Methodology
How we compile data, score firms, and decide what to surface.
Where the data comes from
Pricing, rules, and feature lists are pulled directly from each firm’s official site, support docs, and FAQ pages. When a firm changes a rule or runs a new promo, we update our database within a few days. Active discounts and end dates are reviewed at least weekly.
Where firm documentation is ambiguous (e.g., whether a drawdown is intraday or end-of-day), we contact the firm directly for clarification before publishing.
Verified payouts
A firm earns the “verified payouts” flag only when we’ve confirmed actual payouts to actual traders — not just the firm’s marketing claim. Acceptable verification:
- Bank statements, wire confirmations, or PayPal/crypto receipts cross-checked against the firm’s own records
- First-hand confirmation from at least three independent traders, with screenshots that match dated firm communications
- Public proof on the firm’s site that we can audit against trader-reported amounts (matches must reconcile, not just exist)
Marketing slogans like “$X million paid out” without a way to verify the underlying transactions are not sufficient. We’d rather flag a firm as “unverified” than assert payouts we can’t confirm.
The Sage rating
Each firm gets a 0–5 score (one decimal place) computed from the following weighted factors:
| Factor | Weight |
|---|---|
| Payout reliability — verified payouts, speed, dispute history | 30% |
| Rule clarity — are drawdowns, consistency, and split rules unambiguous? Documentation quality. | 20% |
| Trader-friendly rules — drawdown design, no-consistency vs. tight consistency, daily-loss generosity | 20% |
| Pricing competitiveness — eval cost relative to peers at the same account size, ongoing fee load | 15% |
| Operational track record — years active, stability of rules over time, support responsiveness | 15% |
Each factor is scored 0–5 internally, then weighted and summed. A firm with no verified payouts caps at 3.5 regardless of how it scores elsewhere.
How “featured” firms get chosen
Featured firms appear at the top of the Compare table in a framed section. They’re picked by us based on consistent operational quality — primarily verified payouts, rule clarity, and trader experience over time. Commission rates are not a factor. Featured status is reviewed quarterly and can change.
If a firm we’ve featured raises its rates or changes its rules in a trader-unfriendly direction, it gets de-featured even if commissions go up. If a non-featured firm earns verified payouts and tightens its operations, it gets added.
How the Compare table is sorted
By default: featured firms first, then sorted by after-discount price ascending. So a $140 evaluation at a 40% discount ($84 effective) ranks ahead of a $127 evaluation with no discount.
Filters apply uniformly. If you filter to firms with no consistency rule, the featured frame still applies among the remaining matches.
Calculator methodology
The pass-rate calculator runs 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations per firm/tier combination. Each simulation models a daily session with your specified risk-per-trade, win rate, risk-reward ratio, and trades-per-day. The simulator checks each tick against the firm’s actual drawdown (intraday-trailing vs. EOD vs. static), profit target, consistency rule (if any), and minimum trading days.
A “pass” is when the simulated account hits the profit target without violating any rule. A “bust” is when the account hits the drawdown floor or daily loss limit. Pass rate is the percentage of the 1,000 paths that ended in a pass within the firm’s evaluation time limit.
Conflicts of interest
We earn affiliate commission from most firms in our directory when traders sign up through our links. To prevent that from biasing the methodology:
- Sage ratings are calculated by a separate process from commission-rate tracking. The two datasets don’t mix.
- Featured-firm decisions are made quarterly by editorial review, not by revenue performance.
- When commission rates change, our Compare table doesn’t re-sort. Sort order is governed by after-discount price, never affiliate yield.
- Where a firm we’ve recommended subsequently goes dark, refuses payouts, or violates trader expectations, we de-feature, downgrade, or remove regardless of commission tier.
Mistakes
We’ll get things wrong. Pricing changes faster than we can always update; rules nuance gets lost in translation; a firm we rated highly might let traders down. When we discover an error, we correct it and note the change date on the affected firm’s review.
See something incorrect? Tell us and we’ll fix it.