4 Things You Should Look for When Selecting a Binary Options Broker

Selecting a binary options broker is one of the most important decision an individual investor will make over the course of his or her trading career. With so many vendors out there, and such varying degrees in the quality of the services on offer, prospective investors need to take the time to carefully evaluate potential vendors on the basis of several important attributes. In this article we investigate four of these attributes and explain why they should be central in any decision that involves the selection decision.

Range of Assets

The first thing you want to check for in a prospective service vendors is the number of assets that it makes available for trading. The range varies widely across service vendors. Some have fewer than a hundred assets, while others have more than several hundred assets. But you’ll typically find that every service vendor offers some combination of stocks, currencies, commodities and indices. Before choosing a vendor, it’s worthwhile to consider which specific assets that you’ll be trading.

Ease of Withdrawals

Unfortunately, you may run into a binary options broker working in the industry who has developed a bad reputation for the way they handle client withdrawals. Reports of refusal to allow withdrawals and reports of taking an inordinate amount of time to process withdrawal requests are unfortunately all too common. For this reason it’s essential for investors to make sure that the withdrawal procedure used by their prospective service vendors is transparent and effective. Before choosing a service vendor, make sure you are provided with a clear, written document outlining the terms of withdrawals. Although most of the service vendors in the industry conduct themselves in an ethical manner, it’s important that you screen for unethical (and damaging) practices.

Regulated Status

The regulatory status of your service vendor is a key consideration when make your selection. Some of the vendors in the industry choose to operate without regulatory approval. While such vendors may be capable of delivering a good quality of service, there are serious downsides. First and foremost, the investor protections available are extremely limited when dealing with unregulated service vendors. However, regulated service vendors must adhere to strict accounting and compliance policies. In the event of a market meltdown, or should your service vendor enter insolvency, only a regulated service vendor will have any measures in place to ensure that its clients deposits are safe.

Positive Reviews

A good way to filter out weak service vendors is to read online reviews and discussion forums. In particular, focus on comments where people outline their experience of dealing with that service vendor. Although reviews can be instructive, make sure you approach them with a somewhat skeptical eye. Be sure to read the reviews; but discernment is important. It’s important to identify those written by people who were truly happy or unhappy from those who failed to succeed. By scanning reviews, pretty quickly you will be able to filter out service vendors who behave in an unethical manner.

Concluding Remarks

Investors should consider a variety of attributes when evaluating prospective service vendors. The range of vendors in the binary options industry is diverse. So make sure you find one that you’re comfortable with, and provides a good range of assets. Be sure it offers fast and transparent withdrawals too. And, last but not least, ensure that it’s regulated and has generally positive reviews online.

Photo Credit: stock photo