The People Behind the Reviews

Real traders.
Real expertise.

Every review on FXTopBrokers is researched, tested with real money, and written by a member of our editorial team — experienced traders and analysts who have spent careers in or around the forex industry. We never outsource our testing.

Why we built this, and how we stay independent

FXTopBrokers launched in 2024 with a straightforward mission: build the broker review site that experienced traders actually wish existed. Most review sites are built around affiliate revenue first and editorial integrity second — rankings reflect whoever pays the highest commission, not whoever performs best. We set out to do the opposite: test every broker with real capital, publish every finding including the unflattering ones, and let the scores speak for themselves. The team came together quickly — experienced analysts and writers who shared the same frustration with low-quality, commercially compromised review content.

We earn affiliate commissions when readers open accounts via our links. We're transparent about this. What we're equally clear about: that money never influences a score. Our editorial team is structurally separate from our commercial team, and no broker has ever changed a rating by paying us.

Every broker we review gets a real deposit. Every withdrawal we test actually comes out of our own account. When something goes wrong with a broker — slow withdrawals, widening spreads, poor support — we publish it.

2024
Founded
100+
Brokers Reviewed
$50K+
Deposited & Tested
5
Specialist Editors
500K+
Monthly Readers
45
Countries Covered
12
Criteria Scored Per Broker
90d
Re-test Frequency
0
Paid Placements — Ever
100%
Real-Money Tested
Editorial Team

Meet the Analysts

Five specialists — each with deep domain expertise in a specific region, asset class, or trading style. Together they cover the full spectrum of what forex traders need to know.

JW
James Whitfield
Head of Research & Lead Analyst
James Whitfield
📍 London, United Kingdom
"A broker's marketing is irrelevant. The real test is what happens when you deposit real money, trade for 30 days, and then try to get it back quickly. That experience tells you everything."

James has spent over a decade in and around the foreign exchange industry — beginning as an active retail trader before moving into research and analysis. His background spans G10 currency trading, execution quality assessment, and regulatory monitoring across multiple jurisdictions. He has a deep working knowledge of how ECN and STP brokers operate at the infrastructure level, which informs how FXTopBrokers tests and scores execution quality.

At FXTopBrokers, James leads the scoring methodology and signs off on every broker review before publication. He personally tests execution quality, withdrawal processes, and slippage on all ECN and STP brokers. He also oversees regulatory monitoring — tracking changes at ASIC, FCA, CySEC, and DFSA — and is the lead author on our most widely read broker reviews.

ECN Broker Testing Execution Quality Regulatory Analysis G10 FX Majors Algorithmic Trading Risk Management
10+ Years in FX Markets ECN/STP Execution Specialist G10 Currency Analysis Regulatory Monitoring
10+
Years in FX markets
40+
Brokers personally tested
$20K+
Deposited in testing
2024
Joined FXTopBrokers
SC
Sarah Chen
Asia-Pacific Editor
Sarah Chen
📍 Singapore
"Singapore traders have different needs to European ones — tighter leverage, different payment rails, MAS oversight. Generic reviews built for a Western audience don't serve them well."

Sarah has built her career in financial analysis with a focus on Asia-Pacific markets. Her background spans FX research, equity analysis, and financial writing across the APAC region. She has a thorough understanding of MAS regulatory requirements, SGD account structures, and the mechanics of major APAC currency pairs including USD/SGD, USD/JPY, and AUD/USD.

At FXTopBrokers, Sarah owns our Singapore and APAC regional coverage. She reviews every broker we list for APAC traders — testing MAS licensing, SGD account availability, local bank transfer functionality, and support quality in English and Mandarin. She also writes our APAC regulatory updates and curates our Chinese and Korean-language broker guides.

Singapore / MAS Regulation APAC Broker Coverage SGD Account Testing Mandarin Language Reviews USD/SGD · USD/JPY Emerging Market FX
APAC Markets Specialist MAS Regulation Expert Finance & Analysis Background Mandarin · English
7+
Years in APAC finance
18
APAC brokers reviewed
12
SG brokers on coverage
2024
Joined FXTopBrokers
MO
Marcus O'Brien
Senior Analyst — Platforms & Execution
Marcus O'Brien
📍 Dublin, Ireland
"Most traders don't realise how much execution quality varies between brokers. A 3ms difference in average fill speed can cost a scalper hundreds a month. We measure that."

Marcus has been developing and deploying algorithmic trading systems on MetaTrader 4 and 5 for several years. He has built and live-traded numerous Expert Advisors across high-frequency and mean-reversion strategies on major pairs. His hands-on MQL5 development background gives him an unusually deep understanding of how brokers' execution infrastructure actually works — knowledge that directly informs how FXTopBrokers benchmarks execution quality.

At FXTopBrokers, Marcus is our authority on platform testing. He benchmarks execution speed, slippage, and requote rates by running standardised EA test scripts on every broker we review. He also writes all our platform-specific guides for MT4, MT5, cTrader, and TradingView, and covers the EA/automated trading section of our broker reviews.

MT4 / MT5 Deep Testing Execution Speed & Slippage cTrader & TradingView Expert Advisors / EAs High-Frequency Strategies Spread Monitoring
MQL4/MQL5 Developer Finance Background Algorithmic Trading Specialist
6+
Years in algo trading
20+
EAs built & deployed
25+
Platforms benchmarked
2024
Joined FXTopBrokers
YT
Yuki Tanaka
Japan & Korea Editor
Yuki Tanaka
📍 Tokyo, Japan
"Japan has the world's largest retail FX market by volume — over $350 billion traded daily by individual investors. Yet most English-language review sites treat it as an afterthought. We don't."

Yuki has spent several years in Japan's retail forex space, with a background spanning active trading and financial content creation focused on Japanese market regulation and broker accessibility. She has a thorough understanding of FSA oversight requirements, Japan's leverage restrictions, and the local payment and account infrastructure that Japanese traders rely on.

At FXTopBrokers, Yuki owns the Japanese-language section of our site and oversees coverage of brokers for Japanese and Korean retail traders. She personally tests every broker's Japanese-language support, JPY account options, and local deposit and withdrawal methods — including bitwallet and STICPAY. She also writes our FSA regulatory updates and tracks changes to Japan's leverage restrictions.

Japanese FSA Regulation Japanese-Language Reviews JPY Account Testing USD/JPY Analysis Bitwallet / STICPAY Korean Market
Japanese FSA Regulation Specialist FX Trading & Analysis Background Japanese · English
5+
Years in Japanese FX
15+
JP brokers reviewed
3
Languages covered
2024
Joined FXTopBrokers
PS
Priya Sharma
Education Lead & Latin America Editor
Priya Sharma
📍 São Paulo, Brazil
"Latin America is one of the fastest-growing retail trading regions in the world, but most broker review sites still treat it like an afterthought. The payment infrastructure, local regulations, and language needs are completely different."

Priya has a finance background and has spent several years building financial education content and reviewing broker accessibility for traders across Latin America. Based in São Paulo, she is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and has assessed broker service quality across key LATAM markets including Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile.

At FXTopBrokers, Priya manages our education hub — writing and editing guides for traders at every level. She also owns our Latin America regional coverage, testing PIX payment integration, BRL and MXN account availability, and Spanish and Portuguese-language support quality.

Latin America Coverage Education Content PIX & BRL Payment Testing Spanish Language Reviews Portuguese Language Reviews Beginner Trader Guides
Finance Background Spanish · Portuguese · English LATAM Specialist
4+
Years in FX education
10+
LATAM countries covered
Growing
Education readership
2024
Joined FXTopBrokers
NK
Norman Kurta
Founder & Publisher
Norman Kurta
Founder, Publisher & Managing Director

Norman founded FXTopBrokers in 2024 after years as an active retail forex trader who grew increasingly frustrated by the quality of broker review content online. Most review sites he encountered ranked brokers based on affiliate commission rates rather than actual trading performance. His own experience of opening accounts based on paid recommendations — and finding the reality didn't match the reviews — was the direct motivation for building something more honest.

As Founder and Publisher, Norman sets the editorial direction of FXTopBrokers, oversees commercial partnerships, and maintains the firewall between editorial and commercial operations. He is responsible for the site's growth strategy, the Awards programme, and regional expansion. Norman is based in Melbourne, Australia.

Editorial Direction Commercial Strategy International Expansion Awards Programme Affiliate Partnerships
Founder — FXTopBrokers (2024) Melbourne, Australia
Active
Retail FX trader
2024
Founded FXTopBrokers
100+
Brokers reviewed
45+
Countries covered
TK
Thomas Kurta
Technical Writer
Thomas Kurta
Technical Writer & Content Producer

Thomas is currently completing a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne, where he is majoring in Finance. His academic background brings a rigorous, structured approach to financial writing — combining the theoretical foundations of his degree with practical application on one of Australia's leading forex review platforms.

At FXTopBrokers, Thomas works as a Technical Writer, producing and maintaining content across the site's educational hub, broker review summaries, tools documentation, and news articles. His work bridges technical accuracy and reader clarity — ensuring complex trading concepts are communicated precisely and accessibly. Thomas is based in Melbourne and works with the team part-time alongside his studies.

Technical Writing Education Content Broker Review Summaries News Articles Tools Documentation
B.Com (Finance) — University of Melbourne Melbourne, Australia
B.Com
Finance, Univ. Melbourne
2024
Joined FXTopBrokers
50+
Articles produced
AU
Based in Melbourne

How we stay truly independent

The financial media has a structural conflict of interest: most sites earn more money from the brokers they rate highly. We're not naive enough to pretend we're different from this in every way — we do earn affiliate commissions from broker signups.

But our editorial team operates completely separately from our commercial team. We have never changed a score at a broker's request. We have never removed a negative finding from a review. And we have never accepted payment in exchange for improved placement.

If you believe we've got something wrong about a broker, or if you've had an experience that conflicts with our rating, we want to hear from you. Our research team reads every email.

  • Real money deposited. We open live accounts and deposit real capital at every broker we review — no press accounts, no special treatment.
  • Withdrawals actually tested. We personally request withdrawals during testing. Slow processing or unexpected fees show up directly in our scores.
  • No paid placements — ever. Rankings reflect our scores, not advertising spend. No broker has ever paid to be ranked higher.
  • Negative findings published. When something is wrong with a broker, we publish it. We don't redact findings because a broker complained.
  • Quarterly re-testing. Every broker is re-tested every 90 days. Scores are updated the same day a meaningful change is detected.
Our Scoring Process
How we score a broker

Every score is the result of a structured 4-week testing process. No broker gets a pass.

W1
Account Opening & Onboarding
We register as a new client, complete KYC verification, and deposit real capital. We time and document every step. We note what's easy and what's friction.
W2
Live Trading & Execution
We execute live trades across different sessions — London, New York, and Asian opens — and measure spread widening, execution speed, slippage, and requote frequency.
W3
Support & Platform Testing
We contact support as a new client with real questions — timing responses, assessing knowledge depth, and testing live chat, email, and phone channels.
W4
Withdrawal & Final Scoring
We withdraw our test funds and document the process end-to-end. Time to receive funds, fees charged, and any friction are directly factored into the final score.
Q4
Quarterly Re-testing
We repeat a condensed version of the full process every 90 days. Scores are updated the same day a meaningful change is detected in spreads, regulation, or service quality.
12
Scoring Criteria
Regulation · Spreads · Commissions · Platforms · Execution · Deposits · Withdrawals · Support · Education · Research · Instruments · Accounts
Join the Team

Open Roles

We're a small, distributed team that values expertise and independence over credentials and office hours. We're always open to hearing from experienced traders, analysts, and writers.

Editorial
Broker Analyst — Middle East & Africa
Research and write reviews for brokers in the MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa regions. Arabic language skills preferred. Must have live trading experience.
RemotePart-timeArabic
Apply via email →
Technology
Frontend Developer
Help us build and improve our comparison tools, calculators, and data visualisations. We work in HTML, CSS, and vanilla JS. Financial background a plus.
RemoteContractHTML/CSS/JS
Apply via email →
Editorial
Education Writer — Beginner FX
Create clear, accurate, and genuinely useful educational content for beginner forex traders. Strong writing skills and trading knowledge required.
RemoteFreelanceWriting
Apply via email →