BINARY OPTIONS

I have to admit, I have never mastered the art of binary trading. I do intend to put some more time into these things and get a more in depth understanding of whats going on.

Basically what you're doing is taking a position on wether an asset will rise or fall in a set time period. It can be 1 minute, 2 minute and stretch out to hours or days depending on what options you choose.

There is a lot of "noise" about binary options on the net, saying you'll make $300 a day or $5000 a day or whatever. It has become flavour of the month with scammers and spammers everywhere. Its not to say you CANT make money out of these things but don't expect the miracles these guys promise. All I can say is ignore the hype. If you're trading shares (and doing it right) there's every chance you'll make this in due course anyway.

But lets focus on the Binaries. Here's an example of how these binary options work:

Lets say The asx200 is trading at 5250
I think it will go up in next hour so I put a $100 option on the asx to go up in one hour.

Lets say it ends at 5265 and I win the bet i'll get my $100 back and a return of (usually) $82 so a $182 goes back into my account after betting $100

Lets say it ends at 5235 i loose my $100 bet and get no return

Simple as that.

There are some good points with Binaries:

You only risk the amount you have specified in your initial bet

If you are good at them it is probably the fastest way to make money on the markets (I believe you can get good at them ... It's just that I haven't acheived any real level of success with them yet)

When you make an ill timed decision with any other type of shares you can loose much more than the initial deposit, it could loose money for months or years and drag  your portfolio down or even bury your portfolio in time,  whereas once you loose a binary trade its all over and you can move on to the next trade or reassess your own thinking on the movements of the market without letting it push your whole portfolio out of whack


There are also some not so good aspects with Binaries:

If you take out a short term bet all it takes is one guy to drop a whole of stock or buy a whole bunch of stocks on the market and alter the price and your choice (no matter how well thought out) can become a loosing or winning bet

If you have CFDs or long term choice if your purchase "jags" in the wrong direction you don't loose it,  you just have to wait until it comes good

My Personal View on Binaries:

I view binary trading a bit like gambling. You place a bet on a position to either go up or down and at the end of the binary term you either win or loose. All it takes to loose (or fluke a win) is for some key data to change the direction of the markets or some hedge fund to sell a huge batch of your chosen position to jag in in another direction and it can alter the course of your trade. Like Gambling the house takes a cut usually from 8-25%

I have pissed around with these things for a little while and I seemed to be getting better so I will let you know how i go, but from past experience it seems a way to tread water financially and personally I don't like leaving my trades in the hands of the "financial gods" so to speak

I have said before don't put any more money into the markets than you can afford to loose and that is never as true as it here: Most binary sites are regarded for tax purposes as "gambling" sites and this should hit home with you

Can you get good at these? Im not sure, i'll try again at some point and let you know how i go, next time i have money and time to waste and report back, int he mean time find a site where you can get in cheap and have some fun.

Also another point I want to stress is, I have found these things mentally very stressful as you tend to watch the graphs moving up and down and follow the trade too closely. I found it very draining personally (but this maybe different with you)

IF you're going to try this system out (and its a big thing on the internet, I hear heaps of people are making money on this) maybe try it on a site like http://www.iqoption.com where you can buy in for as little as $10 and place bets of $1  at least you can find out if this is for you or not on the cheap! I have signed up to IQ option an they seem alright so far with an easy to understand trading platform and a good range of assets

My favourate platform IG markets does binaries too (they call them 'sprint options') but you need to place minimum bets of $40 which I'm not really prepared to when Im trying to build an asset base, its cool when you've got a good foundation of money in there tho.

TRADEO - try it with their money!

Here's a great site I signed up to a while back they give you $25 to start your account. While $25 is never going to make you rich, its a great way to get your feet wet, you can place a trade or two and see if its something you want to look into further.

One important thing I really do like about this platform is that you can 'follow' successful traders and copy their trades, or use it gauge what others are doing.... it's like facebook for stock brokers!



SIGN UP TO TRADEO HERE

I'm still fairly new to this site, but so far it looks (and has been) fairly easy to use with a great range of assets to trade. I will definately be sticking with this site for a while to come and post in some more detail what I think about this site.

You might find that you don't want to trade, or maybe the stress of it is too much, but at least this way you haven't put out any of your own money

HOW TO GET STARTED

First up decide what you want to achieve, and what your goals (risk v return) are. How much you are willing to invest and how much you can add to your investment stash every month / year whatever. This is YOUR decision and no answer is right or wrong but obviously the more you put into it in both time and money, the more you will stand to get in return.

Be realistic, you have to live and function as an adult while you are doing this so there is no point putting your grocery or petrol money into this and not being able to show up to work, pay the rent or do what you need to do. put money in that you can afford to kiss goodbye for a while (or in worst case scenario permantly)

I recognise that most people can't just throw in huge amounts of money so maybe put in a monthly payment that fits in with your budget or something and keep adding to your share portfolio, over time it will grow. REMEMBER: Even if you only throw in $200 per month you're still $200 a month ahead of someone who isn't doing anything for their future

Remember with no sacrifice comes no gain. I know friends who routinely blow $300 on a night out at the club, taking drugs, drinking or gambling but will claim they have no money whatsoever to put into doing something that could change their whole reality. Again I'm not your financial advisor and I'm not here to tell you what to do, but if you're serious about changing your life you have to do something and its never easy.

If you're interested in trading shares (either a fully funded share account or margin lending) the quickest way to get started is to go to your bank and ask them if they have a trading platform. Most major banks should have one and for the time being its all the same.
For money transfer processes it probably works best if you open an account with the guys you bank with . Just go in and ask they will be more than happy to help you out with getting started

If you are trading in CFDs (the highly leveraged option) I would recommend you sign up with a site called http://www.igmarkets.com they have a great site and you can get started with a minimum amount of money which I believe is $500 (but don't quote me) however with CFDs I recommend you DON'T put in too much money in first up, because you will most likely loose it a few times before you get better at trading it... this is a more complex and risky platform for trading but of course holds the highest rewards for those willing to learn how to do it.
NOTE: I use IG Markets and believe to be an excellent platform. I have tried a few others and this one comes out best for me. It doesn't mean it IS the best, but it means its the best that I have used.