What a binary options 70 scheme

Binary Options Scam - The Shocking Truth. A binary options scam is something anyone can avoid with the right information. Due to the amount of binary options brokers out there, it is very important that you know exactly who to trust and what to expect. So, how can you prevent a scam from happening to you? Don't sign up to a broker that is from a country which does not have a strong regulatory system. There's no point in having the best binary options method if the broker you are working with is not carefully regulated. This can lead to problems with withdrawing funds, slow trading platforms that get stuck and may result in you losing your money, little to no customer support, and the list goes on. Look out for different binary options complaints about the broker you are interested in joining. If you find any negative comments or scams about the broker, then you need to be careful. If, after doing all your research, you find that this binary broker has not responded to the negative comments out there, then it is advisable that you reconsider joining this broker since this shows that this broker is not active in fixing problems or improving their reputation. Try before you buy - it is important to test out the broker before you make any financial commitments. You can prevent a fixed return options scam by seeing if the broker's platform has all the useful features necessary to compliment your binary options method, responds quickly, answers your questions and offers you professional and reliable advice. Join forums or chat rooms and see what binary options scam is currently being discussed. You will be amazed how much information you can collect from other people's experiences by simply asking around. You can also apply similar steps of caution if you are thinking about joining a particular binary options signals provider. Common Binary Options Complaints.

Here are all the main scams that you should be aware of if you want to become successful in binary options trading: Credible binary options brokers are registered with trustworthy bodies and thus are transparent about their activities. If you therefore come across a broker that lists down non-credible regulatory bodies, or is not registered with a professional body at all, then this is likely to be a scam. You should also be aware that not everything is as it seems on the surface. For example, some brokers will use deposit bonuses with unfavourable small print terms to try and encourage you to join their site. It can be really frustrating if a broker promises a big sign-up bonus and then later you realise that you need to make two times or even three times turnover before you can have access to your bonus money. So, you will have to risk two to three times the amount of your original deposit before you are entitled to your bonus money. Although this is not necessarily a binary options scam, it is something that you can easily be tricked into if you are not careful. A binary options scam out there that you should be aware of is Terms & Conditions manipulation. You see it is very hard for you to develop any trust with any broker if they have the power to change their Terms & Conditions at any specific point. This is why it is essential that you look out for clauses in their Terms & Conditions that allow for retroactive changes, particularly regarding payouts. There are many binary options complaints out there that can be avoided just by becoming a little more savvy. So, now that you know how to avoid a digital options scam, here is one simple step you can take to find the best brokers out there: Check out our up-to-date review page where we list the Top Regulated Binary Options Brokers currently in the market.

For example, all Banc de Binary reviews are very positive and they have never been linked to any binary options scam, so you will find that they have been awarded a leading position on our list. To carry on becoming more savvy about binary options trading and how to avoid ever experiencing a binary options scam, simply carry on learning new material from OptionsBee . What You Need To Know About Binary Options Outside the U. S. Binary options are a simple way to trade price fluctuations in multiple global markets, but a trader needs to understand the risks and rewards of these often-misunderstood instruments. Binary options are different from traditional options. If traded, one will find these options have different payouts, fees and risks, not to mention an entirely different liquidity structure and investment process. ( For related reading, see: A Guide To Trading Binary Options In The U. S. ) Binary options traded outside the U. S. are also typically structured differently than binaries available on U. S. exchanges. When considering speculating or hedging, binary options are an alternative, but only if the trader fully understands the two potential outcomes of these exotic options. In June 2013, the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission warned investors about the potential risks of investing in binary options and charged a Cyprus-based company with selling them illegally to U. S. investors. What Are Binary Options? Binary options are classed as exotic options, yet binaries are extremely simple to use and understand functionally. The most common binary option is a "high-low" option. Providing access to stocks, indices, commodities and foreign exchange, a high-low binary option is also called a fixed-return option. This is because the option has an expiry datetime and also what is called a strike price. If a trader wagers correctly on the market's direction and the price at the time of expiry is on the correct side of the strike price, the trader is paid a fixed return regardless of how much the instrument moved.

A trader who wagers incorrectly on the market's direction loses herhis investment. If a trader believes the market is rising, shehe would purchase a call. If the trader believes the market is falling, shehe would buy a put. For a call to make money, the price must be above the strike price at the expiry time. For a put to make money, the price must be below the strike price at the expiry time. The strike price, expiry, payout and risk are all disclosed at the trade's outset. For most high-low binary options outside the U. S., the strike price is the current price or rate of the underlying financial product, such as the S&P 500 index, EURUSD currency pair or a particular stock. Therefore, the trader is wagering whether the future price at expiry will be higher or lower than the current price. (For more, see What is the history of binary options? ) Foreign Versus U. S. Binary Options. Binary options outside the U. S. typically have a fixed payout and risk, and are offered by individual brokers, not on an exchange.

These brokers make their money from the percentage discrepancy between what they pay out on winning trades and what they collect from losing trades. While there are exceptions, these binary options are meant to be held until expiry in an "all or nothing" payout structure. Most foreign binary options brokers are not legally allowed to solicit U. S. residents for trading purposes, unless that broker is registered with a U. S. regulatory body such as the SEC or Commodities Futures Trading Commission. Starting in 2008, some options exchanges such as the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) began listing binary options for U. S. residents. The SEC regulates the CBOE, which offers investors increased protection compared to over-the-counter markets. Nadex is also a binary options exchange in the U. S., subject to oversight by the CFTC. These options can be traded at any time at a rate based on market forces. The rate fluctuates between one and 100 based on the probability of an option finishing in or out of the money. At all times there is full transparency, so a trader can exit with the profit or loss they see on their screen in each moment. They can also enter at any time as the rate fluctuates, thus being able to make trades based on varying risk-to-reward scenarios. The maximum gain and loss is still known if the trader decides to hold until expiry. Since these options trade through an exchange, each trade requires a willing buyer and seller.

The exchanges make money from an exchange fee – to match buyers and sellers – and not from a binary options trade loser. High-Low Binary Option Example. Assume your analysis indicates that the S&P 500 is going to rally for the rest of the afternoon, although you're not sure by how much. You decide to buy a (binary) call option on the S&P 500 index. Suppose the index is currently at 1,800, so by buying a call option you're wagering the price at expiry will be above 1,800. Since binary options are available on all sorts of time frames – from minutes to months away – you choose an expiry time (or date) that aligns with your analysis. You choose an option with an 1,800 strike price that expires 30 minutes from now. The option pays you 70% if the S&P 500 is above 1,800 at expiry (30 minutes from now) if the S&P 500 is below 1,800 in 30 minutes, you'll lose your investment. You can invest almost any amount, although this will vary from broker to broker. Often there is a minimum such as $10 and a maximum such as $10,000 (check with the broker for specific investment amounts).

Continuing with the example, you invest $100 in the call that expires in 30 minutes. The S&P 500 price at expiry determines whether you make or lose money. The price at expiry may be the last quoted price, or the (bid+ask)2. Each broker specifies their own expiry price rules. In this case, assume the last quote on the S&P 500 before expiry was 1,802. Therefore, you make a $70 profit (or 70% of $100) and maintain your original $100 investment. Had the price finished below 1,800, you would lose your $100 investment. If the price had expired exactly on the strike price, it is common for the trader to receive herhis money back with no profit or loss, although each broker may have different rules as it is an over-the-counter (OTC) market. The broker transfers profits and losses into and out of the trader's account automatically. Other Types of Binary Options. The example above is for a typical high-low binary option – the most common type of binary option – outside the U. S. International brokers will typically offer several other types of binaries as well. These include "one touch" binary options, where the price only needs to touch a specified target level once before expiry for the trader to make money. There is a target above and below the current price, so traders can pick which target they believe will be hit before expiry.

A "range" binary option allows traders to select a price range the asset will trade within until expiry. If the price stays within the range selected, a payout is received. If the price moves out of the specified range, then the investment is lost. As competition in the binary options space ramps up, brokers are offering more and more binary option products. While the structure of the product may change, risk and reward is always known at the trade's outset. Binary option innovation has led to options that offer 50% to 500% fixed payouts. This allows traders to potentially make more on a trade than they lose - a better reward:risk ratio – though if an option is offering a 500% payout, it is likely structured in such a way that the probability of winning that payout is quite low. Some foreign brokers allow traders to exit trades before the binary option expires, but most do not. Exiting a trade before expiry typically results in a lower payout (specified by broker) or small loss, but the trader won't lose his or her entire investment. The Upside and Downside. There is an upside to these trading instruments, but it requires some perspective. A major advantage is that the risk and reward are known. It does not matter how much the market moves in favor or against the trader. There are only two outcomes: win a fixed amount or lose a fixed amount.

Also, there are generally no fees, such as commissions, with these trading instruments (brokers may vary). The options are simple to use, and there is only one decision to make: is the underlying asset going up or down? There are also no liquidity concerns, because the trader never actually owns the underlying asset, and therefore brokers can offer innumerable strike prices and expiration timesdates, which is attractive to a trader. A final benefit is that a trader can access multiple asset classes in global markets generally anytime a market is open somewhere in the world. The major drawback of high-low binary options is that the reward is always less than the risk. This means a trader must be right a high percentage of the time to cover losses. While payout and risk will fluctuate from broker to broker and instrument to instrument, one thing remains constant: losing trades will cost the trader more than shehe can make on winning trades. Other types of binary options (not high-low) may provide payouts where the reward is potentially greater than the risk. CFTC Fraud Advisories. The Commodity Futures Trading CommissionЂ™s (CFTC) Office of Consumer Outreach and the Securities & Exchange CommissionЂ™s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy are issuing this Investor Alert to warn about fraudulent schemes involving binary options and their trading platforms. These schemes allegedly include refusing to credit customer accounts, denying fund reimbursement, identity theft, and manipulation of software to generate losing trades. Binary options differ from more conventional options in significant ways.

A binary option is a type of options contract in which the payout will depend entirely on the outcome of a yesno proposition. The yesno proposition typically relates to whether the price of a particular asset that underlies the binary option will rise above or fall below a specified amount. For example, the yesno proposition connected to the binary option might be something as straightforward as whether the stock price of XYZ company will be above $9.36 per share at 2:30 pm on a particular day, or whether the price of silver will be above $33.40 per ounce at 11:17 am on a particular day. Once the option holder acquires a binary option, there is no further decision for the holder to make as to whether or not to exercise the binary option because binary options exercise automatically. Unlike other types of options, a binary option does not give the holder the right to purchase or sell the underlying asset. When the binary option expires, the option holder will receive either a pre-determined amount of cash or nothing at all. Given the all-or-nothing payout structure, binary options are sometimes referred to as Ђњall-or-nothing optionsЂќ or Ђњfixed-return options. Ђќ. Binary Options Trading Platforms. Some binary options are listed on registered exchanges or traded on a designated contract market that are subject to oversight by United States regulators such as the CFTC or SEC, respectively, but this is only a portion of the binary options market. Much of the binary options market operates through Internet - based trading platforms that are not necessarily complying with applicable U. S. regulatory requirements. The number of Internet-based trading platforms that offer the opportunity to purchase and trade binary options has surged in recent years. The increase in the number of these platforms has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints about fraudulent promotion schemes involving binary options trading platforms.

Typically, a binary options Internet-based trading platform will ask a customer to deposit a sum of money to buy a binary option call or put contract. For example, a customer may be asked to pay $50 for a binary option contract that promises a 50% return if the stock price of XYZ Company is above $5 per share when the option expires. If the outcome of the yesno proposition (in this case, that the share price of XYZ Company will be above $5 per share at the specified time) is satisfied and the customer is entitled to receive the promised return, the binary option is said to expire Ђњin the money. Ђќ If, however, the outcome of the yesno proposition is not satisfied, the binary option is said to expire Ђњout of the money, Ђќ and the customer may lose the entire deposited sum. There are variations of binary option contracts in which a binary option that expires out of the money may entitle the customer to receive a refund of some small portion of the depositЂ”for example, 5%Ђ”but that is not typically the case. In fact, some binary options Internet-based trading platforms may overstate the average return on investment by advertising a higher average return on investment than a customer should expect given the payout structure. For instance, in the example above, assuming a 5050 chance of winning, the payout structure has been designed in such a way that the expected return on investment is actually negative , resulting in a net loss to the customer. This is because the consequence if the option expires out of the money (approximately a 100% loss) significantly outweighs the payout if the option expires in the money (approximately a 50% gain). In other words, in the example above, an investor could expect, on average, to lose money. Investor Complaints Relating to Fraudulent Binary Options Trading Platforms. The CFTC and SEC have received numerous complaints of fraud associated with websites that offer an opportunity to buy or trade binary options through Internet-based trading platforms. The complaints fall into at least three categories: refusal to credit customer accounts or reimburse funds to customers identity theft and manipulation of software to generate losing trades.

The first category of alleged fraud involves the refusal of certain Internet-based binary options trading platforms to credit customer accounts or reimburse funds after accepting customer money. These complaints typically involve customers who have deposited money into their binary options trading account and who are then encouraged by ЂњbrokersЂќ over the telephone to deposit additional funds into the customer account. When customers later attempt to withdraw their original deposit or the return they have been promised, the trading platforms allegedly cancel customersЂ™ withdrawal requests, refuse to credit their accounts, or ignore their telephone calls and emails. The second category of alleged fraud involves identity theft. For example, some complaints allege that certain Internet-based binary options trading platforms may be collecting customer information such as credit card and driverЂ™s license data for unspecified uses. If a binary options Internet-based trading platform requests photocopies of your credit card, driverЂ™s license, or other personal data, do not provide the information. The third category of alleged fraud involves the manipulation of the binary options trading software to generate losing trades. These complaints allege that the Internet-based binary options trading platforms manipulate the trading software to distort binary options prices and payouts. For example, when a customerЂ™s trade is Ђњwinning, Ђќ the countdown to expiration is extended arbitrarily until the trade becomes a loss. Unregistered Transactions, Operations, Broker-Dealers, or Trading Exchanges Illegal Options Transactions.

In addition to ongoing fraudulent activity, many binary options trading platforms may be operating in violation of other applicable laws and regulations, including certain registration and regulatory requirements of the CFTC and SEC, as described below. Certain Registration and Regulatory Requirements of the SEC. For example, some binary options may be securities. Under the federal securities laws, a company may not lawfully offer or sell securities unless the offer and sale have been registered with the SEC or an exemption from such registration applies. For example, if the terms of a binary option contract provide for a specified return based on the price of a companyЂ™s securities, the binary option contract is a security and may not be offered or sold without registration, unless an exemption from registration is available. If there is no registration or exemption, then the offer or sale of the binary option to you would be illegal. If any of the products offered by binary options trading platforms are security-based swaps, additional requirements will apply. In addition, some binary options trading platforms may be operating as unregistered broker-dealers . A person who engages in the business of effecting securities transactions for the accounts of others in the U. S. generally must register with the SEC as a broker-dealer. If a binary options trading platform is offering to buy or sell securities, effecting transactions in securities, andor receiving transaction-based compensation (such as commissions), it likely should be registered with the SEC. to determine whether a particular trading platform is registered with the SEC as a broker-dealer, visit FINRAЂ™s BrokerCheck . Some binary options trading platforms may also be operating as unregistered securities exchanges . This would be the case if they matched orders in securities of multiple buyers and sellers using established non - discretionary methods.

However, there are cases where a registered broker-dealer with a trading system or platform may legitimately have no obligation to register as an exchange. Certain Registration and Regulatory Requirements of the CFTC. It is illegal for entities to solicit, accept offers, offer to or enter into commodity options transactions (for example, foreign currencies, metals such as gold and silver, and agricultural products such as wheat or corn) with U. S. citizens, unless those options transactions are conducted on a designated contract market, an exempt board of trade, or a bona fide foreign board of trade, or are conducted with U. S. customers who have a net worth that exceeds $5 million. To see the most recent list of exchanges that are designated as contract markets, check the CFTC website . There currently are only three designated contract markets offering binary options in the U. S.: Cantor Exchange LP Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc. and the North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc. All other entities offering binary options that are commodity options transactions are doing so illegally. Further entities that solicit or accept orders for commodity options transactions and accept, among other things, money to margin, guarantee, or secure the commodity options transactions must register as a Futures Commission Merchant. Entities that act as the counterparty (that is, they take the other side of the transaction from the customer as opposed to matching orders) for foreign currency options transactions for customers with a net worth of less than $5 million must register as a Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer. Because of their lack of compliance with applicable laws, if you purchase binary options offered by persons or entities that are not registered with or subject to the oversight of a U. S. regulator, you may not have the full benefit of the safeguards of the federal securities and commodities laws that have been put in place to protect investors, as some safeguards and remedies are available only in the context of registered offerings. In addition, individual investors may not be able to pursue, on their own, some remedies that are available for unregistered offerings. Ђў RememberЂ”much of the binary options market operates through Internet-based trading platforms that are not necessarily complying with applicable U. S. regulatory requirements and may be engaging in illegal activity. Ђў Do not invest in something that you do not understand.

If you cannot explain the investment opportunity in a few words and in an understandable way, you may need to reconsider the potential investment. Ђў Before investing in binary options, you should take the following precautions : 1. Check to see if the binary options trading platform has registered the offer and sale of the product with the SEC. Registration provides investors access to key information about the terms of the product being offered. You can use EDGAR to determine whether an issuer has registered the offer and sale of a particular product with the SEC. 2. Check to see if the binary options trading platform itself is registered as an exchange. To determine whether the platform is registered as an exchange, you can check the SECЂ™s website regarding Exchanges . 3. Check to see if the binary options trading platform is a designated contract market. To determine whether an entity is a designated contract market, you can check the CFTCЂ™s website . Ђў Finally, before investing, use FINRAЂ™s BrokerCheck and the National Futures AssociationЂ™s Background Affiliation Status Information Center (BASIC) to check the registration status and background of any firm or financial professional that you are considering. If you cannot verify that they are registered, donЂ™t trade with them, donЂ™t give them any money, and donЂ™t share your personal information with them. Binary Options: Scam or Opportunity? We’re recently getting more and more contracts for coding binary option strategies. Which gives us a slightly bad conscience , since those options are widely understood as a scheme to separate naive traders from their money.

And their brokers make indeed no good impression at first look. Some are regulated in Cyprus under a fake address, others are not regulated at all. They spread fabricated stories about huge profits with robots or EAs. They are said to manipulate their price curves for preventing you from winning. And if you still do, some refuse to pay out , and eventually disappear without a trace (but with your money). That’s the stories you hear about binary options brokers. Are binary options nothing but scam? Or do they offer a hidden opportunity that even their brokers are often not aware of? Binary options, in their most common form, are very different to real options. They are a bet that the price of an asset will rise or fall within a given time frame. If you win the bet, the broker pays your stake multiplied with a win payout factor in the 75%..95% range. If you lose, you pay the stake minus a possible loss payout . You’re trading not against the market, but against the broker. The broker needs you to lose, otherwise he would not make any profit. Even if he really pays out your wins, and even if he does not manipulate the price curve, he can still control your profit with his payout factors.

So it seems that even if you had a winning system, the broker would just reduce the payout for making sure that you lose in the long run. However this conclusion is a fallacy. It can in fact be of advantage for the broker to offer a payout that allows you to win, as long as most other traders still lose. A broker has not the freedom of arbitrarily reducing the payout. He’s competing with other brokers. But why would you want to trade binary options anyway, when you also can trade serious instruments instead? If you wanted a binary outcome, you can also achieve this by opening a Put or Call Spread with real options – and this with a serious broker, much higher payout factors (even more than 100%) and the possibility to sell the options prematurely. But aside from tax advantages in some countries, there is one single compelling reason that might make a binary options trading experiment worthwhile. Profit and trading cost of a binary option are independent of the time frame. So you can trade on very short time frames, which would be difficult, if not impossible with real options or other financial instruments. You can find a discussion of this problem in the Scalping article.

Binary scalping math. The required minimum win rate for binary trading can be calculated from the broker’s win and loss payout: W = required win rate for break even. With 85% win payout and no loss payout, you need a win rate of. 54% win rate seem to be manageable on short time frames. The transaction costs of a non-binary, conventional broker would require a much higher win rate, as in the following graph from the Scalping article: Required win rate in percent vs. trade duration (non binary) You had to win almost 80% of five-minutes trades – impossible for a trading system under normal conditions unless you enforce that win rate with some tricks, which however won’t help getting in the profit zone. So, smaller trading costs on low time frames are the obvious benefit of trading binary options. With all the side benefits of low time frames, such as more data for backtests, and shorter drawdown periods in live trading. But how can we take advantage of that? There are three problems to solve. Three steps to potential binary profit. Find a method with a win r ate that is better than the W determined with the above payout formula. But be aware that prices on small time frames are strongly feed dependent. Normally you won’t know your binary broker’s price source (if he has any at all).

For being on the safe side, test with different historical price data from different serious brokers (f. i. Oanda or FXCM) and stay some percent points above the minimum W . All those issues make trading binary options sort of “messy”. However it’s the messy methods that sometimes offer the best opportunities. Ed Thorp made his first millions not with ‘serious trading’, but with a Blackjack method and with a method to estimate the value of warrants, both also considered messy and hard to calculate at that time. A price curve is no random walk. At least not all of the time. Long time frames are often dominated by trend, short time frames by mean reversion. When transaction costs do not matter, it’s not very hard to find a system with > 54% win rate on 5-minutes bars. Here’s a simple example that exploits the mean reversion tendency of short time frames (script for Zorro): In the C code above we defined an individual objective() function that optimizes the system for binary trading. It measures the system performance as the number of winning trades divided by the number of losing trades. Otherwise the optimizer would hunt for the most robust profit factor, which makes no sense for binary trading. The setup establishes a 5 minutes bar period, which is the time frame of our bets.

We use 20 WFO cycles and let the optimizer use all CPU cores but one. This way the training run takes about 5-10 minutes for 5 years data. The BINARY flag activates binary trades, and we’re simulating a broker with 85% win payout and no loss payout. We have a mean reverting system that trades whenever the current price is closer than a threshold – here, 1% of recent volatility – to its previous High or Low. The time period for determining the High and Low is the only system parameter that we optimize. You could improve the system in many ways, for instance by optimizing also the threshold, by modifying the objective() function so that it prefers systems with more trades, and by applying a filter that prevents trading in non mean-reverting market regimes. Since we bet on the price in 5 minutes, we’ve set the LifeTime of a trade to one bar. Here’s the equity curve from a 5 years walk forward test with EURUSD: The system has about 56% win rate and a notable, although not spectacular positive return. Which is not achieved by the crude mean reversion mechanism, but mostly by amplifying the small entry-exit price differences through binary trading, even though the payout is only 85%. You won’t get a similar result with conventional trades. The same system not trading binary options, but leveraged forex positions produces a very different equity curve (for testing, comment out the BINARY flag and the Payout settings in the code): With the same trades we have now only 40% win rate and an overall loss, since all the trade profit is eaten up by spread and commission. How do you let your script automatically enter a bet at the right moment? This is a technical issue unrelated to trading, but it comes up whenever you have a broker with a web based platform and no proper connection for automatizing. Here’s a code snippet for detecting the positions of Buy and Sell buttons on a website, and automated clicking them: Start the script, and wait until the broker’s website pops up in your browser. Then follow the instructions in Zorro’s message window.

Manoever the mouse onto the “Buy” button and hit the right mouse key. Then do the same with the “Sell” button. The script will store the button positions and then use the keys function to send test clicks to both positions of the active window. For testing purposes I’ve imitated a typical binary broker’s trading platform. You now only need to glue together your trading script with the button clicking script, and adapt the latter to the website of your broker. This is left as an exercise to the reader. And better use improved versions – the scripts here are kept simple for demonstration purposes. As long as the script trades, make sure that the browser window stays in the foreground, or else it can not click on the buttons. For the position size, either enter a fixed size for all positions, or let your script click into the size field and send key strokes to set individual sizes. Of course I don’t want to recommend a particular binary options broker. In the end, they’re all crooks – but some are crookier than others. Finding a suited broker is, also, left as an exercise to the reader.

Binary broker comparison websites are often – surprise, surprise – installed and paid by binary brokers. US citizens are normally not allowed to trade binary options with brokers that are not regulated in the US. Some brokers will accept your deposit nevertheless, but use that as pretext to refuse payout. If you’re a citizen of Israel, you might not be accepted by many binary brokers since they’re not allowed to fraud compatriots. It’s often the “messy” and despised trade instruments that can still provide opportunities when they are correctly understood. I’ve uploaded the two scripts to the 2016 repository. You’ll need Zorro 1.52 or above for running them. When you now make huge profits with binary options, don’t forget where the money comes from: Not from the broker, but from his less fortunate customers that maybe just haven’t read the right blog. Addendum: From all articles on this blog, this one attracted by far the most spam comments. From them it appears that a new lucrative business has established in the orbit of binary brokers: recovery fraud . As soon as you’ve lost your money, you’ll receive offers by “hackers” or “law firms” to recover it, for a fee of course. Where did they get your address from? Naturally from the very broker that bagged your money… 71 thoughts on &ldquoBinary Options: Scam or Opportunity?&rdquo Thank you for this article. Would you happen to know of any software out there, or a model, that cap produce a binary risk curve over time?

Similar to the risk graphs created by traditional options software? I found one on Wolfram but I can’t change the security prices. It would be very helpful for me to understand binary prices over time and volatility levels. I don’t know such a software for binary options, but you could probably calculate the graph with the standard Black-Scholes algorithm, just as for a normal European option. The question is only what you would do with this information, since you can normally not sell a binary option during its lifetime. I have an account at Nadex and you can buy and sell them (close out a position). So I would be helpful for me to mode out the possible prices over time. I bought your book recently and really liked it. Lots of great ideas for trading algos. I’m glad I understand some German. Here a question regarding your article: I’m a complete newbie to binaries, so please forgive my ignorance.

You say that the trading cost does almost not depend on the the time frame. Obviously, when you put on a lot of trades in a short time, the expected profit is usually small, so it can easily get eaten up by commissions. As far as I understand, the payout of a binary is fixed, so it is always the same whether your trades last 1sec or 1000secs, which makes it in some sense time-independent. However, (and this is where I’m a bit green still), binaries have a fixed expiry date, so our profits are in some sense bound to the time to expiry and get smaller the closer our trade entry get to it. On the other hand, the closer we get to expiry, our probability of reaching a certain target price increases as the path divergence from spot to expiry gets smaller. So, in my naive understanding, the algo you presented above should only work optimal for a given time in the day that is n periods away from expiry. I’m probably wrong but I would like to hear your opinion of why this is not the case. PS, I think it should be fairly easy to model binary options with Monte Carlo rather than Black Scholes, as it is easy to put all sorts of constraints in it. I’ve done this with Barrier Options, it’s slower but quite effective. Do you intend on translating your book, or I’ll have to buy the e-book and them Google translate it? =) @ Jeremy, Tom: I had not heard of Nadex before, but they indeed allow to exit an option before it expires. This article was only about the usual options with a fixed duration and costs independent of duration, but exiting options opens new interesting possibilities. A risk graph makes then a lot of sense. Maybe that could be the topic of another article. – @ Gonzatti: Yes, I’ll translate it when I find the time.

Informative and entertaining as ever. Many thanks. Jeremy, Tom – thanks re Nadex. Interesting. hi, very interesting article, me too have an account at Nadex. and they have a very good and and informative site with huge amount of info. could u check their platform and how we can use this platform with Zorro app. with best regards. From what I see, Nadex seems not to provide a direct connection. So you would need a script like above under “Step 2” or some similar solution for controlling their trade platform. Thank You for this informative contribution. The expiration time of the option may no doubt also be an interesting parameter to look at, although it is very broker specific what it can be set at. I have been trying to exploit this additional parameter, since in zorro there is the possibility of adjusting the ExitTime from the BarPeriod to some other value (I inserted after “LossPayout = 0” simply ExitTime = 15 for instance). Surprisingly, if I do so with the above script the test result is always the same which can certainly not be correct. Why does this fail?

Because your ExitTime is overridden by the LifeTime setting. You can use either ExitTime or LifeTime for the duration of a trade, but the recommended method is LifeTime. – You can find those issues by looking in the logfile. There you can see how long the trades last and which profit they make. great article, in my experience the binary options is good, but requires an method and some education, i have some profits, I apply martin gala system 🙂 Kisses. Seems that LifeTime param. is not actually documented in zorro manual page at least I couldn’t find it. Would like to know the difference between ExitTime vs LifeTime. GoMarkets has binary options on their MT4 platform, trading from your normal account. I think there are a few other’s out there too. Yes. Some brokers provide binary options through the FX LITE MT4 plugin. You can then trade directly with Zorro through the MT4 bridge and need no button click function. Only the time frame of the bet must be set up – as far as I know – in the order comment field.

What about position sizing? Probably via lot size, but I found no detailed documentation. I’ll inquire with the developer of the FX LITE tool. Ok, according to the developer this is the MQL4 command to bet on a rising price with FX LITE: and the corresponding Zorro code: “Size” is the position size in units of the broker’s minimum size, like 1$. “BO Exp:” sets the duration in seconds. If you want to change the position size on the broker’s web interface, it’s just as with clicking the buttons: let the script click into the size field and then send key strokes for setting the size. Great & interesting example Johann – thanks for sharing. How does Zorro evaluate the binary option success? From the code, the ‘set(BINARY)’ is used to automagically evaluate the success of the prediction. In my own simulations of the same algorithm (EURUSD, last 5 years, 5min periods), the win rate is about 60% if the mean of the next period is used to determine success – but 52% if the close of the next period is used (more noisy) Also, some binary options brokers (like IG Index) quote a threshold price which is their prediction of where the market price will be in 5 mins. Our algorithm needs to determine whether the market price is likely to be higherlower than the broker’s own estimate on expiry (not the market price when the bet is placed). This is hard. The close is used by Zorro.

The mean would be wrong since it’s no real price. However 5-minutes data is highly feed dependent, and you will likely get different results with different brokers. Zorro uses FXCM price data by default, but it’s better when you backtest with price data from the very broker you trade with. It’s interesting how many variants of price bets are offered by binary brokers meanwhile. Using a predicted threshold would effectively prevent an algorithmic system since you can not backtest it. Here is a complete list with all scam brokers. Maybe you can add it to your article: howwetrade. combinary-options-scams I get this message: Error in ‘line 27: ‘SET_ORDERTEXT’ undeclared identifier. “Undeclared identifier” means that your software does not understand what you’re typing. Either your version is too old or you did not type it right. This blog is not really a good place for programming support, but the user forum is. There you can also get the newest version.

I completely agree that binary options are easier to trade. Thanks for the interesting article. I found binary. com has an API trading interface. Maybe we can expect Zorro will have ability to trade binaries ? A rare pearl in the sea of binary option articles! I also like a lot the general approach to trading you and the community of Zorro have. Kudos to you! I’m quite new to Zorro, so I think my question will have a simple answer. I tried to change the line: and got a suspiciously higher winning percentage. As I think this is not because of a real improvement of the method performance, what is the reason for that?

Is there a way to place a (binary) trade – talking about training and testing mode – before all other trades expires? Thank you and congrats again! Thanks for the quick reply. I played around further with the script, and noticed an important fact to be taken into account in Zorro when simulating binary options strategies. When selecting a LifeTime much higher than 1 bar, and allowing placing positions when other positions are already open, you will notice that something odd is going on. You may get incredible (but unfortunately wrong…) results, that being due to the fact that by default Zorro closes a trade when another trade on the opposite direction is placed, assigning it a win or a loss depending on the situation at the moment (thus without taking into account the expiry time fixed by LifeTime). I think this is a “bug”, in the sense that Zorro should not behave like that when the the BINARY flag is set. I ‘solved’ the problem setting Hedge to 2, which allows to enter and open long and short positions simultaneously. Maybe this setting of Hedge to 2 should be executed automatically by the program when the BINARY flag is set, in order to avoid wrong simulation outcomes. I posted this info into the Zorro forum as well… Yes. When more than one trade can be open, Hedge must be set to prevent closing a position by opening opposite ones. Otherwise you could prematurely exit from your bet and book the profit! – This is not automatic, so the consequence of any setting must be carefully considered for emulating binary trading. I have some real experience with autotrading binary options. I built an interface for Newstrading.

I used Forex News Gun and rent a server in New York, which put me in the position of executing a trade within 1ms once fundamental indicators are published. It’s an unbeatable system if you take your time to study how the market reacts to the data. I had 80+% winning rate and with the optimal risk (Kelly Formula!) I should be a millionaire by now! However, once brokers realize what’s going on, they block you out with error messages. I would highly recommend to learn how to apply fundamental analysis and how to trade manually instead of spending any energy on binary options because of my own experience. I spent like 2000€ for server rent, deposits I never got back (beware – 24option takes 80 units every month from you account if you don’t trade several month. StockPair does this as well), Winautomation Pro, and a custom coded method (was one of the customers JCL spoke about – it is possible to beat 57% winning ratio but it’s really hard with technical analysis only! I don’t think it’s possible to beat break even really significantly, so forget about getting rich quick). However, I managed to build a somewhat stable autotrading interface with Winautomation. If you are interested, I’m willing to share my code, but it will need adaptions for your broker. Nice article, I will play with this code the next time I’m bored. I’m sdh309795gaas in the Zorro forum. Would anyone be interested in working together on some of this stuff?

I’ve written an nodeJS API for iqoption, along with a backtester that allows the algorithm to be dropped right into the API without any modification, but I’m still trying to figure out the price prediction part. This method gets about 55-57% accuracy when I tested it with the data from iq option. But when you factor in the changing profit rates and everything, there’s just not a whole lot of trades left. @TeeraLucksanapiruk Where you able to connect zorro with iq option through your API? If that is the case I am interested. how can I get the script or apply the auto robot to trade for me with a good broker like binary. com ? Please guys – I work at the sharp end of the financial industry - these can best be likened to a roulette wheel with a slower time to burn than through your chips. Unless there has been some new market news the price fluctuations cannot be predicted on a five minute interval. Some of the finest on Wall Street make only 75% profitable decisions. The have access to non-public research, 20 years experience, teams of analysts using supercomputers crunching millions of transactions, financial capital (billions) and brokers that work for them. Thankfully they only need to be right on very specific transactions.

You don’t give money to Nigerian scammers, why let someone take your money on binary options. I had $5000US dollars deducted from my visa to Optionbot 3.0. But I have not heard back from the company or from my broker who had promised me that by investing I would make a very good profit. Unfortunately I only received 1 call from my broker who set up some sort of auto trade and was told specifically not to touch it, which of course I haven’t. The problem is that now I lost all my money and I cannot reach them either. I am writing this post because one broker named John, from such called: Optionbot 3.0 called me on 25 June of 2016 and forced me to open an account on their website optionbot. net promissing me that Optionbot will make 100% PROFIT of my deposits. I transferred that day 10 000 Euro by Credit Card. The broker took over my account and started trading. After half an hour, the margin level was under threat and I received a call and broker started to ask for more money. I sent another 5 000 Euro from my Credit Card! On 30 June, he opened 11 wrong positions with a huge loss and I woke up with all my money lost. I instantly called my broker and this criminal which burned all my money said that he will refund all my positions and I will succed to withdrawal all my money. I waited for few hours and tryied to call John, and he never asked. Days passed away, I was trying and trying to call him, to write to his email, but without answers. I want to catch this broker which robbed my money, and made hundred of trades on my behalf without my consent and to punish him for every EUR that he lost, to punish him piece with piece just to understand how hard is to make money.

I still hope that I will find justice one day, but for you guys, PLEASE, DO NOT EVER REGISTER OR CHARGE THIS SHITNESS SITE: OPTIONBOT 3.0. Binary options are great financial product but there is a lot of greedy brokers and firms . They stealing money from innocent people through robots, auto-traders and signal services.. All these systems are usually created by unregulated binary options brokers.. On this site you can find many scam systems: binaryoptionsradar. com I wished I have read this article before I parted with my 250US dollars with BDB. Scammers really were able to convince me by calling me long distance from Cyprus. i think he’s trying to scam a lot of people, he made it very good and authentic. This is such a great post in which Binary Options scam is describe in a better way. I am seeking this type of blog from so many days but today i am glad to find this blog. I have been trading binary options with this script on livedemo accounts since Dec. on auto pilot with two brokers. It seems on some days it works really well and on other days it’s the opposite.

The end result is, it’s struggling to break even. Love to work with someone to improve this. Let me know if you guys are interested. It’s all good and well to say that you are succeeding as a trader when your account balance is rising and trades seem to be going well. But I’m wondering if anyone here has managed to withdraw any actual cash from binary trading accounts? Things were going really well for me and I believed I had found a quick path to success when I started trading and winning. But, when I needed to liquidize my funds, it was impossible. Has anyone been successful in getting money out? I have been contacted by a legal team who has informed me that the binary company I invested with will not ever give me my money unless I open a case against them, so I am thinking of doing this. Does anyone have any experience advise about this? Comments like this appear here every second day, and usually end up in the spam folder since they look like bait for advertising “legal teams” or “hackers” to “get money back” from a binary broker. So let me draw this comment out of the spam and answer it: If your binary broker refuses to pay out, the first problem is that you normally do not know their real address, not even their country. So the chance to get your money back from a Cyprus mailbox is zero. But in the orbit of fraudulent brokers, a whole industry of “legal teams” or “hackers” have established that promise retrieving your money for a fee.

You’re then not only losing your investment, you’re losing that fee as well. Sometimes the “legal team” or the “hacker” is the broker himself when they smell that their client has still some money left. At least that’s what I’ve heard about those services. What I so far never heard is that someone really retrieved money from a fraudulent binary broker. Hi JCL I was wondering if you or someone could explain me how to modify the objective() function so it prefers systems with more trades as you suggested. I have been searching a way to do this in the zorro manual but I haven´t found anything yet. The objective function is supposed to return a value that is a proxy for performance. The higher, the better. So you could just subtract a “penalty term” for not enough trades, like this: var PF = ((var)(NumWinLong+NumWinShort))(NumLossLong+NumLossShort) var Penalty = 1.(NumWinLong+NumWinShort+NumLossLong+NumLossShort) return PF – Penalty This is just a quick & dirty example, there might be better methods. Let’s have a discussion some time with regards to. binary options along with what we could do to. ensure that it is more effective for everyone. Thanks for the whole write up. Looking forward to getting more information on you manage everything regarding money management, legal issues and other things to get things fancy and manageable. Binary options is really not for all. It always bears a lot of risks.

This kind of information will help the enthusiasts escaping the bad things. Regards. Thanks for a fascinating article. Regarding trading costs on short term binary systems…mission doesn’t factor in however can you comment if slippage affects the results of this system? I came up with an automated binary options system that trades 650 timesday and backtests in MultiCharts at a 76% win rate (39.5% payout) — which “on paper” is profitable. However slippage brings the real world results down to roughly 70%, making it a marginal loser. Is this the same with your system? In binary trading, slippage largely depends on the honesty of the broker. Since they are usually market makers, it is no problem for them to generate artificial slippage for reducing the win rate. So it may be worth the effort to test the slippage and compare it with different brokers. In serious trading, slippage has a smaller effect on the win rate since asymmetric slippage is illegal under most regulations.

Would this system benefit from applying your MMI as a filter? Not really, since it’s using mean reversion. MMI can detect trend regimes, but makes no difference between mean reversion and pure randomness. Hi jcl…ahhhh sorry I missed that part in the MMI article where you said just that. Sorry about that. Ok, just as a follow up though, let’s assume as you imply that there are 3 modes, trending, mean reverting and random. Obviously the mean reversion system is not going to perform well in a trending market or in a random market…however if your MMI eliminates trades during trending periods, would that not at least be partly helpful in filtering out some of the losing trades? If not, do you know of a method to differentiate a mean reverting mode? ADX is supposed to be effective, however I’ve never had much luck with it in actual system testing. Last question…is your book available in English?

Love your blog! Yes, there are other methods to detect the market regime, often used is the Hurst exponent. I have already on my to do list a series of experiments to find out which detection method works best under which circumstances. FrankyB….pretty sure the only legal way to trade binaries in the US is with Nadex. It’s an SEC regulated exchange though so totally safe unlike most other binary brokers. I’m pretty sure there you’re trading against other market participants rather than against any broker. Glad to find somebody who takes a realistic approach to binary options trading. I believe that profiable strategies can be automated, but they are not available in the public domain. Because when you have a profitable method, you trade it and make money, you don’t share it with everyone, especially not for free. Unfortunately there are hundreds of scam systems (see warnings at thebestbinaryoptionsbrokers.

netcategorybinary-options-scam-2) that try to make people believe the contrary. And I see a lot of people fall into these traps, they still believe that somebody will make them money for free. One more thing to mention is that most binary options platforms has an affiliate program so you cant really find a honest review. Most of the reviews are made to generate revenue and has interest. If you need some assistance in recovering you money lost in binary options there is this company here that will help you get your money back. Advertising link removed Almost died at the end of the article: “If you’re a citizen of Israel, you might not be accepted by many binary brokers since they’re not allowed to fraud compatriots. ” Cool overview. At the end of the day, Binary Options, FRO (Fast Return Options) all derive from various interpretations of the B&S formula and are indeed financial instruments. Sophistication is the basic element of fraud and if you look into HFT there’re a lot of questions and I remember a movie with Haim Bodek talking about weird weird stuff. jcl…does this system enter on the open of a bar or intra-bar if the price hits your pre-defined level? jcl…I’m wondering if I could get your opinion on something.

Do you think it is possible, using data mining, that someone could discover reliable repeating patterns in a data series generated by a cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generator that is programmed to behave like a real market? Not talking about cracking it or finding the seed, just patterns that repeat leading to higher or lower prices over a specified timeframe. Or is this a hopeless endeavour? Examples would be: OR more significantly: If it is a random number generator, then it has per definitionem no reliable repeating patterns. Otherwise it would be a bad programmed random number generator. I guess the reason I asked is that binary. com says about these indices: “These markets are simulated markets that use randomly generated numbers to reflect the way that a real market behaves” So I would think they must have some deterministic algorithm that makes the numbers a little less than random. For instance, volatility in these “fake” markets seems to exhibit mean reverting tendencies similar to the way it does in real markets. I wonder if that is by accident or design? There are many ways to simulate a market, the simplest is using real market data. So I don’t know for what purpose binary. com uses a random number generator, and in which way it is programmed.

Since it is a binary broker, I would assume that it is programmed to maximize the user’s losses. This means the generated index depends on how many users bet on rising and how many on falling. Since this info is known only to the broker, you can not use it to your advantage. Hello everyone, I’m looking to get into trading in this way but would like to read jcl’s book first. Could someone help me out with a link?