Methodology
The regulated/offshore line
Every venue we cover falls on one of two tracks, and the difference is structural, not cosmetic. Regulated venues — those offering perpetual futures to European retail traders through an EU-licensed (MiFID) investment entity — may carry referral links, always disclosed in place. Offshore venues get full editorial coverage — fees, restrictions, incidents, stated as dated facts — but never a referral link and never a sign-up call-to-action. European regulators treat perpetual futures as leveraged derivatives; promoting an unlicensed venue's derivatives to European readers for commission is a line we don't cross. We also never explain how to circumvent a venue's own geo-restrictions.
Where our facts come from
Fees, leverage caps, licence numbers, restricted-country lists, and program terms are taken from each platform's official documentation or the relevant regulator's own publications, and verified on the date shown on the page. Regulatory statuses cite the regulator or the venue's own legal pages — never press coverage alone. When we cannot verify a claim, we say so rather than repeating it.
What we weigh in reviews
- Regulatory reality — which legal entity you actually trade with, what the licence covers, and what protection it does and does not give you.
- Real trading costs — taker/maker fees, funding, spreads.
- Product depth — markets offered, leverage caps, margin modes.
- Security track record — incidents and how the venue handled them.
- Usability — onboarding (including MiFID appropriateness tests), deposits and withdrawals, platform stability.
Hands-on claims
We only describe an interface first-hand after using a real, funded account, and we only say we "traded" a venue when a real position or volume is visible in our own material. Until then, pages say so plainly. We'd rather publish an honest gap than a staged screenshot.
Referral links
Disclosed in the footer of every page and next to every call-to-action. Ratings are determined before monetization is considered; venues with no referral program (and the entire offshore track, which never has one here) follow the same review template as venues with one.
Corrections
Found an error? Contact us via the imprint and we will review and correct the page, with the change date noted.