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High earnings cannot guarantee wealth. It is not enough to earn money — one also needs to know how to preserve and multiply it. While lots of people know how to earn, investments seem to be a more challenging task. To this day, people are still ready to invest in pyramids, which promise profits above 100%. Then the pyramids collapse, while their gullible clients are left with nothing but the desperate question “What should I do now?”
However, many beginner investors are sure that financial mechanisms are too complicated. They believe the quotation changes can be predicted only by experienced traders or people with lots of free time required to study the market opportunities. Those who don’t belong to these expert groups are advised to use trust management services.
Binary options, which emerged in 2008, disproved these popular beliefs thanks to their simplicity. All that the investor has to do is to predict the direction of movement of the chosen asset price over a given period, and make a stake. If the prediction is correct, the amount invested is easily increased by +92%. It often takes mere moments to get the profits – the life cycle of an option starts at 30 seconds. If the prediction is incorrect, the money at stake is lost. But the losses can be easily calculated and to limit them one should never trade more than, say, 1% of the total funds available.
Given the huge number of strategies, market indicators and other hints, binary options became an accessible capital multiplication tools for beginner traders.
I got interested in trading applications for mobile devices, because they fit best with the fast pace of modern life. To have time for investments while keeping working on a regular job, spending time with friends and family, and growing as a person, one needs to spend every minute effectively. Indeed, the long hours wasted while standing in lines or traffic jams can be invested into increasing personal capital.
All you need for this is a simple, quick, and convenient platform with minimum bets, provided by a reliable broker. The broker’s reliability can be confirmed with European certificates (no certificate — no guarantees of withdrawal). In this article I’ll show you all the rest.
I have tested 4 popular mobile apps for binary options trading (24Option, AnyOption, Banc De Binary, and IQ Option), and now will share the results of that experiment with you.
Let us give an example with Banc De Binary app.
You cannot choose an asset and switch to the desired type of the option in one screen.
First you should choose the option type from the “Product” menu (for instance, the short-time 60 seconds ones). Then, having followed this menu item, you can choose the asset. And only having chosen the asset and followed to the third window, you’ll be able to place your bet.
Are you tired of the short-term options and want to switch to the binaries? You’ll have to repeat the whole procedure from the very beginning.
It is highly desirable to be able to choose these parameters without switching to other sections. Otherwise every time you’ll have to wait for the system to reload data.
Sure, trader apps should constantly update their data. But slow trading process is far from enjoyable.
One more considerable drawback of the interface is lack of assets sorting. The more time you spend to find the asset you need, the less chances you have to enter a profitable deal. 3–5 seconds of delay is enough for the price of the asset to change — and you won’t get your profit.
Here is how lack of sorting can look like (this example is taken from 24option mobile app):
You’ll probably agree that it’s no pleasure to make your way through a chaotic list of currency pairs, stocks, and indices, just to find the asset you need. Keep in mind that the number of assets can be well above 100, and you’ll see how poor interface can easily ruin all the broker’s good intentions and efforts to provide you with a rich choice of investment tools.
Banc De Binary is leading in the number of assets offered (190) among all the systems reviewed.
IQ Option is an app free from those two drawbacks. All the necessary options are available in one screen, while the 70+ available assets are sorted by their type.
Beside each asset its profitability percentage is displayed. This will help you get a quick idea of how much you can earn on a given asset.
The asset that is currently the most profitable is displayed as a separate notification at the bottom of the screen (the inscription with the fire image). This information is constantly updated.
However, interface is not the main thing you need for successful trading.
However, the developers of IQ Option app promise to implement signals soon. Indeed, signals are already available in the web version of their system.
In the future, the trader will be able to turn on those messages in the IQ Option application menu. At the moment the “Hot signals” switch doesn’t influence anything.
Technical analysis savvies will probably say that hints can be useless and that it’s much more important to be able to use indicators and draw one’s own overlays on the chart (the support-resistance lines, and others). IQ Option is the only one among the apps reviewed that offers these special features for experienced traders.
The screenshot shows Bollinger bands, one of the popular indicators, around the candlesticks chart.
MA and Alligator indicators can be connected, too.
By the way, IQ Option is the only app that features the candlestick chart. The chart type can be chosen in the lower left corner of the screen.
Many strategies are based on the candlestick chart. The red and the green candles enable finding figures and predicting the movements of the quotations. Some of the strategies are described in the build-in brief trading course of the IQ Option app.
Other strategies are based not on looking for figures, but on breakouts and bounces off the support-resistance lines.
You can draw these lines in addition to, say, Bollinger indicator — just to be more confident of the market trend.
For successful quotation analysis, the trader has to see the chart history. The longer the period, the better.
The maximum timeframe provided by AnyOption is 2 hours.
IQ Option and Banc De Binary offer 1 hour, while 24Option has the shortest time — 10 or 15 minutes (depending on the operating system, iOS or Android).
The Operation Speed of the Apps
Since 3G internet connection was used for testing, every app reconnected from time to time, or took longer time to process certain actions. If you are near a Wi-Fi hotspot, or can trade from a tablet using WiMax (Yota), it’s best to benefit from such an opportunity.
The deposit size is important here. It is advisable not to make a deposit below $250–300. Obviously, 100 deals out of 100 cannot win, therefore it is important to have enough money in the account to be able to earn on the gain-loss difference. If you are not a millionaire and are not ready to lose all your money in a moment, the minimum bet of $1 is best for learning purposes.
It is possible to bet $1 with IQ Option (the minimum deposit is $10) and with Banc De Binary (minimum deposit starting from $250). The minimum deposit with AnyOption is $200, 24Option — $250.
For those who doubt the success of the deal, IQ Option and AnyOption offer insurance to diminish risks.
AnyOption enables to insure the deal for 5–25%, while the maximum gain is 80%. Also, you can sell your option to AnyOption before it expires. The price in this case will be lower.
The bets with the possibility of buyout are placed in the Option + tab. It doesn’t feature all the assets; instead, there is a limited number of liquid ones.
With IQ Option the insurance can reach 45%, and the profits – 92%.
Now let’s discuss the main thing — how the funds are withdrawn. Some brokers charge a commission for withdrawing money from an account. For instance, with AnyOption you can withdraw money without a commission only once a month. For each additional withdrawal a commission of 1000 RUR/ $30/ €25 is charged. With 24Option the situation is even more peculiar. During withdrawal process, the system assured me that no commission will be charged (this was the first withdrawal in the month). However, it actually took back 500 RUR out of 4,000 available for withdrawal.
Also, in 2 cases out of 4 you won’t be able to withdraw money directly from the mobile app. Only the developers of IQ Option and AnyOption took care of your convenience — you won’t need to load the web version of the system for a withdrawal. And only IQ Option lets you withdraw money using more than one payment method: deposit card, bank account, and electronic wallets: Webmoney, Qiwi, YandexDengi.
To process withdrawals, the broker needs to receive a copy of your personal ID documents. As a rule, they will need passport scans, a photo of the deposit card you used to add funds to your account and in some cases a scan of a household bill to confirm your address. Having passed verification, you’ll be able to withdraw money.
Now, for dessert, I’ll describe my experience of communication with the brokers’ personnel.
No one contacted me from IQ Option. As for Banc De Binary, they asked even about my monthly income. However, there was only one account, AnyOption, that left me with negative impressions. Their manager called me twice a day, but couldn’t reply the basic questions: who was the supplier of the quotations, how many assets they offered, etc. Having received no reply from the account manager by email, I contacted AnyOption support with these questions. They answered quickly, though rather vaguely. The only representative of their company who provided clear, concrete answers was their analyst. Having contacted him by phone for the first time, I was able to ask all the questions I wanted and get the answers immediately. However, to be able to contact the analyst or the account manager by phone in future, I’d had to follow the deposit requirements. But this will be described below.
So, you have chosen a broker and deposited a certain amount in your account. 2 things happen next: you go through the verification procedure, and then an analyst contacts you to offer training and sales guidance. The training is designed to teach the user how to use the platform and impart the basic trading knowledge.
The training type depends on the broker, from webinars (24Option, IQ Option) to individual Skype sessions (Banc De Binary). IQ Option is ready to teach only if there is a deposit of at least $300 in your account. But they are also the only ones who provide training in trading basics for beginners, which is sufficient for making the first steps. However, comprehensive training is required for profitable investments.
If you have the money — all the doors are open for you…
For those who just want to “have fun” with deposits below $300, IQ Option has an exciting gameplay with cheerful Mario-style music.
If you are active in social networks, you can boast your achievements there, too.
The IQ Option surely has special approach to each customer
But, jokes aside, special support (hints/signals and special conditions) is really available and depends on the deposit amount. AnyOption and IQ Option provide this support for those with at least $700 in their account, 24Option — for accounts above $2000, and Banc De Binary — for accounts above €2500. The special conditions can include, for instance, the “no-loss deal” guarantee. If you lose because of an incorrect hint of the broker’s analyst, the amount of loss is returned to your account as a bonus.
I sincerely hope that the information provided here is enough for you to make your own bets conclusions. Good luck!
This review was completed on April 20–23, 2015.
With wishes of successful trading,
IT-journalist Svetlana Vershynina (about.me/vsales).
The possibility to work with indicators and draw overlay lines on the charts is available only in the iOS version.
High earnings cannot guarantee wealth. It is not enough to earn money — one also needs to know how to preserve and multiply it. While lots of people know how to earn, investments seem to be a more challenging task. To this day, people are still ready to invest in pyramids, which promise profits above 100%. Then the pyramids collapse, while their gullible clients are left with nothing but the desperate question “What should I do now?”Pyramids, Warren Buffett, and Binary Options
The answer is quite simple: it is best to control the invested funds on your own. We cannot read minds of the pyramid founders to learn when exactly they decide to empty the accounts and run away to Dubai with all your money. But correct prediction of stock or currency exchange quotations is a feasible task for everyone. Really, you don’t have to be Michael Bloomberg or Warren Buffett to do this.However, many beginner investors are sure that financial mechanisms are too complicated. They believe the quotation changes can be predicted only by experienced traders or people with lots of free time required to study the market opportunities. Those who don’t belong to these expert groups are advised to use trust management services.
Binary options, which emerged in 2008, disproved these popular beliefs thanks to their simplicity. All that the investor has to do is to predict the direction of movement of the chosen asset price over a given period, and make a stake. If the prediction is correct, the amount invested is easily increased by +92%. It often takes mere moments to get the profits – the life cycle of an option starts at 30 seconds. If the prediction is incorrect, the money at stake is lost. But the losses can be easily calculated and to limit them one should never trade more than, say, 1% of the total funds available.
Given the huge number of strategies, market indicators and other hints, binary options became an accessible capital multiplication tools for beginner traders.
Whom Should I Choose?
The high demand for binary options entailed plentiful offer; over the recent years, a number of brokers launched their own trading platforms.I got interested in trading applications for mobile devices, because they fit best with the fast pace of modern life. To have time for investments while keeping working on a regular job, spending time with friends and family, and growing as a person, one needs to spend every minute effectively. Indeed, the long hours wasted while standing in lines or traffic jams can be invested into increasing personal capital.
All you need for this is a simple, quick, and convenient platform with minimum bets, provided by a reliable broker. The broker’s reliability can be confirmed with European certificates (no certificate — no guarantees of withdrawal). In this article I’ll show you all the rest.
I have tested 4 popular mobile apps for binary options trading (24Option, AnyOption, Banc De Binary, and IQ Option), and now will share the results of that experiment with you.
2 Smartphones, 3 Days, 4 Apps. Attention, Experiment!
Everyone should be able to invest — even those who are not computer savvies and have no time to master interfaces. Therefore simple and intuitive app navigation is the number one parameter.1. Friendly Interface
The two main buttons, Call and Put, are available in any application. But the first thing you have to do before placing a bet is to choose the asset you want to trade (e.g., a currency pair or shares) and expiration time of the option. This is where some subtle details are hidden.Let us give an example with Banc De Binary app.
You cannot choose an asset and switch to the desired type of the option in one screen.
First you should choose the option type from the “Product” menu (for instance, the short-time 60 seconds ones). Then, having followed this menu item, you can choose the asset. And only having chosen the asset and followed to the third window, you’ll be able to place your bet.
Are you tired of the short-term options and want to switch to the binaries? You’ll have to repeat the whole procedure from the very beginning.
It is highly desirable to be able to choose these parameters without switching to other sections. Otherwise every time you’ll have to wait for the system to reload data.
Sure, trader apps should constantly update their data. But slow trading process is far from enjoyable.
One more considerable drawback of the interface is lack of assets sorting. The more time you spend to find the asset you need, the less chances you have to enter a profitable deal. 3–5 seconds of delay is enough for the price of the asset to change — and you won’t get your profit.
Here is how lack of sorting can look like (this example is taken from 24option mobile app):
You’ll probably agree that it’s no pleasure to make your way through a chaotic list of currency pairs, stocks, and indices, just to find the asset you need. Keep in mind that the number of assets can be well above 100, and you’ll see how poor interface can easily ruin all the broker’s good intentions and efforts to provide you with a rich choice of investment tools.
Banc De Binary is leading in the number of assets offered (190) among all the systems reviewed.
IQ Option is an app free from those two drawbacks. All the necessary options are available in one screen, while the 70+ available assets are sorted by their type.Beside each asset its profitability percentage is displayed. This will help you get a quick idea of how much you can earn on a given asset.The asset that is currently the most profitable is displayed as a separate notification at the bottom of the screen (the inscription with the fire image). This information is constantly updated.
However, interface is not the main thing you need for successful trading.
2. Opportunities for Successful Trading
To make correct predictions, amateur traders need the experts’ hints. Brokers send the important news by email/Skype, or directly to the app, by means of push notifications. There are also trading signals, e.g. the EUR/USD currency pair is now in an uptrend, which means Call options can be bought with a high probability to win. The mobile apps reviewed don’t feature trading signals, but the push notifications with news are available (24Option).However, the developers of IQ Option app promise to implement signals soon. Indeed, signals are already available in the web version of their system.In the future, the trader will be able to turn on those messages in the IQ Option application menu. At the moment the “Hot signals” switch doesn’t influence anything.
Technical analysis savvies will probably say that hints can be useless and that it’s much more important to be able to use indicators and draw one’s own overlays on the chart (the support-resistance lines, and others). IQ Option is the only one among the apps reviewed that offers these special features for experienced traders.
The screenshot shows Bollinger bands, one of the popular indicators, around the candlesticks chart.MA and Alligator indicators can be connected, too.
By the way, IQ Option is the only app that features the candlestick chart. The chart type can be chosen in the lower left corner of the screen.
Many strategies are based on the candlestick chart. The red and the green candles enable finding figures and predicting the movements of the quotations. Some of the strategies are described in the build-in brief trading course of the IQ Option app.
You can draw these lines in addition to, say, Bollinger indicator — just to be more confident of the market trend.
For successful quotation analysis, the trader has to see the chart history. The longer the period, the better.
The maximum timeframe provided by AnyOption is 2 hours.
IQ Option and Banc De Binary offer 1 hour, while 24Option has the shortest time — 10 or 15 minutes (depending on the operating system, iOS or Android).
The Operation Speed of the Apps
Since 3G internet connection was used for testing, every app reconnected from time to time, or took longer time to process certain actions. If you are near a Wi-Fi hotspot, or can trade from a tablet using WiMax (Yota), it’s best to benefit from such an opportunity.
3. Minimum Deposit, Bets, Insurance, and Money Withdrawals
If you are not self-confident enough, it is best to begin with minimal bets. The demo account trading is rather an opportunity to play than to get ready for winning under real conditions. When you trade for real money from the very beginning, you’re more careful and won’t risk 10% of the funds or more in the hope to win back your losses. You learn to control your emotions and the process by investing in small equal bets. This approach will keep you away from gambling fever, which makes people lose all their money in a day. Here we assume that your aim with binary options is learning to invest carefully and profitably (over time!), and not hunting for quick money.The deposit size is important here. It is advisable not to make a deposit below $250–300. Obviously, 100 deals out of 100 cannot win, therefore it is important to have enough money in the account to be able to earn on the gain-loss difference. If you are not a millionaire and are not ready to lose all your money in a moment, the minimum bet of $1 is best for learning purposes.
It is possible to bet $1 with IQ Option (the minimum deposit is $10) and with Banc De Binary (minimum deposit starting from $250). The minimum deposit with AnyOption is $200, 24Option — $250.
For those who doubt the success of the deal, IQ Option and AnyOption offer insurance to diminish risks.
AnyOption enables to insure the deal for 5–25%, while the maximum gain is 80%. Also, you can sell your option to AnyOption before it expires. The price in this case will be lower.
The bets with the possibility of buyout are placed in the Option + tab. It doesn’t feature all the assets; instead, there is a limited number of liquid ones.
With IQ Option the insurance can reach 45%, and the profits – 92%.Now let’s discuss the main thing — how the funds are withdrawn. Some brokers charge a commission for withdrawing money from an account. For instance, with AnyOption you can withdraw money without a commission only once a month. For each additional withdrawal a commission of 1000 RUR/ $30/ €25 is charged. With 24Option the situation is even more peculiar. During withdrawal process, the system assured me that no commission will be charged (this was the first withdrawal in the month). However, it actually took back 500 RUR out of 4,000 available for withdrawal.
Also, in 2 cases out of 4 you won’t be able to withdraw money directly from the mobile app. Only the developers of IQ Option and AnyOption took care of your convenience — you won’t need to load the web version of the system for a withdrawal. And only IQ Option lets you withdraw money using more than one payment method: deposit card, bank account, and electronic wallets: Webmoney, Qiwi, YandexDengi.
To process withdrawals, the broker needs to receive a copy of your personal ID documents. As a rule, they will need passport scans, a photo of the deposit card you used to add funds to your account and in some cases a scan of a household bill to confirm your address. Having passed verification, you’ll be able to withdraw money.
Now, for dessert, I’ll describe my experience of communication with the brokers’ personnel.
4. Customer Oriented Approach
The first person you’ll be dealing with (the broker’s “face”, so to speak) is the account manager. Having introduced themselves, these managers will ask questions like “When will you be able to make your first deposit?” or “How much do you hope to earn with our platform?”No one contacted me from IQ Option. As for Banc De Binary, they asked even about my monthly income. However, there was only one account, AnyOption, that left me with negative impressions. Their manager called me twice a day, but couldn’t reply the basic questions: who was the supplier of the quotations, how many assets they offered, etc. Having received no reply from the account manager by email, I contacted AnyOption support with these questions. They answered quickly, though rather vaguely. The only representative of their company who provided clear, concrete answers was their analyst. Having contacted him by phone for the first time, I was able to ask all the questions I wanted and get the answers immediately. However, to be able to contact the analyst or the account manager by phone in future, I’d had to follow the deposit requirements. But this will be described below.
So, you have chosen a broker and deposited a certain amount in your account. 2 things happen next: you go through the verification procedure, and then an analyst contacts you to offer training and sales guidance. The training is designed to teach the user how to use the platform and impart the basic trading knowledge.
The training type depends on the broker, from webinars (24Option, IQ Option) to individual Skype sessions (Banc De Binary). IQ Option is ready to teach only if there is a deposit of at least $300 in your account. But they are also the only ones who provide training in trading basics for beginners, which is sufficient for making the first steps. However, comprehensive training is required for profitable investments.
If you have the money — all the doors are open for you…
For those who just want to “have fun” with deposits below $300, IQ Option has an exciting gameplay with cheerful Mario-style music.If you are active in social networks, you can boast your achievements there, too.
The IQ Option surely has special approach to each customer
But, jokes aside, special support (hints/signals and special conditions) is really available and depends on the deposit amount. AnyOption and IQ Option provide this support for those with at least $700 in their account, 24Option — for accounts above $2000, and Banc De Binary — for accounts above €2500. The special conditions can include, for instance, the “no-loss deal” guarantee. If you lose because of an incorrect hint of the broker’s analyst, the amount of loss is returned to your account as a bonus.
So, What Are the Conclusions?
The only thing that’s left is to summarize our comparison. For this purpose I’ve made up a table containing all the characteristics, which I believe, are the most important. The table also includes the names of test leaders — those who deliver the best results in each of the parameters:| Key parameter | Availability | Test Leader |
Interface convenience | ||
| Intuitive system navigation | + | IQ Option |
| Sorting assets by type and name | + | |
| Horizontal screen view | + | |
Trader tools | ||
| Quotations history with timeframe of 1 hour | + | IQ Option |
| Adding overlays to the charts (lines and rays) | +/- | |
| Indicators (Bollinger Bands and other) | +/- | |
| Candlestick chart | + | |
| Push-notifications about the most highly profitable assets | + | |
| Number of assets | 190 | Banc De Binary |
| Minimum deposit | $10 | IQ Option |
| Minimum stake | $1 | IQ Option, Banc De Binary |
| Availability of insurance without additional requirements (e.g. limited choice of assets or a high deposit amount)/ % of payback | Yes/Up to 45% | IQ Option |
| Withdrawals from the app / withdrawal options | Yes/To a deposit card, bank account, and wallets: Webmoney, Qiwi, YandexDengi | IQ Option |
| Excitement of trading process (gameplay) | Dynamic process, gamification, short-term options | IQ Option |
| Impression from communication with the broker’s personnel (account manager, consultant, online support) | Competent, attentive, not annoying | Banc De Binary |
This review was completed on April 20–23, 2015.
With wishes of successful trading,
IT-journalist Svetlana Vershynina (about.me/vsales).
The possibility to work with indicators and draw overlay lines on the charts is available only in the iOS version.
