Worked example
Practising on AAAFx's numbers
This is an exercise sheet, not a review. We are going to take three things that AAAFx publishes — a spread, a ladder of account types and a list of licences — and turn each of them into something you can do arithmetic with. By the end you should be able to repeat the whole exercise on any firm you come across, which is the actual skill being taught.
The figures we are working from
Nothing below is our estimate. Where a firm has not published something, or we could not read it on a source we trust, the box says so instead of guessing — a habit worth copying when you build your own broker notes.
Exercise one — turn the spread into money
AAAFx does not publish a EUR/USD spread we were able to verify, so there is no honest arithmetic to do on this page. Do not substitute a number you read on a comparison site: an unverified spread quietly becomes an unverified cost, and then an unverified plan. Use one of the other examples on the practice index for this exercise and come back to this file for the account ladder below.
Exercise two — read the account ladder
Account tiers are a pricing structure dressed as a status ladder. AAAFx offers 3 rungs. Read them as a question — what does each rung ask of me, and what does it give back? — rather than as a set of prizes to climb towards.
- AAAFx standard/stp accountsThe entry rung. Whatever the published spread applies to, it is almost always this one — so this is the rung your arithmetic above describes.
- ZuluTrade social accountsA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
- DemoA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
Account names as published: AAAFx standard/stp accounts, ZuluTrade social accounts, Demo. Platforms listed: MT4, ZuluTrade, Web trading.
Exercise three — what this licence list means for you
A long licence list is not automatically a good sign. What matters to a beginner is a narrower question: which entity would hold my money, and who supervises that entity? Those are often not the same as the impressive name at the top of the list. Here are AAAFx's lines, each with a plain reading.
| Regulator | Entity on the register | Number | What that means for a beginner |
|---|---|---|---|
| HCMC · Greece | Triple A Experts Investment Services Single Member S.A. | 2/540/17.2.2010 | a mid-tier regulator: real supervision and a register, usually with a smaller or capped compensation scheme |
| FSCA · South Africa | Zulu Trading Ltd | 49299 | a mid-tier regulator: real supervision and a register, usually with a smaller or capped compensation scheme |
No top-tier line appears on this file. That does not make the firm illegitimate, but it does mean the compensation-scheme and capital-rule protections a beginner usually assumes are present are not evidenced here.
The record behind these numbers
- AAAFx is the brand of Triple A Experts Investment Services Single Member S.A., authorised by the Hellenic Capital Market Commission under licence 2/540/17.2.2010.
- The brand operates ZuluTrade, the social-trading platform, alongside its broker offering. Source: aaafx.com regulatory disclosures.
- Directories list a South African entity (Zulu Trading Ltd, FSP 49299) for AAAFx; the number is stated on the broker's own regulation page.
- As an EU (Greece) investment firm the entity operates under MiFID framework rules, subject to product-intervention limits for EU retail clients.
What we could not verify
The following are unconfirmed and are deliberately left blank rather than estimated: minDeposit not verified on an own account-spec page; maxLeverage not verified on an own spec page; spreadEurusd not verified (directories cite ~1.5 pips; not an own-page figure); segregatedFunds not verified in own legal text; negativeBalanceProtection not verified in own legal text; HCMC register direct link not available; licence corroborated via secondary lists; reported HCMC EUR 6,000 fine: directory-sourced only, no regulator announcement found — excluded from facts. Confidence in this file overall: medium. When you build your own notes on a firm, keep a list like this one — the gaps are more useful than the figures, because they tell you what to go and check.
Run the same exercise on another firm
pipdojo.com does not rank brokers, does not award badges and does not tell you where to open an account. This page exists so the arithmetic you learn in the curriculum has real numbers to bite on.