How We Check a Broker

The first check: Kenya access

The first thing checked is whether a resident of Kenya can open, fund and withdraw from the account, because a broker that fails that test is not a candidate whatever else it offers. That means confirming the entity that accepts Kenyan clients, the funding route available, here usually M-Pesa, and whether withdrawal back out follows the same path.

A broker that only works with a foreign address, a foreign bank account or a workaround is recorded as such rather than quietly ranked lower. Leverage is also recorded as the cap that applies to the entity serving Kenya, never as a target to aim at.

The limits of our testing

Our testing is limited to what an editorial desk can honestly do: read the documents, check the platform list (MT4, MT5, cTrader and the FxPro app for the broker covered here), and confirm the funding route. We do not run live money through every scenario, and we do not see the inside of a broker's execution.

That means execution quality, slippage during news and the speed of a withdrawal are described in terms of what they depend on, not as measured results. When a condition changes after our check date, the page is re-checked rather than treated as an error.

How each class of figure on this site is sourced

Contract specifications such as 1 standard lot = 100 oz and one pip = 0.01 for XAU/USD come from the broker's published contract schedule and are verified against the trading platform before use. The reference price of approximately 4275.0 is taken from a live gold feed at the time of writing and is used only to illustrate margin and pip-value arithmetic, not as a forecast. Leverage figures come from the cap that applies to the FxPro entity serving Kenya, and margin examples such as the $85.50 required for a 0.10-lot position are calculated from that cap and the reference price.

Funding and withdrawal information is sourced from the broker's official payment pages and from the M-Pesa transaction flow described in the client area. We do not publish a minimum deposit, a spread, a commission or a swap as a number because those are account-specific and can change without notice; instead, pages describe what the cost consists of and what it depends on. Regulatory status is taken from the regulator registers: FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK), CySEC and FSCA, not by the CMA of Kenya, and that caveat is repeated wherever licensing is discussed.

Any figure that is not supplied by the broker or a regulator is either calculated from the facts above or described in terms of what it depends on. We never fill a gap with an estimate presented as fact. Where a number would be useful but is not available to us, the page says so and explains which variable the reader should check on the broker's own site. This keeps every figure traceable to a named source and prevents a stale or invented number from being read as current.

What happens when two sources disagree

When two sources disagree, the page shows the discrepancy rather than picking the more convenient number. For example, if the broker's contract schedule says one pip size and the platform shows another, both are noted and the page explains which one the calculators use and why. If a regulator register and the broker's own page disagree on licensing, the regulator register is treated as authoritative for the licence status, and the caveat that FxPro is not licensed by the CMA of Kenya is repeated. The disagreement is not hidden.

For prices, the live feed and the broker quote can differ because they are different sources with different timestamps and liquidity. The page does not force them to match; it labels the reference price as a snapshot and tells you the platform quote is the one that applies to your order. For exchange rates, the rate used in a KSh illustration is stated separately from any rate you might receive through M-Pesa, and the page does not claim they are the same. The reader is shown both and told which one governs.

Where a disagreement cannot be resolved from public sources, the page says so and describes what the figure depends on instead of publishing a number. This applies to spreads, commissions, swaps and minimum deposits, which are account-specific and not published as fixed numbers here. The rule is simple: a fact that cannot be reconciled is flagged, not averaged. That way you can see the uncertainty and check the broker's own disclosure before you rely on any figure for a trading decision.

Which data is refreshed automatically and which is checked by hand

The live gold price and the USD/KSh exchange rate are refreshed automatically from external feeds at intervals shown on the page. These are the only figures that change without a person reviewing them first. The reference price of approximately 4275.0 is a snapshot used for worked examples; the live feed may show a different number, and the page labels which is which so you are not comparing a static example to a moving market. Automatic refresh does not imply accuracy beyond the feed's own delay.

Broker facts such as contract size, platform availability (MT4, MT5, cTrader and the FxPro app), funding methods including M-Pesa, and the regulatory caveat are reviewed by hand. A person checks the broker's official pages and the regulator registers before any change is published. Leverage caps and margin examples are recalculated by hand whenever the underlying cap or the reference price is updated. This manual step is slower than an automatic feed, but it prevents a silent change on the broker's site from flowing straight into our pages.

Calculated outputs such as pip values and margin requirements are generated by the formulas described above and are not independently refreshed; they change only when an input changes. If the reference price is updated, the worked examples are recalculated in the same edit. The page does not claim real-time accuracy for anything labelled as an example. Where a figure is automatic, it carries a timestamp; where it is hand-checked, it carries the date of the last review so you can judge how current it is.

How a broker fact is dated and re-checked

Every broker fact on the site carries the date it was last verified against the broker's official pages or a regulator register. That date is shown next to the fact, not buried in a footer. When a fact is re-checked and found unchanged, the date is updated; when it is found changed, the page is edited and the new date is recorded. A fact without a recent date should be treated as unconfirmed, and the page says so rather than presenting it as current.

Re-checking is triggered by three events: a scheduled review, a change noticed on the broker's site, and a reader report of a discrepancy. The scheduled review covers contract specifications, platform list, funding methods including M-Pesa, and the regulatory caveat that FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK), CySEC and FSCA, not by the CMA of Kenya. Leverage caps are re-checked whenever the entity serving Kenya changes its published terms. The review is manual because a broker can change a term without an automatic feed noticing.

The date is not a guarantee of permanence. A broker can change a term the day after verification, and the page will be out of date until the next check. For that reason, the page tells you which facts to confirm on the broker's own site before you fund an account, especially anything involving cost, leverage or withdrawal. The date tells you how fresh our check is; it does not transfer the broker's obligation to disclose current terms to you.

The arithmetic behind every calculator on the page

The margin calculator multiplies the trade size in lots by the contract size of 100 oz, then by the reference gold price, then divides by the leverage cap that applies to the FxPro entity serving Kenya. For example, 0.10 lots × 100 oz × 4275.0 = 42,750 USD notional; divided by the applicable cap gives about $85.50 margin. The calculator shows the USD figure and a KSh equivalent using the exchange rate you enter, because the shilling amount depends on the rate at the time you trade.

The pip-value calculator works from the pip size of 0.01 for XAU/USD. It multiplies the number of pips by 0.01, then by 100 oz per lot, then by the number of lots, giving the value in USD. A 0.10-lot position therefore moves $1 per pip (0.01 × 100 × 0.10 = $1). The KSh conversion is shown separately so you can see the USD value first and then apply the rate you expect from your M-Pesa funding or withdrawal.

The position-size calculator reverses the margin formula. You enter the margin you are willing to commit in USD, the reference price and the applicable leverage cap, and it returns the maximum lot size that margin supports. It does not account for floating loss, spread or swap, so the result is a ceiling, not a recommendation. Every calculator displays the inputs it used so you can check the arithmetic by hand and see exactly which variable, such as the exchange rate or the price, would change the output.

Where the numbers come from

Every figure on this site is taken from the broker's own documents, and each page records the date those documents were read. Contract specifications, margin examples and platform lists are copied from the source, not from memory or from another review site.

Where a figure is a worked example rather than a published term, it is labelled as one. At the applicable leverage cap, a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin; that is arithmetic on the contract size, 100 oz per standard lot with one pip at 0.01, not a promise about your own account.

The known limits of this method

The method cannot give you a broker's live spread, commission, swap or minimum deposit because those are account-specific and change without public notice. It also cannot tell you the exact leverage your account will receive, because the cap that applies to the FxPro entity serving Kenya is a maximum, not a setting you are entitled to. The $85.50 margin example assumes the applicable cap and the reference price of 4275.0; a different price or a different account tier will produce a different figure. These are limits of the facts available, not errors to be smoothed over.

The reference price is a snapshot, not a quote you can trade at. Gold moves continuously during market hours, and the price you see on MT4, MT5, cTrader or the FxPro app can differ from our reference by the time you read it. The USD/KSh rate used for shilling conversions is likewise an indication; the rate applied to your M-Pesa transaction is set by the payment flow, not by this site. Any KSh amount shown is therefore an illustration, and the USD figure is the one to check against your platform.

The method does not model slippage, gaps, overnight financing or the effect of floating losses on available margin. A position that meets the margin requirement at entry can still be closed out if the market moves against it. The calculators return a ceiling, not a safe size. We also cannot verify your personal circumstances, so nothing here is a suitability assessment. The limits are stated on the page so you can see which parts are arithmetic and which parts depend on the broker, the market and your own account.