Rankings (19)

Each of these is a shortlist drawn from the same 104 brokers we measure for South Africa, not a separate research exercise. The ranking changes because the metric that drives it changes: the swap-free list is ordered by the same score as the cheapest-spread list, but a broker only appears if it carries a value for that list's own metric.

A ranking is published only when at least eight brokers here carry that value. That is why 19 of the twenty lists exist on this site and the rest do not: a top three drawn from four candidates is a headline, not a comparison.

Of the brokers in the base, 70 are measured on all six axes and can be ordered against each other; the rest are listed with the score column blank. 81 have a round-turn price, which is the figure the cost axis uses.

Every list carries the same two lines above its table: how it was sorted, and how many of the base it is showing. A shortlist that does not say what it left out is not a comparison, and the number it left out is usually the interesting one.

The ordering is computed, not editorial. Where we think a broker deserves a mention the figures do not support, it goes in the prose under the table and the table stays as the arithmetic left it.