What we collect

For each firm we record what its own terms, pricing and payout pages say: the evaluation model and number of phases, profit targets, the drawdown type and how it is calculated, daily and total loss limits, minimum trading days, whether expert advisors and weekend holding are permitted, the platform list, the fee schedule including resets, the payout cadence and the profit split. Nothing is taken from marketing pages or affiliate briefs.

Where a firm does not publish something, we record that as missing rather than guessing. Missing data is visible on the profile and it costs the firm on the transparency component of the score.

How the score is weighted

The PFH Score is a weighted average of six components, each scored from 0 to 100 against the documented data:

  • Rule fairness — 30%. Drawdown type carries the most weight here, because static and trailing limits mean two completely different things at the same percentage. Daily and total loss allowances, expert advisor permissions and weekend holding make up the rest.
  • Payout terms — 25%. The maximum profit split and how often you may request a payout.
  • True cost after fees — 20%. Entry price per $1,000 of funding, scored against the cheapest and dearest firms we list.
  • Platform & instruments — 15%. How much of a working trader's toolkit the firm actually covers.
  • Track record — 5%. Uninterrupted years of operation.
  • Terms transparency — 5%. How much of the rulebook the firm publishes, and how recently we were able to re-check it.

Components we have not been able to document are excluded, and the remaining weights renormalise. A firm is only given a published score once the components we do have cover a majority of the total weight. Below that line we print "not enough data documented" instead of a number, because a score built from two minor components would be worse than no score at all.

Why reviews sit outside the score

A firm with four reviews should not outrank one with four hundred. Reviews are collected with proof of purchase, shown as their own figure, and published as a trader score only once a firm reaches ten verified ones. They never feed the PFH Score.

The same logic applies to payout data. We publish a median payout time for a firm only once five traders have submitted verified proof. Until then that column stays empty and says so.

How often it updates

Terms are re-checked on a rolling schedule and each firm profile shows when it was last checked. Rankings are reviewed monthly, and immediately whenever a change affects a scored field.

What money does and does not buy

Firms can pay for a listing, for labelled placements, and for a partner page. They cannot buy a score, a position, a review or the removal of one. Every paid placement carries a visible label on every page it appears on, and affiliate relationships are disclosed on the page where the link sits.

Commission rates are not an input to any component of the score. Where we know the rate a firm pays us, it is printed on that firm's profile so you can check for yourself whether the firms we rate highly happen to be the ones paying most.