Contact the Karoo Picks desk

The one mailbox

All correspondence goes to [email protected]. It is an editorial mailbox, read by the people who write and check the pages, not a support desk. We do not publish a phone number or a street address, and we will not invent one to look bigger than we are.

If you are writing about a page on this site, include the page address and, where relevant, the broker document you are comparing it against. That makes it possible to check the point properly rather than guess at what you saw.

The questions we can answer and the ones that need your broker instead

We can answer questions about how the instruments work, how the arithmetic works, and how the platforms behave, because that is reference material rather than advice about your money. That covers contract size on XAU/USD, how a pip of 0.01 translates into rand, how margin is calculated at a given leverage, and what a platform setting does. We can also explain what a cost consists of and what it depends on, and point you to the entity that holds your account for anything specific to your own terms.

We cannot tell you whether to buy or sell gold, where to place a stop, how much of your capital to risk, or whether now is a good moment, because that is personal trading advice and we are not positioned to give it. We also cannot interpret your financial circumstances, your tax position, or your tolerance for loss. Gold is high-risk and leveraged positions can lose more quickly than the margin you posted, so any decision about exposure has to be yours, made with the facts in front of you rather than a recommendation from a publisher.

We cannot confirm what your own account terms are, because the entity that serves South African clients is FxPro Markets Direct Costa Rica Latam SRL and the terms attach to whichever entity your account was opened with. FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, and an FxPro entity holds an FSCA licence in South Africa, so the regulator caveat is to check which entity your own account is opened with. Questions about your specific spreads, swaps, leverage setting or deposit minimum belong with that entity's support, not with us.

Where account access, fund recovery and personal advice actually go

We cannot touch your account, cannot reset a password, cannot release a withdrawal and cannot recover funds, because we have no access to any broker system and no authority over any account. Those requests go to FxPro's own support, through the channels listed for the entity your account is opened with. The entity serving South Africa is FxPro Markets Direct Costa Rica Latam SRL, and the regulator caveat applies here too: FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, and an FxPro entity holds an FSCA licence in South Africa, so check which entity your own account is opened with before you raise it.

If a withdrawal is delayed or a deposit has not landed, the answer sits with the entity holding the funds and the payment method you used, whether that was a local card, a bank transfer in ZAR or an e-wallet. We cannot escalate it, trace it or vouch for its status, and asking us adds a step without moving the money. Keep your reference numbers for that conversation rather than sending them here. If you believe you have been treated unlawfully, the appropriate route is the regulator that covers your entity, not a message to a publisher.

We cannot give personal trading advice, which includes telling you whether to open, hold or close a gold position, how much to risk, or how to interpret your own losses. That boundary is firm and it is not a matter of us being unhelpful. What we can do is explain the mechanics: how a 0.10-lot position is sized, how margin relates to leverage at 1:200 for retail or up to 1:500 for eligible clients depending on instrument, and what a cost consists of. The decision, and the risk that comes with it, stays with you.

How long a reply takes and what changes the timing

Expect a reply within a few working days rather than within hours, because messages are read by people who also write and check the pages, not by a staffed desk. South African public holidays and the December break push that out, and so does anything sent late on a Friday. We do not promise a same-day answer and we would rather send a correct reply than a fast one. If your question is time-sensitive because a position is open, treat it as something to raise with your broker's support instead of waiting on us.

A message that arrives complete is answered faster, because the first reply does not have to be a request for the missing detail. Include the instrument code, the platform, the lot size, the leverage tier and the calculation or screen you are querying, and the thread usually closes in one exchange. Vague messages take longer by nature: "gold is behaving strangely" cannot be checked, while "XAU/USD on MT5, 0.10 lots, margin shown differs from $85.50 at 1:200" can be.

Correction requests are handled on a different track from general questions and are prioritised, so send them separately rather than buried inside an unrelated message. A correction that names the page, quotes the sentence and supplies the source is acted on ahead of ordinary correspondence. General questions about instruments or platforms wait behind those. If a message mixes a correction with a trading question, the correction is dealt with first and the rest follows, which is why splitting the two into separate messages gets you a faster answer on both.

What makes a message answerable in one reply

A useful message contains four things: what you were doing, what you expected, what happened instead, and the exact figures involved. "XAU/USD on cTrader, 0.10 lots at 1:200, I expected about $85.50 margin and the platform showed something else, here is the calculation" is answerable in one reply. "Something is wrong with gold" is not, because there is nothing to check. The figures are what let us reproduce your situation instead of describing the instrument in general terms you already know.

Quote the platform name exactly as you see it, since MT4, MT5, cTrader and FxPro Edge do not present margin and pricing information identically. State the lot size in standard lots rather than rand value, and give pip distances as pips, remembering that one pip on gold is 0.01 and one standard lot is 100 oz. If you are comparing a rand amount, say which exchange rate you used, because a rand figure without its rate cannot be reconciled with a dollar figure.

Leave out anything we do not need: account numbers, card numbers, identity documents, passwords and screenshots of your balance. None of it helps answer a question about how the instrument or the platform works, and all of it is information you should not be sending to a publisher. If your question genuinely depends on your own account terms, that is the signal to contact your broker's support directly rather than to send us the details. A short, precise message with the figures is more useful than a long one with personal data in it.

No guest posts, no paid placement

We do not accept guest posts, sponsored reviews or paid placement at any price. If a message offers to pay for a mention, a rating or a link, the answer is no, and it stays no regardless of the amount. This is not a negotiating position; it is the rule that keeps the rankings worth reading.

The same applies to brokers and their representatives. We are happy to be sent documents and to be corrected with evidence, but we do not publish copy supplied by a broker and we do not let a broker see a page before it goes live. The editorial line is set here, not bought.

Why a correction outranks a general question in the queue

A correction request is prioritised because a wrong figure on a live page misleads every reader who lands on it, while an unanswered general question costs one person a delay. That is the whole reasoning: the size of the harm, not the seniority of the sender. A correction naming the page, quoting the sentence and supplying the source goes to the front of the queue. A message that says "your gold page is wrong" without saying which page or which sentence cannot be prioritised, because there is nothing to verify.

Priority does not mean instant, and it does not mean we will agree. It means the correction is read and checked before ordinary correspondence, and that the page is either fixed or the claim defended in writing. Where the error concerns a number we should never have stated, such as a spread, a commission, a swap or a minimum deposit, the fix is removal rather than rewording, and that happens quickly once confirmed. Where the point is a matter of interpretation, it takes longer because it needs a decision rather than an edit.

General questions about instruments, platforms and arithmetic are answered in the order they arrive, after corrections. If your message contains both, split it: send the correction on its own so it can move at correction speed, and send the question separately so it does not hold the correction back or get lost behind it. That single habit is the most useful thing you can do for your own turnaround time, and it keeps the two tracks from slowing each other down.

What to put in the message for a pricing, platform or instrument question

Send the instrument code, the platform, and the exact screen or calculation you are looking at, because that is what makes a reply possible without a back-and-forth. For gold, write XAU/USD rather than "gold", and say whether you are on MT4, MT5, cTrader or FxPro Edge. If the question is about position size, include the lot size and the leverage shown on your own account, not the maximum you have read about. One standard lot of XAU/USD is 100 oz and one pip is 0.01, so quote distances in pips or in rand, never both mixed together.

For anything about margin, state the position size in lots and the leverage tier your account actually sits in, then show your arithmetic. A 0.10-lot gold position at 1:200 needs about $85.50 margin, so if your figure differs, the difference is the question worth asking. Do not send screenshots of balances or account numbers; the position size, the leverage and the calculation are enough. If the reference price matters to your question, say which price you used, since gold near 4275.0 moves and a stale price explains most apparent errors.

For funding questions, name the method you used, meaning a local card, a bank transfer in ZAR, or an e-wallet, and the currency you sent. Do not paste card numbers or full bank details; the method and the currency are sufficient for us to explain what the process involves and what it depends on. If the question is about rand amounts, give the rand figure you expected and where you saw it. We can explain how costs are structured and what they depend on, but we cannot quote you a spread, a commission, a swap or a minimum deposit as a number.

What we will and will not help with

We will help with questions about what a page says, where a figure came from, and how a check was done. We will also take a correction, a broken link or a document that has changed since we read it. Those are the things this desk is for, and they are the things we can actually answer.

We will not help with account problems, deposit or withdrawal disputes, frozen accounts or fund recovery. We are not the broker, we cannot see your account and we have no authority over anyone's money. We also do not give personal advice on whether to trade, how much to risk or which position to take, because we are not licensed to do so and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.

What happens to a message we cannot answer at all

A message we cannot answer gets a reply saying so, with a pointer to where the answer actually lives, rather than silence. Silence is the worst outcome because you cannot tell whether the message was read. If the question is about your account, your funds or your own terms, the pointer is to your broker's support and to the entity your account is opened with. If it asks for a recommendation on a gold position, the reply will say that personal trading advice is outside what we do, and will offer the mechanics instead if that would help.

Some messages are closed without a full answer because they cannot be answered by anyone outside your account: a disputed fill, a rejected withdrawal, a locked login, a tax question about your own gains. We will name the correct destination in one line and stop there, because inventing a plausible answer would be worse than a short redirect. Messages that are abusive, that advertise services, or that ask for guest posts and paid placement are not answered at all, which is a separate policy from being unable to help.

We do not keep a case open indefinitely. If a reply asks for a specific detail and nothing comes back, the thread is treated as closed, and you are welcome to start again with the detail included. Nothing you send is used for anything beyond answering it, and we do not pass messages to third parties. If you are ever unsure whether your question is one we can take, send the short version first; a one-line question costs you less than a long message that has to be redirected.

How a correction request is handled from arrival to fix

A correction request is logged, checked against the source, and then the page is either changed or the claim is defended in a reply, because we do not silently edit text and leave you wondering. Name the page and quote the exact sentence, then say what you believe is wrong and where the correct figure or rule comes from. If the point is a number, give the number and its source. If it is a rule, name the regulator or the document. That is enough for us to verify it rather than guess at what you meant.

We check against the facts the page is built on rather than against other websites, because a claim repeated in ten places is still wrong if the underlying source says otherwise. Where the page stated something we were not given, such as a spread, a commission, a swap or a minimum deposit as a number, that is a genuine error and it is removed rather than reworded. Where the page described what a cost consists of and what it depends on, that is deliberate and the reply will explain why it is phrased that way.

Once a correction is confirmed, the page is updated and the change stays, because accuracy on a page about leveraged gold trading matters more than preserving an old sentence. We do not publish a changelog or credit individuals, and we do not enter into long debate about style. If we disagree with your correction, the reply will say so plainly and give the reason, and you are free to take it further with the regulator or the broker's own documentation. That reply closes the matter on our side unless you supply a source we had not seen.