Virtually trading financial markets is one of the most profitable means of making money over the internet. However, several methods are going about profiting from the markets, one of which is through trading digital binary options. Binary options are financial instruments that allow a trader to speculate or bet on the direction of prices of assets in the financial markets. Here, you will decide whether you expect the market to go up or move down, and then you place a bet corresponding with that decision. If you believe the market will move up after a fixed time, you go for a ‘BUY’ trade; on the other hand, if you believe the market will go the other way, you choose a ‘SELL.’ If your prediction is correct, you are paid a fixed percentage of the capital you put up, say between 75% to 90%, or even more. If, however, your prediction turns out incorrect, you get to lose a pre-set portion of your capital.
Close Option Binary Review
To be able to trade binary options, and indeed any financial instrument or any financial market, you need to be registered with a broker. There is a wide variety of brokers that you can pick from; however, to get access to seamless trading, you have to choose the most reliable, one of which is Close Option. CloseOption is a relatively new broker in the binary options space (launched in 2017), but it is pretty much gaining some ground quickly. Headquartered in Georgia, CloseOption is owned and operated by Organic Tech LLC. It currently boasts a membership of over 460,000 tradersthat have registered on its platform and is one of the few binary options brokers that accept traders from the United States.
However, traders from some countries are not allowed.
Close Option offers commendable binary options brokerage services to traders aimed towards giving a better trading experience.
Some of these services and features are outlined below:
Binary options trading works in a way that your profitability or otherwise is tied to the fixed period for which you’ve set your trade to expire. If you set your CALL or PUT trade for an expiry period of 5 minutes and the market finishes in your desired direction at the end of those 5 minutes, you have a winning trade; if otherwise, you have lost the trade. Despite this seemingly simple and straightforward model, many binary options traders record debilitating losses, especially after they’ve conducted careful technical analyses, with some resorting to blaming their brokers, and some even accusing their brokers of manipulating the process.
However, we discover that this is partly because the expiry periods allowed by most brokers is ultra-short, with some brokers setting a maximum of 5 minutes expiry period per trade.
However, CloseOption deviates from this norm by allowing up to 1 month (30 days) expiry period for a trade if the trader so desires.
It is a widely quoted statistic that up to 90% of beginner traders quit trading within the first year of trading, mainly because of the losses they encountered. This is largely traceable to lack of proper trading education, and as such, the importance of training and education in a trader’s journey cannot be overemphasized.
CloseOption dedicates a special section to training and education on its platform.
Other perks that you get to benefit when you trade with CloseOption include a payout of up to 85% for successful trades, although we must admit that this is not really one of the best in the industry. There is also good customer service and an affiliate program that allows you to earn when you refer others to CloseOption.
Close Option Login
There is only one channel through which you can access Close Option services, and that’s through its web platform, which is accessible both on PC and mobile devices. This translates to the fact that CloseOption does not have any mobile applications, yet.
The Close Option trading platform, known as the Trade Room, is noted for its simplicity as it can be adapted to even simple browsers.
To start trading, you need to sign up on the platform. There are 2 methods of registration; you can register through your social accounts (in this case, Google+ or Twitter), or you can fill out the “manual” registration form by entering the required details and providing a password, as well as your country of abode. It must be noted that not all countries are supported by Close Option.
If you choose to fill the Registration form, you are expected to verify your email, after which your account gets created. It should be noted that with CloseOption, only need one registration process to access all its services. The single registration gives you access to all 3 types of accounts – Demo, Contest, and Real.
Assets Tradable on the Close Option Platform
When speaking of available markets, we can say that Close Option does not measure up to what is achievable in the industry. With Close Option, you really can only trade currency pairs (in fact, you have access to only 17 pairs as against the common 30 pairs you get with other brokers). Then, you can trade cryptocurrencies and crypto pairs, but still, the only pairs available are those including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. This translates to the fact that you cannot get to trade assets like stocks of popular global companies, commodities such as Gold and crude oil, as well as equity indices.
CloseOption Demo Account
A good feature of a quality binary options broker is making demo accounts available to both prospective and current traders.
A demo account is simply an account provided by the broker to you for free; the demo account typically contains virtual money, which you can use to make trades in the markets without any risks to you. As such, the “money” in the demo account is not real, and can never be cashed out. Demo accounts are useful for a number of things, some of which are:
1) To practise your trading skills
A demo account gives newbie traders the opportunity to practise their trading skills before they commit their hard-earned real money to trade. Trading a demo account as a beginner trader gives you the ability to test and trade real market conditions with fake money without incurring any risks, so as to know how trading works before actual capital is put on the line.
2) To test a broker’s platforms
With a broker’s demo account, you can test such broker’s platforms and services before deciding to trade with the broker. A trader gets to know if the broker’s platform is worth committing one’s capital to.
3) To test new trading strategies
In the case of experienced traders, they may make use of demo trading accounts to test new trading strategies to ascertain if they are effective and profitable, with fake money before applying such strategy to a live account, where there are chances of losing real money.
Close Option gives traders access to a demo account, although the amount that the account comes with is not clear. With this demo account, you have access to Close Option’s trading platform, known as the “Trade Room.”
CloseOption Minimum Deposit
When you sign up, Close Option automatically offers you 3 types of accounts, which are outlined below:
- Demo Account
- Contest Account
- Real Account
Real Account is the “live” account where your deposits go to. True to the tradition that is prevalent amongst binary options brokers, Close Option has different types of live accounts, and the account type you choose will determine your expected minimum deposit. These account types can effectively be seen as ‘levels’ and are largely dependent on how much you are able to commit to your trading account. Each account level comes with its own perks, but as expected, the perks increase the higher the level is. They are summarised below:
Copper Level: From $0 to $1000 deposit, you are given a Copper Level account. It comes with a payout rate ranging from as low as 17% to as high as 80%, with the payout for EUR/USD automatically pegged at 80%%.
Bronze Level: You are signed up for a Bronze Level account if you deposit between $1000 and $2000. Typical payout rates also range from 17% to 81%, and the EUR/USD payout is put at 82%.
Silver Level: A deposit of between $2000 and $10,000 gets you a Silver Level account, which attracts payouts of between 17% and 82%, with your EUR/USD trades attracting a payout of 84%.
Gold Level: Gold Level account is assigned for deposits of between $10,000 and $50,000. You get paid between 17% and 83% for successful trades and 90% for those involving EUR/USD.
Diamond Level: You need to deposit between $50,000 and $1,000,000 to be assigned this, with payouts of up to 85% for other instruments and 95% for EUR/USD. The benefits of this account include access to a dedicated personal manager.
Is Close Option Regulated?
The binary options brokerage space is full of a lot of participants, leaving the prospective trader in search of a broker of choice with a lot of options. Contributing to this dilemma is the fact that not all of these brokers operate the same brokerage model; from brokerless trading platforms to crypto-based binary options brokers, there appears to be a never-ending variety. Unfortunately, not all of them can be regarded as credible. One way to sieve through the numbers is by going for brokers who are registered with regulatory bodies.
Your broker being regulated by a financial services body comes with a number of benefits to you as a trader in many ways.
If a broker is regulated by a government authority, the chances of such a broker engaging in fraudulent activity are greatly reduced. This is because most regulators come up with rules that potential loopholes through which manipulations or fraud may be committed. Most regulators also perform oversight functions on the activities of brokers to check if breaches have been committed, with appropriate sanctions to that effect.
One more benefit that comes with trading with a regulated broker is the fact that the safety of your capital is almost guaranteed. This is because most regulators mandate brokers to separate their traders’ capital from their own operating funds.
Unfortunately, Close Option does not appear to be regulated by any regulatory body; however, it claims to be registered with the National Bank of Georgia.
CloseOption Scam
We don’t think you will be surprised at this headline. There are a lot of scams in the binary options trading industry. It is, however, sad and disturbing to note that most of these scams emanate from the binary brokerage space, and as a trader, you have to take extra precaution so as to fall prey. In fact, it is not an exaggeration if we say that in the binary options brokerage industry and indeed the binary options trading industry as a whole, there are more scammers than there are real people. As such, it is unsurprising that governments countries like Russia, Japan, Belgium, Turkey, Canada, Israel, amongst others, have banned binary and digital options trading.
The binary options trading industry seems somewhat loose, as there does not seem to be any particular universally accepted model or convention to doing things. As a result, different brokers come up with different models, as they deem fit. Some of these models or frameworks are not always in favour of traders. Regulators are there to check and ensure that a broker’s model either exists to benefit traders or at least not hurt them.
Is Close Option Legit?
Binary options trading scams range from binary brokers who defraud clients, to fake binary trading software being sold to unsuspecting traders; however, the broker scams tend to be the most common.
There are, however, signs that can help you spot broker scams.
1) Big claims and Promises
If a binary broker makes obviously unattainable promises like 150% payout, risk-free trading, sure winning, then it is likely that such a broker is a scam.
2) Constant Harassing of Traders
Although this is not a blanket rule, one feature common to broker-scams is the way they over-market to traders. Even after depositing in your account, they still stalk you urging you to quickly start trading or deposit more.
3) Unclear Terms & Conditions
Most scammer-brokers do have difficult-to-read terms and conditions. Alternatively, their terms and conditions will contain a lot of red flags.
Close Option does not possess any of these above features, and we can say that it does not appear to be a scam. However, that does not mean that prospective traders should not conduct proper due diligence. For one, the fact that it is not registered with any reputable regulatory organization is a crucial red flag that cannot be ignored.