Binary options trading

[Anonymouse]

I'd never heard of this until I got a phone call from First Sovereign Group. I presume they want me to invest. They've sent me a beginner's guide to binary options (which I still haven't read yet), but I've done a bit of online research and come to the conclusion that it's a bad idea. Essentially it's gambling - in an arena about which I know virtually nothing.

I don't know jack about the stock market...and neither do most of the people who run it, I've always thought. One reason I've never gambled any significant amount of money is that I've never forgotten what Earl Dumarest said in Web Of Sand: "Haven't you learned the fundamental truth about gambling? That those who need to win never do?"

(We'll leave aside the fact that I've never actually had a significant amount to invest, and still don't!)

These guys seem to think I'm an 'investor'. Yeah, right. I'm paying into a pension scheme, I have an ISA, and I'm paying into a sharesave scheme - I work in a warehouse and over a third of my net pay goes on my rent and council tax. None of this exactly shouts 'financial wizard'.

I just thought I'd sound you guys out. Maybe some of you have dabbled.

[heero_yuy]

Don't know anything about this but a couple of maxims:

If it looks to good to be true it probably is.

Never bet with money you can't afford to use.

Also I'd be very cautious about any cold caller offering an investment scam scheme.

Remember - the value of your stocks and shares can plummet, as well as fall...

[Stuart]

Just looked them up on Wikipedia, and it seems that Binary options are a form of investment that return a fixed amount, or nothing. As such, they can also be considered gambling, and I would argue more so than a lot of investment schemes, as some schemes do offer a variable return rather than all or nothing.

It seems there are also quite a few scams involving binary options.

Avoid, unless you like to gamble.

[Matth]

Thinking of trying it, after the game version of it on android made it look quite easy.

Next step, either a "play money" account at one that offers it, or start at low level real money.

There are scams, the "countryname method" is just an affiliate scheme

[Osem]

Steer clear of anyone who cold calls offering so call investment opportunities no matter how flattering they are and how quickly they're going to be able to make you rich.

Boiler room

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/bu...oser-v9l8v0mvw

From today's Times Business section

The bet that will always be a loser

In the past eight months nearly £5 million has been lost in investment scams involving binary options, a form of one-way short-term gambling on currencies and shares. None of this money is likely to be recovered and there is little the authorities can do to prevent all but the most blatant fraud given that the products are unregulated.

At the sharp end of this growing scandal are a group of young men, and they are almost entirely men, preying on the young, the gullible and the desperate, promising them a better life and quick riches from the market-trading equivalent of a coin flip.

In fact you would have better odds of making money from betting repeatedly on the fall of a 50p coin than from binary options, where a sustained return requires a success rate of better than 55 per cent.

Look beyond these marketing men, though, and you find the real money, much of it originating in Israel and entering our shores via Cypriot passports. The Times of Israel has done great work exposing how the country has become home to dodgy firms, and Israeli and Cypriot authorities are attempting to crack down on these traders.

It is now up to the Financial Conduct Authority and the UK police to get a grip on the problem at this end. Binary options should be banned or subject to some kind of regulation, even if that means officially classing them as a form of betting and putting them under the eye of the Gambling Commission.

At least then promoters would not be able to present them as anything other than what they are, a punt — and a bad one at that.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Hugh

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/bu...oser-v9l8v0mvw

From today's Times Business section

Entirely predictable but there'll always be those who fall for it no matter how many times these schemes come and go...

[Anonymouse]

Hmm. Just as well I've told them I'm not interested.

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by Anonymouse

Hmm. Just as well I've told them I'm not interested.

Good decision.

Anyone who cold calls me (phone or doorstop) gets nowhere.

If I want something, I'll go and look for it, otherwise, not interested.

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by Paul M

Anyone who cold calls me (phone or doorstop) gets nowhere.

If I want something, I'll go and look for it, otherwise, not interested.

Exactly, as I say: I pull, you do not push.