How We Review Gold Brokers

What we check first

Before we rank a broker, we check whether a resident of South Africa can open an account, fund it in ZAR, and withdraw money without unreasonable friction. This includes verifying that the broker accepts South African clients and offers local payment methods such as local cards and bank transfers in ZAR, as well as e-wallets.

We also check the regulatory status of the entity that would serve a South African client. The broker we currently cover, FxPro, is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, and an FxPro entity holds an FSCA licence in South Africa — check which entity your own account is opened with. This matters because the protections you get depend on the specific entity.

Where our numbers come from

All figures we publish come from the broker's own documents, such as contract specifications, fee schedules, and terms of business. We record the date we read each document, and we state that date alongside the figure so you know how fresh it is. This is essential because broker terms change, and a number that was correct yesterday may not be correct today.

We never invent numbers. If a broker does not publish a spread, commission, swap, or minimum deposit as a static figure, we do not guess. Instead, we describe what the cost consists of and what it depends on. For example, a spread may be variable and depend on market liquidity and account type, and we will say that rather than fabricate a percentage.

Honest limits of our testing

We cannot test every possible scenario. Our checks are based on the broker's public documents and, where possible, a demo or live account opened by our team. However, we do not deposit large sums or hold positions for long periods, so we may not observe how the broker behaves during extreme market volatility or when a client requests a large withdrawal.

We also cannot guarantee that your experience will match ours. Brokers may change their policies, and individual accounts may be subject to different terms based on your location, account type, or trading activity. Therefore, always verify the latest terms with the broker before opening an account.

Where each class of figure on this site originates

Every figure on Aurum Rand is traced to one of three primary sources: broker specifications, live market data, or regulatory filings. Broker specifications—such as available leverage, platform choices, and account entity details—come directly from FxPro’s published materials and are cross-checked against the FSCA licence register where applicable. Live market data, including the gold reference price of approximately 4275.0, is pulled from standard market feeds that aggregate interbank quotes. Regulatory caveats, such as the note that an FxPro entity holds an FSCA licence in South Africa, are sourced from official regulator records and FxPro’s own legal disclosures.

The distinction between data classes matters because each has a different shelf life and verification path. Leverage caps, for example, are set by the broker and the regulator, so they change rarely and are reviewed by hand. The reference gold price is a snapshot that changes second by second and is refreshed automatically. Margin examples, like the worked figure that a 0.10-lot position needs about $85.50 at 1:200 leverage, are calculated from the stated formula using the current price and leverage cap—so they are derived, not sourced directly. This means a reader can always ask: is this number a fact from the broker, a live quote, or a calculation from other facts?

We do not use user-submitted data, forum posts, or third-party reviews as sources for any figure. Every number is either published by FxPro, visible in a regulatory database, or computed from those two using a formula we publish. The only exception is the live gold price, which comes from a market data vendor and is labelled as an indicative price, not a tradable quote. By keeping the source classes separate, we avoid the common trap of mixing a broker’s marketing claim with a verified regulatory fact or a live market snapshot.

The formula behind each calculator in plain words

Every calculator on Aurum Rand uses a formula that is stated in words on the page itself, and the math is simple enough to reproduce with a pocket calculator. The margin calculator, for example, works like this: margin equals position size in lots multiplied by the contract size (100 ounces for one standard lot of XAU/USD) multiplied by the current gold price, all divided by the leverage ratio. Using the reference price of 4275.0, a 0.10-lot position at 1:200 leverage gives (0.10 × 100 × 4275.0) / 200, which rounds to about $85.50. The formula is the same for any other lot size or leverage cap up to 1:200 for retail or 1:500 for eligible clients.

The pip value formula is equally transparent: one pip on XAU/USD is 0.01, so the value of one pip per lot is 100 ounces multiplied by 0.01, which equals $1.00 per lot. For a 0.10-lot position, one pip is worth $0.10. This is fixed by the contract specification and does not change with price or leverage. The swap or rollover cost is not stated as a number anywhere on the site because it depends on interbank rates, broker markup, and position direction—so the methodology page explains that swaps are shown in the trading platform and cannot be predicted from a static formula.

The risk-based position size calculator uses a different logic: it asks how much of the account balance in rand you are willing to risk on a single trade, then converts that to a dollar amount, then divides by the stop-loss distance in pips times the pip value per lot. The result is the maximum lot size that keeps the loss within the chosen risk budget. Because this formula is protective by design, it is the one we emphasise across the site—it ensures that even a worst-case stop-out cannot wipe out more than the pre-set fraction of the account.

What is refreshed automatically and what is reviewed by hand

Only two things are refreshed automatically on Aurum Rand: the live gold price and any figure that is directly calculated from it, such as the margin example or the pip value if it depended on price (which it does not for gold). The live price is pulled from a market data feed and updated continuously, but it is labelled as indicative—it is not a tradable quote from FxPro. The margin example that uses the reference price of 4275.0 is recalculated automatically whenever the price feed updates, so the displayed figure changes with the market. Everything else on the site is static until a human reviews it.

All broker facts—leverage caps, platform availability, funding methods, entity names, and regulatory caveats—are reviewed by hand on a scheduled basis. These facts change only when FxPro updates its terms or when a regulator changes a licence status, so they do not need real-time refresh. The review cycle is not daily; it is triggered by a calendar reminder and by any reader report of a discrepancy. When a fact is reviewed, the reviewer opens FxPro’s official site, checks the relevant page, and compares it to what is published here. If a change is found, the fact is updated and the date of last verification is changed.

The distinction between automatic and manual refresh is important for trust. Automatic refresh means the number is always current but is only as good as the data feed. Manual review means the number may be slightly stale but has been checked against the source. We never present a manually reviewed fact as if it were live, and we never let an automatically refreshed price be mistaken for a broker quote. The methodology page itself is reviewed by hand every time a fact changes, so the formulas and source descriptions are always in sync with the displayed numbers.

The known limits of this method and where they bite

The biggest limit of our method is that we cannot verify every broker fact in real time, so there is always a window where a change at FxPro has not yet been reflected on Aurum Rand. This is especially true for promotional offers, temporary margin changes, or platform updates that are not announced publicly. We mitigate this by dating every fact and encouraging readers to check FxPro’s own site before trading, but the limit is real. A second limit is that the live gold price we show is not the exact price you will see on your FxPro platform, because different liquidity providers quote slightly different prices and the feed we use is indicative only.

Another known limit is that our calculators assume a single leverage ratio for the entire position, but in practice a broker may apply different leverage to different instruments or to hedged positions. FxPro’s stated cap for retail clients in South Africa is up to 1:200, and up to 1:500 for eligible clients, but the actual margin required for a specific trade can also depend on your account type and the instrument’s volatility classification. Our margin example uses the cap as a simple case, not as a prediction of your exact margin. Likewise, the pip value formula assumes no commission or other per-trade charges, which may or may not apply depending on your account.

A third limit is that we deliberately do not publish spreads, commissions, or swaps as numbers because they change too often and depend on market conditions, account type, and trade direction. This means a reader cannot use Aurum Rand to compare total trading costs between brokers; they can only see the structural costs like margin and pip value. We state this openly because a methodology that hides its limits is worse than one that admits them. The site is designed to be accurate on what it covers and silent on what it cannot verify, which is a deliberate choice to protect the reader from false precision.

How a broker fact is dated, re-checked, and resolved when sources disagree

Every broker fact on Aurum Rand carries a “last checked” date, and that date is recorded in our internal log whenever a human reviewer verifies the fact against the primary source. The primary source for FxPro facts is always FxPro’s own website, specifically the legal documents and account specifications pages. If FxPro’s site is unavailable or ambiguous, we fall back to the FSCA licence register for regulatory facts, or to a cached version of the broker page if the change is recent. The review schedule is not fixed; we re-check a fact when a reader flags it, when a calendar reminder fires, or when we notice a change in the broker’s public materials during routine site maintenance.

When two sources disagree—for example, if FxPro’s marketing page says one leverage cap but the legal terms say another—we apply a strict rule: the more conservative figure that protects the trader wins, and the discrepancy is noted in the fact’s own caveat. If the FSCA register shows a different entity name than FxPro’s site, we publish both and add the exact caveat: “check which entity your own account is opened with.” We never silently choose one source over another, because the disagreement itself is a material fact for a South African trader. The conflict is resolved only when FxPro updates its materials and both sources align, at which point the fact is updated and the date is refreshed.

The dating system is not just for transparency; it is also a safety mechanism. A reader who sees a fact dated more than three months ago is prompted to verify it themselves before acting on it. We deliberately do not auto-refresh broker facts because an automated scrape could import an error or a temporary promotion as if it were a permanent term. The human review, with its dated log, is the only way to keep the site’s promise that every number is either sourced or calculated from a sourced number. This is slower but far less likely to mislead a trader who is risking real money.