First of all, I would like to recognize the value and tradition of prestigious publications and organizations that have extended recognition to FX brokers in the past
There is value in what they do
I don’t know how representative is my view on this, but when I hear of a new broker award I first look for information on the survey methodology used
My mind invariably wonders things like: what was the level of dispersion of the results? how big was the sample pool? What biases were present in the data acquisition process? How were the categories constructed and the results analyzed? More often than not, I do not find answers to most of my questions
Why bother? I like to make up my mind about how reliable and representative the stated results were
I am a skeptic, have grown to be broker neutral, and believe I am not alone in wanting to find reliable broker information
Why does any of this matter anyway? I’ve lost count of the number of earnest traders that I have talked to since 2005
Some had lost small fortunes and were looking for reliable broker information
Others had more foresight and were doing their due diligence before a major mistake was made
My short answer to this last question is this: First, traders have unique needs that are served better by some brokers that specialize in those needs
Second, within the universe of brokers that cater to a trader’s needs and everything else held constant, the trader should select the broker that consistently performs better than others in key universal criteria