Is Binary Options a Scam? Read This and Decide

Is binary options a scam or not? That is the question. Now for the answer. What I’m about to tell you is my honest assessment of the value of binary options trading. But first, for those who don’t know, let’s define exactly what binary options are. Once we’ve done that, we will then assess their worth in comparison with traditional options trading (sometimes called “vanilla options”). We will do this based on a “return on risk” principle.

Finally, we’ll draw some conclusions based on our observations and in the light of other ways of risking capital for a return.

What are Binary Options?

Binary options have three main elements:-

1. You need to predict a future outcome to be realized within a specified time period – anywhere from 1 minute up to more than a week away.

2. During the period before expiration, no adjustments can be made, nor can the options be sold early for a profit or stop loss. Profits or losses can only be realized at the time of expiration. They are also absolute and final.

3. If the outcome is realized, you receive a profit on what you risked – usually about 70 percent. If the outcome is NOT realized, you lose most of, if not all, your invested capital on that trade.

In summary, the reason why they are called “Binary Options” is because the results can only be a win or a lose. This is final and absolute. There is nothing in between. Hence the term “binary” (meaning “twofold”).

Binary options can be traded over a range of commodities, indices and currencies. Currency pairs (forex) seems to be the most popular, as they trade 24 hours, 5 days per week and are very liquid.

Is Binary Options a Scam?

The answer to this question is really one of perception. If you’re one of those people who can consistently pick winning outcomes and can do with for an overall profit, or have a proven binary options trading system that does this, then I’m sure you will be waving the flag for binaries.

But let’s run a few numbers. We’ll assume a generous profit of 75 percent for wins and 100 percent loss for losing trades.We’ll also start with $1,000 capital and each trade will risk $100.

On a given day, you place 5 trades on anticipated outcomes for currency pairs within a 5 minute expiration period. Your first 3 trades are losing ones – you’re now down to $700 capital. Then your next 2 trades win and at 75% profit, you make $75 on each. So you’re down $300 to begin with, then up $150 – an overall loss of $150.

Let’s say that you’re better at picking winners and you win 3 and lose 2 trades. You’ll be up by $225 ($75 x 3) to begin with and you’ll be very happy at your new account balance of $1225. Then you’ll lose the last 2 trades and be down $200. So your ending balance for the day is $1025 – a profit of just $25, for risking a total $500, in 5 x $100 trades.

If you’re really good and win 3 out of 4 trades (or 75% win rate), you’ll make $225 on the wins and lose $100 … a net result of $125 profit.

How confident are you, that you can achieve an 75 percent success rate, bearing in mind that you can’t close out a position if it temporarily goes into profit – you have to wait until expiration for the result?

The service offered after clicking the image below, offers Binary Signals via text message and boasts 72.5% accuracy. Combine this with the above strategy and enjoy the profits.

Looking at it Another Way

You could say that trading binary options where the profit is 70 percent and the loss 100 percent, is like betting on the favorite in a horse race, where the win dividend is $1.70. The only difference is, that in this “race” there are only two horses – one is called “Up” and the other “Down”.

If one horse in this “two horse race” was far superior to the other, then you would feel confident of a win. That would be like saying that the odds of the currency pair being above where it presently is, in five minutes time, is very high.