By Volodymyr Kravchenko Updated
How We Review Brokers
How Marlin reviews brokers in eight steps: the regulator register, official terms, client protection, the risk warning, conflicts of interest and corrections.
Eight steps, the same for every provider. Last reviewed 31 October 2026. We do not rank brokers or publish numeric ratings.
1. Pick the provider Only providers that serve gold, oil or forex traders and have a clear legal entity. No ranking, no star scores.
We review a provider because readers ask about it, not because it pays. We do not rank brokers and we publish no numeric rating. A provider with an affiliate link is reviewed the same way as one without.
2. Check who it is The legal entity, its regulator and licence number, read on the regulator's own register.
We open the regulator's register ourselves and copy the entity name and licence number from there, with the date. We name the entity that serves the reader's country, because protections depend on the entity, not the brand. An offshore or unlicensed provider is marked clearly, and a page says when it is not directed at residents of some countries.
3. Read the terms Instruments, platforms, costs, hours, margin and funding, from the provider's own pages.
We read the contract specification for gold and oil: spread type, commission, swap, trading hours, weekend symbols, margin and stop-out levels, funding and withdrawal methods. We paraphrase and link to the source; we do not copy tables. A figure we could not open ourselves is left out or marked VERIFY CURRENT DATA.
4. Client protection Negative balance protection, segregated funds, compensation scheme, rules for the reader's country.
We note which protections apply to which entity and country, for example the UK FCA's retail CFD rules (leverage limits, margin close-out at 50%, negative balance protection) and ESMA's measures in the EU. Rules outside the UK and EU can differ a lot.
5. The risk warning The provider's own published share of retail accounts that lose money on CFDs, with date.
Regulators in the UK and EU require this figure in promotions. We take it from the provider's own page, with the entity, the period and the date we read it. If we could not open that page, we say where the provider publishes it instead of printing a number.
6. Conflicts of interest Affiliate links are labelled Ad and rel=sponsored; commission never decides a sentence.
If we earn a commission, the page says so next to the link. Every review states strengths and limitations and who may prefer an alternative. See the affiliate disclosure and the editorial policy.
7. Dates and re-checks Every fact carries a date; each review is re-checked every quarter or when terms change.
The review shows when facts were read and what we did not verify (for example, we have not opened a funded account, so spreads and execution are not assessed). Material changes update the page date.
8. Corrections Tell us about an error and we check it against the source.
Use the contact page. We check the claim against the source, correct a confirmed error promptly and update the page date. Corrections that matter to readers are recorded in the corrections log on the trust centre.
Related: editorial policy, affiliate disclosure, risk disclosure, methodology and the broker reviews. Trading leveraged products carries a high risk of loss: CFDs can lose money rapidly.