How we check a broker before ranking it

The first test: can a Nigerian resident use it

The first thing checked is whether a resident of Nigeria can open an account, fund it and withdraw from it, because a broker that fails that test is irrelevant no matter how good its platform looks. In practice this means reading the broker's accepted-countries list, its funding page and its withdrawal page, and noting which of the local routes are actually offered: local NGN bank transfers, Visa and Mastercard debit cards, e-payments and crypto.

Only after that test is passed do we look at platforms and tools. The platforms recorded for FxPro are MT4, MT5, cTrader and FxPro Edge, and the entity that serves Nigeria is FxPro Markets Direct Costa Rica Latam SRL. We write down the entity because the entity, not the brand, determines which regulator and which leverage cap apply to a Nigerian account.

Where the numbers come from

Numbers come from the broker's own documents, and each figure is recorded with the date it was read, because a broker's terms change and an undated number is a guess. Contract specifications, leverage tables, funding pages and the client agreement are the sources; a forum post or a review site is not. When two sources disagree, we say so rather than pick the friendlier one.

Leverage is a clear example. The maximum available to a Nigerian client is up to 1:200 via the offshore entity, but one review cited 1:30/1:20 caps, and that conflict was not verified at the time of the check. We publish both statements and label the conflict, because a reader sizing a position needs to know the cap is uncertain. Leverage is a cap, not a setting to aim at, and the worked figure we may quote is that at 1:200 a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin.

How you can reproduce any number on this site

Every number on this site can be rebuilt from four inputs: lot size, the reference price, the leverage ratio and, for naira results, your own USD/NGN rate. Take 0.10 lot of XAU/USD. In ounces that is 10, since one lot is 100 oz. Multiply 10 by the reference price of approximately 4275.0 to get $42,750 of notional exposure, then divide by 200 to reach about $85.50 margin. Nothing else is hidden in the calculation.

For pip value, multiply lot size by 100 oz and by 0.01. At 1.00 lot you get $1.00 per pip, at 0.10 lot $0.10, at 0.01 lot $0.01. To turn a pip move into dollars, multiply pip value by the pips moved and by the lots held. To express it in naira, multiply the dollar result by the USD/NGN rate you are using, and note that bank transfer funding costs are not part of that figure.

You can verify the broker facts the same way we do. Read the entity and licence disclosures on the broker's own site, confirm the operator on the SEC Nigeria register of capital market operators, and check the platform list against what is offered to Nigerian clients. If your platform quote differs from our reference price, the platform quote is the one that applies to your trade.

How a broker fact is dated and re-checked

Every broker fact carries the date it was last confirmed, and that date refers to when a person read the source, not when the page was built. A fact is re-checked on a fixed cycle and immediately whenever a reader flags a discrepancy. The date travels with the claim so you can judge staleness yourself rather than trusting an undated statement that may be months old.

Re-checking means returning to the primary source: the broker's own entity and licence disclosures for the Nigerian-facing entity, and the SEC Nigeria register of capital market operators for the regulatory caveat. We do not re-confirm a fact by reading another review site, because that would launder an old claim into a fresh-looking date without any new evidence behind it.

When a re-check fails, for example because a page has moved or the wording has changed, the fact is marked as unconfirmed rather than silently kept. That is why the leverage line on this site carries the 1:30 and 1:20 conflict in plain sight. An unconfirmed fact stays visible with its caveat until a person resolves it against the source.

What happens when two sources disagree

When two sources disagree, we publish both positions and say which one we could verify, rather than averaging them or choosing the more flattering figure. The leverage line is the clearest case: the broker states up to 1:200 via the offshore entity, one review cited 1:30 and 1:20 caps, and the page says the conflict is unverified at review. A reader sees the disagreement instead of a false single number.

We rank sources by proximity to the fact. The broker's own disclosure outranks a third-party review for entity, licence and platform facts, and the SEC Nigeria register outranks both for whether an operator appears on the Nigerian register. A review is treated as a signal to investigate, not as evidence, and it never overwrites a primary source on its own.

Unresolved conflicts are never smoothed into a range that implies precision we do not have. If the sources cannot be reconciled, the number is either withheld or shown with the dispute attached. The rule is simple: a visible conflict is more useful to a trader sizing a gold position than a tidy figure that happens to be wrong.

What is deliberately not published, and why

Spread, commission, swap and minimum deposit figures are deliberately not published because we were not given verified numbers for them. Publishing an unverified cost would be worse than publishing none: a trader could size a gold position around a figure that no longer holds. Instead the site explains what each cost consists of and what it depends on, and points you to the live platform for the current value.

We also do not publish a fixed USD/NGN rate. A rate baked into a page goes stale silently and would misstate every naira conversion on the site, so the conversion depends on the rate you enter at the time. For the same reason we do not name funding methods beyond the confirmed set of local NGN bank transfers, Visa and Mastercard debit cards, e-payments and crypto.

No performance claims, return figures or account recommendations are published. This is a methodology page for a high-risk instrument, and the honest output is the arithmetic of pips and margin plus a clear statement of what is unverified. The regulatory caveat is published in full: FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK), CySEC and FSCA, and any broker should be confirmed on the SEC Nigeria register of capital market operators.

The known limits of this method

The method cannot tell you what you will actually pay. We are not given spread, commission, swap or minimum deposit figures, so every cost statement on this site describes what the cost consists of and what it depends on: the account type, the entity, the instrument and market conditions at the moment of the trade. A reader who wants a number must read it from the live platform, not from us.

The leverage position is genuinely unsettled. The broker states up to 1:200 via the offshore entity, while one review cited 1:30 and 1:20 caps, and we could not verify which applies at review. Our margin example uses 1:200 and is labelled as such, but a Nigerian client on a different entity or account classification may face a lower cap and therefore a larger margin requirement for the same 0.10-lot gold position.

Naira conversion is only as good as the rate you enter. We do not hold a USD/NGN rate, so any naira figure reflects your input at that moment, and funding by local bank transfer can involve costs and timing the calculator does not model. The reference price of approximately 4275.0 is also a snapshot, so worked examples drift from the market between refreshes.

The formula behind each calculator, written out in words

Pip value in dollars equals lot size multiplied by 100 ounces, multiplied by 0.01, the pip size for XAU/USD. For 1.00 lot that is 1 × 100 × 0.01, which gives $1.00 per pip. For 0.10 lot it is $0.10, and for 0.01 lot it is $0.01. Every pip-value output on the site is this single multiplication with your lot size substituted in, and no spread or commission is folded into it.

Margin required equals position size in ounces multiplied by the reference price, divided by the leverage ratio. In ounces, 0.10 lot is 10 oz, so 10 × 4275.0 gives $42,750 of notional exposure, and dividing by 200 returns about $85.50. That is the worked figure we publish. The result changes only when the price, the lot size or the leverage ratio changes, and leverage is treated as a cap rather than a target.

Converting a dollar result into naira uses the USD/NGN rate you supply, not a rate we invent. Dollar profit or loss is pip value multiplied by the number of pips moved, multiplied by the number of lots, and the naira figure is that dollar amount times your rate. We do not embed a fixed naira rate, because a stale rate would quietly misstate every result, and bank transfer funding costs sit outside the formula entirely.

Why the live price can differ from a broker quote

The live price on this site and the quote on your broker's platform are produced by different systems, so they will not match tick for tick. Our reference price of approximately 4275.0 is a snapshot from a market feed; your platform shows the price its own liquidity providers are streaming to that account. Between the two sits latency, and on a fast gold move the gap can be visible.

A broker quote also carries the cost structure around the mid price, and that is where the two diverge most in practice. The spread your account is charged depends on the account type, the entity serving you and conditions at that moment, and we are not given a spread figure to publish. So the number you see on the platform is the one that governs your fill, not our reference.

Gold is quoted as XAU/USD with one pip equal to 0.01, so small differences matter once they are multiplied across 100 oz per lot. A gap of a few pips on a 1.00-lot position is a real dollar amount. Use our reference price to understand the arithmetic of a position, and your platform quote to understand what you will actually pay to enter it.

Where each class of figure on this site comes from

Regulatory and entity facts come from the broker's own published disclosures and licensing records, which name FxPro Markets Direct Costa Rica Latam SRL as the entity serving Nigeria and list FCA, CySEC and FSCA licences. We take the entity name and licence list exactly as published, then cross-check the Nigerian angle against the SEC Nigeria register of capital market operators. Nothing about the licence is inferred from marketing pages.

Instrument specifications come from the contract itself rather than from a broker page. Gold is quoted as XAU/USD, one standard lot is 100 oz, and one pip is 0.01, so a one-pip move on a 0.10-lot position is 0.10 × 100 × 0.01, or $0.10. The reference price of approximately 4275.0 is a snapshot used to anchor worked examples, not a live feed, and it is labelled as a reference wherever it appears.

Leverage and margin figures come from what the broker states for the Nigerian entity, with the caveat that one review cited 1:30 and 1:20 caps, which we could not verify at review. We therefore publish the margin example at 1:200 via the offshore entity, where a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin. Where a figure is disputed we say so in the same sentence rather than picking the friendlier number.

What refreshes automatically and what a person reviews

Reference prices refresh automatically from a market feed so the worked examples stay close to current conditions, and the timestamp on each price is part of the output. Instrument specifications do not refresh automatically: the 100 oz lot size, the 0.01 pip and the XAU/USD code are fixed constants that only change when the contract itself changes, which is a human decision, not a feed event.

Broker facts are reviewed by hand. The entity name, the licence list, the platform set of MT4, MT5, cTrader and FxPro Edge, and the maximum leverage available to Nigerian clients are read from the broker's own disclosures and re-checked on a schedule rather than polled. If a page still shows 1:200 while a review has separately cited 1:30 or 1:20 caps, that conflict is a review flag, not something the automation resolves on its own.

Funding method listings are also manual. Local NGN bank transfers, Visa and Mastercard debit cards, e-payments and crypto are confirmed against what the broker states for Nigerian clients, because a payment rail that exists for one entity does not automatically exist for another. Anything that cannot be confirmed is either omitted or written as depending on the entity, never guessed into a list.

The limits of what we test

The testing has limits and we state them: we do not run a live funded account through every withdrawal cycle, so a withdrawal route is recorded as documented rather than proven end to end. Costs such as spreads, commissions and swaps are described by what they consist of and what they depend on, because we were not given figures for them and will not invent any. Minimum deposits are treated the same way.

We also do not test every account type or every platform build, and a broker can change its terms the day after we read them. That is why every page carries the date it was checked and why a change in the broker's own documents is a re-check rather than an error. Where a fact is absent, the page says it is absent, and the reader is pointed to the broker's documents and the SEC Nigeria register to confirm.