rather than pick a side. A page that says less and is right is worth more than a page that says more and is guessing. If the disagreement is between two versions of the same broker document, the more recent dated document is used and the older one is noted as superseded. If neither carries a date, the fact goes to manual review before it appears at all.

Unresolved conflicts are not hidden behind a rounded figure or an average of the two claims. Averaging two contradictory numbers produces a third number that no source supports, which is the worst outcome for a reader trying to check our work. Where a conflict cannot be settled from primary sources, the item is marked as disputed internally and left off the page until it can be. That is why some fields a reader might expect to see are simply absent.

Why our live price is not your broker quote

The live price on this page is an indicative XAU/USD feed, while the price your broker fills you at is their own quote, built from their liquidity providers and adjusted for the size and direction of your specific order. Two numbers describing the same metal can therefore differ at the same instant without either being wrong. Gold also trades across sessions with varying depth, so the gap between an indicative feed and an executable quote tends to widen when liquidity thins. The price you see here is context for the arithmetic, not an offer to trade at that level.

The reference price of about 4275.0 is a fixed illustration used to make the margin and pip arithmetic followable, and it is not a claim about where gold is trading now. A reader checking a worked example against a live screen will see a different number, and that is expected. If you substitute your own price into the formulas, the pip value stays the same because it depends only on lot size and pip size, while the margin figure moves with price because notional value does.

The practical consequence is that a position sized exactly to a margin figure calculated here can sit closer to a margin call than the arithmetic suggests, because the fill price differs and the broker's own buffer was never modelled. Treat any figure from this page as an estimate of the mechanics, then confirm the executable price and the required margin in the platform before you place the order. Gold moves quickly enough that a quote taken a minute earlier is history.

The figures we choose not to publish

We do not publish a spread, a commission, a swap rate or a minimum deposit as a number, because we were not given those figures for the entity serving Kenya and inventing them would be worse than omitting them. A quoted spread is also misleading on its own, since what a trader pays depends on the account type, the instrument, the session and the order size. Instead we describe what each cost consists of and what it depends on, so a reader knows what to look for on their own statement rather than anchoring on a number that may never apply to them.

We do not publish a leverage ratio beyond the one cap that applies to the entity serving Kenya, and we do not present that cap as a setting to aim for. Higher leverage reduces the margin required and increases the speed at which a losing position consumes your balance; quoting a range of ratios would invite exactly the comparison we are trying to avoid. We do not publish promotional terms, bonus offers or account-tier comparisons, because those change without notice and a stale offer is a trap for the reader who acts on it.

We do not publish performance records, win rates or reader profit figures. Trading gold on leverage is high-risk and losses beyond the initial margin are possible, so a track record presented as evidence of future results would be misleading whatever the sample. We also do not name individual analysts or traders, because a page that stands on a person's authority invites the reader to trust the name instead of checking the arithmetic. Everything here is meant to be reproducible from the inputs, not believed on reputation.

How to reproduce any number on this page

Take the contract specification, the reference price of about 4275.0 and the applicable leverage cap, and you can rebuild every figure we show. For pip value, multiply 0.01 by 100 oz for one standard lot, then scale to your lot size. For notional value, multiply the price by 100 oz and again by your lot size. For margin, divide that notional by the leverage cap. The worked example, where a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50, is those three steps in order and nothing else.

To check a dollar result in shillings, apply the exchange rate we display next to the output, or your own rate if you prefer, and note which rate you used. To check a broker fact, open the broker's own documentation for the platforms and the regulator's register for the licence, and compare the wording with what appears here, including the caveat that FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK), CySEC and FSCA but not by the CMA of Kenya. If your reading differs from ours, the primary source is right and we want to hear about it.

Reproduction only works for the mechanical figures. The cost of an actual trade cannot be rebuilt from this page, because the spread, commission and swap are set at execution and were not supplied to us as numbers. For those, use the platform's own cost display or your broker statement, which is the only record of what you actually paid. A number you cannot rebuild from stated inputs should be treated as a claim, whoever published it, and that rule applies to this page as much as to any other.