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Sources Policy & Evidence Standards

Effective Date: October 2026

1. Preferred Evidence Hierarchy

To ensure that content published on Trade-BinaryOptions.com is accurate and verifiable, our researchers and writers adhere to a formal evidence hierarchy. Factual claims must be supported by the highest available tier of evidence:

Tier 1 — Statutory Authorities & Official RegulatorsHighest Authority

Official government registries, national securities commission databases (e.g. FCA, CySEC, ASIC, FSCA, DFSA), statutory warnings, and enforcement orders. Used for all licensing claims, disciplinary histories, and formal regulatory conclusions.

Tier 2 — Corporate Filings & Audited ReportsPrimary Corporate

Audited annual reports, public stock exchange disclosures (e.g. Warsaw Stock Exchange ESPI filings), corporate registrar certificates, and verified financial statements. Required for specific commercial metrics such as registered account volumes.

Tier 3 — Primary Broker Legal TermsLegal Contract

Executed terms of business, client agreements, deposit/withdrawal terms, KYC/AML policies, and published fee schedules. Governs technical contract rules, inactivity fees, and bonus conditions.

Tier 4 — Broker Product SpecificationsOperational

Live platform specifications, advertised maximum payout tables, minimum trade sizes, and asset catalogs. Qualified with “Up to” prefixes and attributed directly.

Tier 5 — Reputable Independent ReportingSecondary Context

Established financial news publications (e.g. Bloomberg, Reuters, Finance Magnates). Used for industry context, market trends, and reporting on executive changes.

Tier 6 — User Reports & Community FeedbackAnecdotal Only

Trustpilot, Reddit, and retail forum threads. Treated strictly as preliminary anecdotal signals to trigger editorial investigation—never reported as verified facts.

2. Standards for Regulatory Claims

Regulatory oversight is the single most critical factor in mitigating retail counterparty risk. Whenever a broker is described as licensed or regulated, the following rules apply:

  • Specific Entity Naming: The exact corporate entity holding the license must be identified, not merely a brand name. Many international brokers operate multiple corporate entities across different jurisdictions.
  • Regulator & Country:The supervisory body and jurisdiction must be explicitly stated (e.g. “FCA in the United Kingdom” or “CySEC in Cyprus”).
  • Entity-Product Alignment:Retail binary options are banned in the EU and UK. It is strictly prohibited to state that a broker's binary options product is CySEC or FCA regulated if those licenses apply only to CFD or forex subsidiaries.
  • No Inflating Warnings: When a regulator publishes an alert or warning list entry, we report the warning factually without converting it into broader, unsubstantiated criminal assertions.

3. Attribution of Broker-Supplied Claims

Brokers frequently market claims regarding user volume, withdrawal speed, and payout percentages. Our policy strictly governs how these are handled:

  • User Volume Statistics:Precise figures such as “30 million users” or “clients in 190 countries” are removed from editorial copy unless supported by public audited regulatory filings (Tier 2). When unsupported, claims are generalized into qualitative regional presence statements.
  • Cumulative vs. Active Clients: If a broker reports account statistics, we distinguish cumulative registered accounts from active funded trading clients, as inactive or demo accounts frequently comprise the majority of cumulative registrations.
  • Speed & Processing Guarantees: Absolute withdrawal speed guarantees or unconditional processing claims are strictly prohibited in editorial copy. Broker automated payment mechanisms are attributed as broker-reported automated processing on select methods, accompanied by qualifiers noting that payment method and banking settlement times apply.

4. Link Maintenance & Source Integrity

We perform continuous programmatic link maintenance to ensure citations remain live and accessible. Citations that become dead or point to archived content are updated during regular audit cycles.

Fabricating citations or attributing unverified statements to reputable institutions is a serious editorial violation. Any reader or researcher who identifies an erroneous source reference is encouraged to contact us via our Corrections Policy.

For broader context on our review framework, see our Review Methodology and Editorial Policy.