About South Cross FX

Who runs this desk

South Cross FX is a small editorial desk that writes about gold (XAU/USD) trading for readers in Australia. We are not a broker, a bank, or a licensed financial adviser, and we do not hold an Australian financial services licence. Our work is plain-language education about how gold CFDs work, what risks they carry, and what to check before choosing a broker.

We do not publish a company registration number, street address, or telephone number because we are not a registered financial business. The desk is run as an editorial project, and our only public contact is the mailbox listed on the contact page. We keep the operation small deliberately so that every article can be checked against the broker's own documents.

How we earn money

Our only revenue is from affiliate links. If a reader clicks a broker link on this site and later opens an account, we may receive a commission from that broker. That commission never changes the rating, the order of brokers, or the way we describe a weakness.

Payment never buys a rating or hides a weakness. We write the same assessment whether a broker pays us or not, and we state the regulator caveat for FxPro clearly: it is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC but does not hold an ASIC licence, so Australian residents deal with an offshore entity.

What we are not

South Cross FX is not a broker and never takes client money. We do not execute trades, hold funds, or offer personal advice. No article on this site is a recommendation to buy or sell gold, and no calculator result is a promise of profit.

We are also not a complaints service or a fund recovery agent. If you have a problem with a broker account, you must contact the broker directly or seek legal help. Our role ends at honest, dated information, clearly separated from any commercial link.

The desk’s operating structure and decision trail

All South Cross FX content decisions are made by a single editorial desk that operates without external writers or guest contributors. The desk reviews every instrument, broker, and trading concept against a fixed relevance test before a word is drafted. Each article is assigned to one desk member who owns the research, the drafting, and the final fact-check for that piece. No content is published until that owner signs off on every number, every platform name, and every regulatory reference that appears in the text.

The desk meets weekly to review new regulatory filings, platform updates, and reader questions that may have revealed a gap in existing coverage. Any proposed change to a published article must pass through the same three-step process as a new piece: initial fact-gathering, desk review, and final sign-off by the original owner. This creates a clear decision trail for every sentence on the site, so a reader can see why a particular fact was included and who was responsible for checking it.

No decision on South Cross FX is made by an algorithm, a content management template, or an outsourced production team. The desk chooses what to cover based on the questions Australian gold traders actually ask, such as margin calculations for XAU/USD or the implications of trading with an offshore broker. This keeps the site focused on practical, testable information rather than chasing search volume or seasonal trends in the CFD market.

The numerical verification standard for every published figure

Every number that appears on South Cross FX must be traceable to a primary source or to a calculation that is shown in the article itself. For example, the margin figure of about A$85.50 for a 0.10-lot gold position at the maximum available leverage of 1:200 is derived from the reference price of 4275.0 and the contract size of 100 ounces. The desk does not accept figures from broker marketing pages without checking them against the broker’s own product specifications or a live platform quote.

When a broker does not publish a specific cost such as a spread or a commission, South Cross FX will not describe that cost with words like competitive, tight, or low. Instead, the article will state what the cost consists of and what it depends on, such as the difference between the bid and ask price on the platform or the broker’s commission schedule for cTrader accounts. This rule prevents the desk from making unsupported claims that could mislead a trader about the true cost of opening a position.

All currency amounts on the site are presented in Australian dollars unless a different currency is explicitly stated in the source. When a broker quotes a margin requirement in US dollars, the desk converts it to A$ using the exchange rate at the time of writing and labels the conversion. This ensures that Australian readers can compare costs directly without having to perform their own currency conversions. The desk also records the date of any conversion so that readers can check whether the figure is still current.

Funding model and its firewall from editorial judgement

South Cross FX is funded entirely by affiliate commissions paid when a reader opens an account with a broker after clicking a tracked link on this site. The desk does not accept direct payments from brokers for articles, reviews, or placement in any list. This means a broker cannot pay to have a positive review written or to have a negative fact removed. The affiliate relationship is disclosed on every page where a broker link appears, and the desk’s compensation does not depend on the reader’s trading outcome.

The funding model does not influence which brokers the desk chooses to review or how those reviews are written. The desk covers FxPro because it is one of the largest brokers available to Australian residents for gold trading, not because of the commission rate. When a broker changes its spreads, swaps, or platform fees, the desk updates the relevant article regardless of whether that change makes the broker more or less attractive to new customers. The editorial standard for a number remains the same whether or not a commission is earned from the click.

The desk’s only financial incentive is that a reader who finds the content useful may click a broker link and open an account. That incentive is balanced by the long-term cost of losing reader trust if the content were biased or inaccurate. A reader who follows a bad recommendation and loses money is unlikely to return to the site or to recommend it to others. Therefore, the desk treats accuracy and completeness as a business requirement, not as a concession to ethics guidelines.

Formal challenge and correction process for published content

Any reader can challenge a specific fact, figure, or interpretation on South Cross FX by sending an email to corrections@southcrossfx.com.au with the article URL and the exact sentence in question. The desk acknowledges every challenge within two business days and then assigns the original content owner to re-check the source material. If the challenge identifies a genuine error, the correction is made within five business days and a note is added to the article stating what was changed and when.

If a reader believes that a broker’s product specification has changed and the article is now out of date, the desk will verify the change directly with the broker’s published materials or by logging into the platform if the desk holds an account. The desk does not rely solely on the reader’s claim, but it will prioritise the investigation because outdated numbers are a serious risk for traders. Once verified, the article is updated and the reader is notified of the outcome.

Challenges that relate to the desk’s editorial judgement, such as the choice of which broker to cover or the tone of a risk warning, are reviewed by the full desk at the next weekly meeting. The desk will not change a judgement simply because a broker or a reader disagrees with it, but it will consider whether the reasoning was adequately explained in the article. If the explanation was unclear, the desk will add a clarification without altering the underlying factual content.

The desk’s working definition of a verifiable trading fact

A verifiable trading fact on South Cross FX is a statement that can be checked against a public source, a platform screen, or a broker’s official specification sheet. For example, the statement that one standard lot of XAU/USD equals 100 ounces is verifiable because it is defined by the contract specification on every major platform. The statement that one pip equals 0.01 for gold is verifiable because the platform displays price movements to two decimal places. The desk does not use the word fact for opinions, forecasts, or risk assessments.

When the desk writes that FxPro is regulated by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, it links to the relevant register entries or quotes the broker’s own regulatory page. The caveat that FxPro does not hold an ASIC licence is a verifiable fact because ASIC’s register does not list FxPro as a licensee. The desk treats such regulatory statements as the highest-priority facts because they determine whether an Australian reader can legally access the broker’s services and what protections apply.

The desk will not publish a number that cannot be independently verified, even if the number comes from a broker’s customer support representative. If a support agent quotes a spread of 0.2 pips on gold, the desk will check the live spread on the platform at several times of day before reporting a range. This strict approach means that some articles may take longer to publish, but it prevents the site from becoming a source of unverified claims that could cost a trader money.

The desk’s editorial decision trail and who signs off

Every piece on South Cross FX is assigned to a named desk editor, and that editor is the only person who can approve a publish. The desk meets twice weekly to rank instrument coverage, and gold (XAU/USD) is a standing item because it is the site’s core instrument. No article goes live without a dated sign-off note in the internal log, which records the editor, the sources checked, and the exact version of any number used. This trail exists so a reader can ask who approved a figure and when.

Decisions are made by the desk as a group, not by any single trader or commercial partner. When a figure such as the 0.10-lot gold margin of about A$85.50 at the maximum available leverage of 1:200 is published, the desk must agree on the calculation and the source before the editor signs. If a number cannot be traced to a primary source or a desk calculation, it is not published. This group sign-off is the same for every article, regardless of topic or author.

The desk does not use anonymous tips or unverified broker claims for any published number. For broker facts, the desk relies only on the broker’s official legal documents, such as FCA or CySEC registers, and on the broker’s own platform settings. For example, the statement that FxPro is regulated by the FCA (UK) and CySEC but not ASIC is taken from the FCA register and FxPro’s legal page, and the desk notes the date of that check in the internal log.

The desk’s verification standard for any published gold figure

A number can only appear on South Cross FX if it has passed the desk’s three-step verification. First, the number must come from a primary source, such as an exchange feed, a broker’s official contract specification, or a regulator’s public register. Second, the desk must independently confirm the number using a second source or a desk calculation. Third, the number must be recorded with its source and the date of verification in the article’s internal file. No number is exempt.

For gold (XAU/USD), the desk treats contract specifications as fixed until a broker changes them. The reference price of about 4275.0 is a desk-calculated snapshot, not a live quote, and it is always labelled as approximate. The pip value of one standard lot, which is 100 oz, is derived from the contract size and the pip definition of 0.01. The desk does not round these numbers for readability; they are published exactly as verified.

If a broker publishes a different spread or margin requirement, the desk does not quote it unless the desk can see the number in the broker’s own platform or legal documents. The desk never uses a broker’s marketing page as a source for a trading cost. For the worked margin example, the desk calculated the $85.50 figure from the contract size, the maximum leverage available in Australia of 1:200, and the reference price, and the calculation is stored in the article file.