Corrections Policy

Errors are fixed in place, with a dated note

An error is corrected on the page where it appeared, and the correction carries a note with the date it was made. We do not delete the page and quietly republish it, and we do not rewrite a sentence as though the earlier version never existed.

The note says what the page said before and what it says now. That way a reader who acted on the earlier version can see exactly what moved, and a reader arriving later can see that the page has a history rather than treating it as something that was always right.

Why the correction log stays public instead of being quietly fixed

The log stays public because a reader who relied on a wrong figure deserves to know it was wrong and when it changed. Quietly fixing a page leaves earlier readers with the wrong information and no way to discover it. A public log is the only mechanism that lets someone who read the page last month check whether what they read still holds.

A public log also keeps us honest. If every correction is visible, we cannot repeatedly make the same kind of mistake without it showing. The log is not a marketing page; it is a record. It includes corrections that make the site look less polished, because the alternative is a site that appears polished by hiding its errors.

The log is public for a practical reason as well: trading decisions involve real money in KSh, funded through M-Pesa, and a wrong lot size or pip value can change a position size materially. A reader calculating margin on gold at 100 oz per lot needs to know that the specification they read is the one we stand behind today. The log is how they check.

How to report an error

Send the report to editor@elgontrialke.com and include the page address, the sentence or figure you believe is wrong, and — if you have it — the broker document that shows the correct position. A report with a source is much faster to act on than a report without one.

We check the report against the source we used and against the broker's current documents. If the page was wrong, it is corrected with a dated note. If the page was right when read but the broker has since changed the condition, see the next section.

How error, update and clarification are each marked so a reader can tell them apart

Each of the three kinds of change carries its own label and its own note. An error is marked as a correction and states what was wrong and what it now says. An update is marked as an update and states what changed in the world, not in our accuracy. A clarification is marked as a clarification and states that the original wording was accurate but could be read more than one way.

A clarification does not admit an error and does not claim a change in conditions. It says the sentence was rewritten to remove ambiguity. For example, if we wrote that leverage is capped and a reader could not tell whether the cap was a maximum or a target, the clarification would say the cap is a maximum that applies to the entity serving this country, not a setting to aim at. The original wording was not false, but it was not clear enough.

The three labels are used consistently so that a reader scanning the log can sort them. Corrections are the most serious, updates are neutral, and clarifications are the mildest. None of the three is hidden inside another. A correction is never labelled an update to soften it, and an update is never labelled a correction to appear more rigorous than we were.

Why nothing is deleted from the record even when it is embarrassing

Nothing is deleted because deletion destroys the evidence a reader needs to judge whether they were misled. If a wrong figure is removed and replaced with no trace, a reader who acted on the wrong figure has no way to prove what the page said. Keeping the record is the only way to make the site accountable to the people who used it.

Deletion also makes the log unreliable. A log that only shows the corrections we are comfortable with is not a log; it is a selection. We keep corrections that show we got the licence status of the entity serving Kenya wrong, or that we misstated a pip value, because those are exactly the errors a reader most needs to see. The embarrassment is the point.

The record is kept in the page history and in the dated notes beside the corrected text. It is not moved to an archive that is hard to find. A reader checking the history of a page should be able to see every change in order, with dates, without asking us for access. That is what makes the log public in practice, not just in name.

What qualifies as an error worth logging and what does not

An error worth logging is a statement on this site that was wrong when published and remains wrong against the source we relied on at that time. It includes a wrong number, a wrong date, a wrong regulator name, a wrong instrument specification such as lot size or pip value, or a wrong funding method. It does not include a figure that was correct when written but has since changed because the broker, regulator or market moved.

A typo that changes meaning is an error; a typo that does not change meaning is a clarification at most. If we wrote that 1 standard lot of gold is 100 oz and it is, but we spelled the platform name wrong, that is a typo, not a material error. If we wrote that a pip is 0.1 instead of 0.01, that is a material error because it changes every calculation a reader makes.

A missing detail is not automatically an error. If we described margin at the applicable leverage cap using the worked figure of about $85.50 for a 0.10-lot gold position and did not explain every input, that is an omission, not a false statement. We log errors of fact, not errors of depth. Depth gaps are handled as updates, which are marked differently.

Who decides a change is needed and how quickly it is made

The decision rests with the person who maintains the page, acting on a report from a reader or on our own re-check of the source. There is no committee and no queue of approvals for a straightforward factual fix. The maintainer checks the source, decides whether the change is an error, an update or a clarification, and records it with a date.

The time depends on the kind of change. A clear factual error, such as a wrong instrument specification for gold where 1 lot is 100 oz and one pip is 0.01, is fixed as soon as it is confirmed against the source. A change that depends on a regulator's published position, such as the licence status of the entity serving Kenya, is fixed once we have checked the regulator's own record rather than a secondary summary.

We do not promise a fixed number of hours, because the check itself takes as long as the source takes to verify. What we do promise is that the log entry is dated when the fix is made, not when the report arrives, so the reader can see the lag. If a report turns out not to be an error, no log entry is made, because the log records changes, not reports.

How a correction is recorded and dated so the original wording is still visible

A correction is recorded in place with a dated note that states what was wrong, what it now says, and the date the change was made. The original wording is not erased; the note sits beside the corrected text so a reader can see both the before and after. The date is the date of the fix, not the date the error was first suspected or reported.

The dated note is written in plain language and names the source we checked. For example, if we had stated a leverage ratio that does not apply to the entity serving Kenya, the note would say the ratio was corrected to the cap that applies to the entity serving this country and give the date. It would not simply say 'updated' with no explanation, because that hides what changed.

Every correction carries the same three elements: the date, the substance of the change, and the reason. The reason references the source, such as the regulator's published licence list or the broker's own contract specifications. If the source is a document that can itself change, the note says which version we checked. This is what makes the log auditable rather than a claim of accuracy.

How a reader can check the history of a page and see every dated change

A reader can check the history by opening the page and reading the dated notes attached to each corrected or updated passage, in order. Each note gives the date, the substance of the change and the reason. The notes are not collapsed or hidden behind a tooltip; they sit with the text they affect so the history is visible where the claim is made.

Where a page has many changes, the notes are listed in reverse date order at the point of the change, so the most recent is seen first. A reader who wants the full sequence can read from the bottom of the list upward. The sequence includes corrections, updates and clarifications, each labelled, so the reader can tell which kind of change they are looking at.

If a reader believes a change is missing from the history, they can report it using the same route as an error report. We will check the page history and, if a change was made without a note, add the note with the date we can verify. We will not backdate a note to a date we cannot support, because a false date is worse than a late one.

The line between a correction and an update on this page

A correction fixes something that was wrong when published; an update records something that was right when published but has since changed. The distinction matters because a correction is an admission of error and an update is not. If we wrote that M-Pesa is a funding route and it is, then later the broker adds another route, that is an update, not a correction, because our original statement was true.

An update is dated and described in the same way as a correction, but it is labelled as an update so readers are not misled into thinking the earlier page was inaccurate. If the leverage cap that applies to the entity serving Kenya changed, the page would be updated to the new cap and the note would say the cap changed, not that we had been wrong. The worked margin figure of about $85.50 for a 0.10-lot gold position would be recalculated and the note would show the new basis.

The test is simple: would the statement have been true on the day it was published, given what was known and what the sources said? If yes, any later change is an update. If no, it is a correction. We apply that test before writing the note, because labelling an update as a correction undermines trust in the log and labelling a correction as an update hides a mistake.

A changed condition is a re-check, not an error

If a broker has changed a term since we read it — a leverage cap, a funding route, a platform — the page was not wrong, it has gone out of date. That is a re-check, and we handle it by reading the documents again and updating the page with a new date read.

We treat the two cases differently on purpose. Calling an out-of-date page an error would blur the record of what we actually got wrong, and that record is the reason these pages are worth checking in the first place.

What we do when a source changes silently and no announcement is made

When a source changes silently, we treat the change as an update and record the date we detected it, not the date it actually changed, because we do not know the latter. The note says the source changed without notice and gives the date of our detection. This is the honest position: we will not invent a date we cannot verify.

A silent change is common with contract specifications, platform names and regulatory lists. If the entity serving Kenya changes its leverage cap without a public announcement, the page is updated to the cap that now applies and the note explains that the change was found on re-check rather than announced. The worked figure of about $85.50 margin for a 0.10-lot gold position would be recalculated on the new basis and the note would say so.

We do not treat a silent change as an error in our earlier page, because the earlier statement was true when written. We also do not ignore it, because a reader relying on the old figure would be misled. The update label is the correct one: it says the world moved, we noticed on a given date, and the page now reflects the new position.