Affiliate Disclosure

Affiliate Disclosure

 Transparency in Earning and Partnerships.

Top List Brokers

FXrecap.com makes money through affiliate links. Shocking, right? When you click certain links and eventually open an account, some brokers pay us a commission. That’s pretty standard internet stuff.

But wait, don’t close the tab yet!

What’s NOT standard is how we handle these relationships. Most review sites rank whoever pays the fattest commission at the top. That’s precisely the crap that cost me $117,800 back in 2021 (a number permanently burned into my brain).

Our Weird, Probably Financially Stupid Approach

Last month, a broker I won’t name offered us $15K/month for a “premier partnership.” Their trading platform crashed twice during our testing, and their spread on EUR/USD was criminal.

I told them we couldn’t recommend them regardless of payment. My business partner Alex nearly had a heart attack when I hung up. “That’s three months of server costs!” he yelled. Well, tough.

Here’s our actual process:

First, we test the broker with real money. I’ve personally opened accounts with 47 different brokers in the last year. My tax accountant hates me. We execute trades at market open, during volatility spikes, and at weird hours when support teams are skeletal. We make withdrawal requests on Fridays right before closing (yes, we’re those people).

Only brokers scoring above 75/100 even get approached about partnerships. And honestly? Some of our highest-rated brokers don’t even have affiliate programs. My favorite broker, the one I use for my personal trading, pays us nothing. They’re still #3 on our recommended list.

When We Do Get Paid

Look, I’ve got bills. My dog needs that fancy prescription food. So yes, we do have affiliate relationships with about 70% of our recommended brokers.

But here’s the weird part, we standardized our commission structure based on broker scores. A 95-point broker gets the same deal as any other 95-pointer. No special treatment, no backroom handshakes.

Last quarter, we turned down approximately $42,000 in commissions from brokers that didn’t meet our standards. My mom thinks I’m an idiot. She might be right.

Awkward Questions People Ask Me at Parties

“But couldn’t you make way more money if you just promoted whoever pays most?”

Duh. I could also sleep on a bed of money while traders lose their savings based on my recommendations. Pass.

“How do I know you’re not full of it?”

Fair. That’s why we publish trading records from our test accounts. We screen-record every interaction with broker support teams. I’ve even started livestreaming some of our reviews because apparently people enjoy watching me get frustrated with chat support agents.

What This Actually Means For You

When we recommend a broker:

1. Someone on our team (usually me, because I’m a control freak) has personally traded with them
2. They’ve passed our stupidly detailed testing process regardless of whether they pay us
3. We’ll tell you about their flaws even if it means you decide not to sign up (and we lose money)

I still wake up in cold sweats thinking about that 2021 loss. There’s no way in hell I’m putting someone else through that just to make a quick buck.

The Sad Reality Check

Almost every forex site makes money through affiliate marketing. The real question is: do they let it influence their recommendations?

I started FXrecap because I was fed up with finding out, too late, that the “Best Broker 2023!!!” was actually just the highest bidder. The moment we start doing that garbage is the moment I quit and go back to my soul-crushing corporate job.

Moving Forward (With Receipts)

As we grow, I’m terrified of becoming what I hate. So we’ve set up an independent review board that audits our ratings quarterly. They can overrule any of my decisions, which annoys me to no end but keeps us honest.

We also re-test every broker every 90 days. Last month, we downgraded a broker that was paying us about $3,500 monthly because their execution speed had deteriorated. That was a fun conversation.

Look, we’re not perfect. I’ve made plenty of mistakes (just ask my ex-girlfriends… or don’t, actually). But I’m genuinely trying to build something that helps traders avoid the expensive lessons I had to learn.

If you ever catch us not living up to this standard, my personal email is mike@fxrecap.com. Fair warning though, I check it obsessively and will probably respond at inappropriate hours.