Commercial disclosure

The current position

The Measured Trader has a commercial relationship with TheNextLevel. We say so plainly because readers are entitled to know who is behind what they read.

The arrangement, in plain words: this publication is produced as part of a marketing project for it. It does not decide what gets covered, it does not change a sourced claim, and it never supplies a figure we have not read in a primary document.

Every promotional placement is labelled as such, its links carry rel="sponsored nofollow noopener", and The Measured Trader does not describe itself as independent while the relationship exists.

What a commercial relationship never affects

These rules apply to any arrangement this publication enters into, now or later. They are the reason a relationship can be disclosed rather than hidden.

• It does not decide what gets covered. Articles are commissioned from reader questions and search demand, not from a partner's product list.
• It does not change a sourced claim. Every factual statement traces to a document in our research ledger, and no commercial consideration edits one. If a source is unflattering to a partner, the source is what gets published.
• It does not buy a recommendation. We do not rank tools, award scores or tell anyone what to buy — for a partner or for anyone else.
• It never supplies performance figures. We do not repeat a partner's growth percentages, win rates or trade counts anywhere on this site, attributed or otherwise. A number we cannot verify does not become publishable because someone paid to be mentioned.
• It does not make this site a link farm. Outbound commercial links carry rel="sponsored nofollow noopener", so they pass no ranking credit, and we do not host third-party content to lend it our search reputation.

How a placement appears

Where a promotional placement runs, it is visibly labelled as promotional, it sits in its own block rather than being woven into the editorial text, and it carries a note explaining why that particular resource is relevant to that particular article. Any description of what a partner offers is given in the partner's own words, attributed to them.

Placements appear on a minority of articles and never site-wide. There are no affiliate links hidden in body copy, no keyword-stuffed anchor text, no pop-ups and no redirects.

On the word "independent"

While a commercial relationship exists, The Measured Trader does not describe itself as independent, and you will not find that word used as a badge anywhere on this site. A publication that takes money from a company in its field and still calls itself independent is making the first of its claims a false one.

If you think we have got this wrong

If you find a link, mention or placement on this site that looks commercial and is not labelled, that is a bug and we want to hear about it. Write to the editorial desk with the page and what you spotted. How we handle corrections is set out in the corrections policy.