So what are binary options? They are contracts that give you the right but not the obligation to buy an underlying asset at a fixed price within a specific time frame. Therefore, when trading in binary options you are not actually purchasing something outright like when buying stocks or shares and the in-the-money result is purely based on the direction of movement in the stock and not the difference in price.

This means that even if a stock moves only 0.001 in the right direction, you are still collecting the same earnings as if it moved 2.020, giving investors a new sense of security they had never before experienced. The basics to consider when starting are simple. Firstly you need to decide which underlying asset to invest in and with a little bit of research this can be an easy and well-informed decision to make. The internet is a good place to start, a great resource to figure charts and financial news and a great aid when making verdicts that could earn you healthy returns.

Once you have decided the basics of which underlying asset to invest in you can then decide which type of option to purchase. When trading binary options there are 2 types of options; Call options and Put options. A Call option is what you place when you believe that the chosen underlying asset will expire higher than the price was at the time of purchase. On the other side, a Put option is what you place when you believe that the asset will expire below the original purchase price.

So if you had just found out that Apple, for example were not doing so well and are predicted to continue this way for now, you would purchase a Put option which would put you in a better position to earn if Apple continued to fall past the original purchase price. If however, you just heard that Barclays has had a recent boom in price and is predicted to continue this way, you might be inclined to purchase a Call option in hope that the price at expiration time would ring true to this news.

Binary options have different expiry times, ranging from hourly, daily, weekly and monthly contracts. Amongst the basics, the expiry time of binary options is quite an important thing to consider when trading and can even be used as a tool in improving your chances to earn. For example, you may hear news on the breakfast financial report that the FTSE 100 had just taken a fall and is looking uncertain until further news. This news could put you in a great position to purchase a Put option on the FTSE 100 with a 1-hour expiration contract, the odds being in your favour to earn with the high chance that things are unlikely to go the other way within the short space of an hour.

So there you have the basics to trading in binary options. Important things to remember with binary options are that time is of essence, both biding it and also using it as a tool. It is also wise to do your research and follow the movements of the markets as the information is there for you and could make the difference between earning and not earning. And really, why else are we here?

© 2010, Binary Options. All rights reserved.

Binary Options – Understanding the basics - Binary Options

Underlying Assets and Binary Options

Take note that at anyoption™, there is a strong interconnectedness between underlying assets and binary options.  Huge profits can be made if you choose the correct underlying asset. However, you should take into account that binary option trading does have its risks. The most advisable thing to do is study the market behavior of the binary option that you are interested in prior to making your investment. But please take into account, a vast knowledge of the financial markets will greatly assist you in both choosing the desired underlying asset that you want to trade, and with your binary options trading experience as a whole.

Foreseeing Trends

The big question that binary options traders often ask themselves is “How can I make quick profits?” The answer to this question is on one hand complex, and on the other hand quite simple. The most obvious thing for any binary options trader to do is to pay close attention to trends that appear with the specified underlying asset. It should be taken into account that even with a basic understanding of the financial markets; you could be on your way to making profits, provided you predict the correct direction in which the underlying asset will move.

Popularity of Underlying Assets

At anyoption™, all of the underlying assets that we offer binary options traders are extremely popular, whether these be stocks, commodities, currency pairs or indices. For example, we shall take indices. There are numerous indices that anyoption™ offers binary options traders.  These include the FTSE 100, Dax, Dow Jones, Nasdaq, S&P 500, and more. The underlying assets offered also include ones from emerging markets, such as the IPC (Mexico), Tadawul (Saudi Arabia) and the Hang Seng (China). The inclusion of the emerging market underlying assets gives the binary options trader the advantage to make quick profits on a multitude of indices.

Forecasting the Price Direction

Forecasting the future price of an underlying asset can be a very tricky task indeed. On the upside, there are only 2 possibilities whilst trading binary options. The skill of the binary options trader is picking the right underlying asset to invest. Please take into account that the anyoption™ binary options trading platform allows investors to choose from a pre-defined time, meaning that when you purchase an option/underlying asset, you have a choice of choosing end-of-hour, end-of-day, end-of-week, and even end-of-month.  These numerous investment options provide binary options traders with a diverse amount of investment opportunities. Therefore, the chance to make attractive profits increase manifold.

Underlying Assets – Summary

The main thing that binary options traders need to take into account whilst trading binary options is that the more experience you have the better.  Thus the longer you trade with different types of underling assets, your knowledge of both the financial markets and binary options is set to multiply. So what are you waiting for? Why note visit anyoption™ now to see for yourself the countless binary options investment opportunities? You should also read other interesting articles that will assist in you in while you trade binary options.

© 2010, Binary Options. All rights reserved.

Underlying Assets - Binary Options

1. Choose a binary options trading platform that offers at least 65-70% returns

One of the many advantages of binary options trading is that the pay-out is determined in advance so the investor is completely aware of what they would earn, or even lose before the expiration of the option. To reap the benefits of a earning with binary options you only need to be in-the-money by 0.001, whether the underlying asset’s movement was great or small. Given this, you should ensure that the binary options trading platform you choose will give you the biggest pay-out possible so you can maximize your earnings. After all, if you could get more for your money, why wouldn’t you?

2. Trade on a platform that offers a return, even when the outcome is an out-of-the-money result

As frustrating as it is when you are presented with an out-of-the-money result, all may not be lost if you trade with a site that offers investors a payback, even for a disappointing outcome like this. There are binary options trading platforms, few that they are, that do offer as much as a 15% return on all out-of-the-money results which is a great advantage to consider when narrowing down different trading platforms choices to suit you.

3.  Choose a trading platform that offers a wide range of assets

With the media being a great tool for investors trading in binary options one can keep up-to-date with news of movements and fluctuations in the main markets. Financial news reports and online figure charts provide a good scope to make backed decisions when making a bet. This said, the wider the options of assets a site has to choose from and the more known that the assets are provide the investor with better ground when all fingers from outside sources are pointing to particular movements. You wouldn’t want to limit yourself to a site that has slim pickings when there are those who can open the doors to a wider and richer choice.

4.  Be aware of platforms with excess charges

With money coming in and hopefully not too much going out, the last thing an investor needs from an online binary options platform is additional charges that may be applied for things like depositing money. Look out for sites that charge extra for these things and luckily there are sites that charge no such fees.

5. Select a trading platform that has a promising customer service obligation

Whether you’re just a beginner or old-hat at trading binary options, there may be times when you will need advice or support when trading online. Whether it’s technical queries or some simple guidelines, a good customer services team is an important factor when choosing a binary options trading platform and can be an essential piece of the puzzle in smoothing over some lines, making way for some successful returns. Many sites have local help-line numbers for every country they service.

6. Use a trading platform that resources good security measures

Now this is important stuff. For your binary options trading platform to be completely safe for you to use, the most necessary element to look out for is encryption, being sure that it is equipped with 128 bit SSL encryption from a market leading security provider. This acts as your only protection against online theft.

© 2010, Binary Options. All rights reserved.

Binary Options – Useful tips on how to choose the right binary options trading platform - Binary Options

Survival Glossary term # 1

Underlying Asset – This is a financial asset on which the price of a derivative depends on, as in a value that depends on another value. They come in the form of commodities such as oil and copper, indexes such as the Nasdaq and FTSE 100, stock such as Microsoft and Coca Cola and currency pairs such EUR/GBP and AUD/USD. Here at anyoption we offer trading on 61 underlying assets.

Survival Glossary term # 2

Call Option – This is one choice of options you can choose from when trading. When you place a call option on a chosen asset you would receive a profit if the asset expired at an increased level compared to that of it when it was purchased. For example, let’s say you choose to put a $200 Call option on British Petroleum which currently stands at 405.859 and offers a 70% return rate. If the option expires at even 0.001 above the strike price, at 405.860 for example, you would win the 70% return ($140) plus your original $200 premium back ($340 in total).

Survival Glossary term # 3

Put Option – At the opposite end to a Call option, a Put option provides the investor with a profit when the asset expires below the original purchase price and gives the buyer the right to sell stock at a pre-determined price. These options are often used to protect stock holdings from losses in the event of a decline in the market. For example, you purchase a Put option on the S&P Future of $100 which currently stands at 1,094.561 and has a 67% return rate as you feel it might drop from its current price. With a Put option, if the option expires below the original purchase price, by even 0.001 at 1,094.560 for example, you would win the 67% return ($67) plus your original $100 ($167 in total).

Survival Glossary term # 4

Expiry Time – Anyoption currently offers binary options with hourly, daily, weekly and monthly expiry times. The expiry time of an option is the time and date at which an option expires. Expiry times can be used as a tool when trading. For example, the lunchtime financial report advises that the EUR is up against the USD and looks to continue that way for now. A Call option with a 1-hour expiration time for this currency pair could be the early bird that caught that worm and because the expiration time is so short you can be sure the worm wouldn’t get away before the next report is due.

Survival Glossary term # 5

In-The-Money/Out-Of-The-Money – Quite simply, in-the-money is when the price at the time of expiry will earn your return of X% plus your initial premium. For Call options, an in-the-money result would occur when the expiry price is higher than the price at purchase and for a Put option you would be in-the-money if the price at expiration was lower than the price at purchase. Out-of-the-money results would be opposing results for each option.
Now you that have your tools, go get started!

© 2010, Binary Options. All rights reserved.

Binary Options Glossary – breaking down the lingo - Binary Options

Unlike the stock market where there are over ten thousand potential stocks, in commodities there are only ever about forty futures to trade in, making it an easy market to follow. At anyoption.com we offer trading on four of the most major commodity options available on the market; copper, gold, oil and silver.

Let’s take a look at gold for example, which has notably always been a safe option for investors, what with the current economical situation as it is, some people are more wary when investing in the stock market. In contrast, the price of this precious metal is never low and even the experts are saying that gold trading will definitely continue to be a great way to invest money, presenting it as one of the wiser commodity options for us binary traders.

The price of gold rises and falls in a short span of time and does so by large amounts, so when you’re looking at the short 1-hour expiration times that are common when trading in binary options, gold is seen as a safe bet in ‘striking the iron before it freezes’. As when investing in any market it is always important to keep track of the price of gold and also to educate yourself about the factors that will affect the price of commodity options.

For example, when there is economic uncertainty, investors tend to pull out of stock markets and put their money into safer investments like gold which would obviously affect the value of it greatly. As such, the value of the dollar is a good tool when predicting the value of gold. When the dollar is weak, it costs more to buy gold and so the price rises. Up-to-date information is always essential as well when profit or loss depends on a small move in the price and so paying close attention to every movement in the value will put you in a good position to make an informed prediction.

So let’s put these tips into practice with an example. The current price of gold stands at 1,188.71 and your purchase a 1-hour expiration Call option. At the same time you are keeping a close eye on the current value of the dollar which, from a financial news report you heard this morning, is not doing so well and is predicted to fall lower over the next couple of days.

Mean while, you have been closely watching the movement of gold in the last half  hour and it has continued to rise steadily.  This news puts you in good stead. With less than 30 minutes to go before it expires, victory is looking bright for gold commodity options. You put $400 on this call option and with a 70% return your well thought-out execution pays off. The price finishes at 1,188.81 which means that you walk away with $680 ($280 from the 70% return plus your original $400).

So gold, among other commodity options can offer the investor a safer haven to investing when the other markets seem like scary ventures. Easy to follow and pretty to look at, it seems gold is the new black in the world of binary options trading. Go to anyoption.com today to start reaping the benefits from this ever favourite investment.

© 2010, Binary Options. All rights reserved.

Commodity Options – Get the ‘raw’ deal with gold options - Binary Options

Take Profit Feature

The best way to describe this useful feature is with a practical example. Let’s say you purchased binary options on a few currency pairs on Monday morning with an end-of-day expiry time. After reading the morning’s financial updates, you suddenly become skeptical about the $100 Call option you purchased on the USD/JPY binary options currency pair with a 70% return rate. The latest data points to a slide in the USD and you think the numbers might not be in your favor by the day’s end.

This is where Anyoption’s new Take Profit feature comes in. Now you can lock in profit before an asset’s expiry time, while its price is still in-the-money. So in this case, you could check the binary options trading page on our website to see if your USD/JPY trade appears in the Take Profit list 15 minutes before expiry time. If it does, and it is currently in-the-money, you can choose to lock in this option’s profit before the end of the day for a premium fee.

Roll Forward Feature

Basically, Roll Forward is the opposite of the Take Profit feature because it allows you to postpone the expiry time of purchased binary options. Let’s use the USD/JPY example again; only in this scenario your $100 Call option with a 70% return rate has an end-of-hour expiry time set for 16:00. It’s 15:45 and disappointingly, you are currently out-of-the-money on this one. You have a strong educated hunch though, that the price will shoot back into the money by the end of the day so you choose to roll forward your expiry time for one more hour.

These features really come in handy when you feel that your binary options trades need just a bit of a tweak to reap their returns. In the situation above, the Roll Forward feature could really rescue your trade. When the extended hour comes to a close and you find yourself in-the-money, a $170 return falls in your lap. After paying the $30 Roll Forward premium in this case, you are still left with a $140 profit. That’s better than losing almost your entire investment all together, had you not chosen to Roll Forward.

Don’t misunderstand us here. We don’t recommend that you use these features with every trade you make that isn’t going your way or that you predict will go sour before expiry. We encourage traders to use the Take Profit and Roll Forward features only on a small number of binary options trades that you predict, through educated guessing, will experience a change in movement. It is also important to take into consideration the amount of money you invest, the return rate and the performance of your other binary options investments. These features are meant to improve the big picture, not just single trades. So use them wisely and evaluate their influence on your overall profits overtime.

© 2010, Binary Options. All rights reserved.

2 New Ways to Boost Your Binary Options Profits - Binary Options

Therefore, trading in binary index options is preferred by many as the investor is able to obtain the same level of diversification without dealing with individual stocks and getting into individual issues which could amount to many more transactions and therefore is more costly.

Now that we’re past the technical stuff, let’s talk practical. Look at the S&P 500 Index for example, just one of anyoption’s 23 index options available to trade on and the most widely followed index of large-cap American stocks. This index includes 500 leading US companies in major industries of the US economy, alone capturing, 75% coverage of all US equities. The S&P 500 index is made of big names such as Apple Inc (Information Technology), Johnson & Johnson (Healthcare) and JP Morgan Chase and Co (Financial).

Trading binary future options on this index gives the investor exposure to the market efficiently and cheaply, rather than the expense of betting on single components separately. This can be useful for investors who have an idea about where the markets are headed but who don’t want to worry about individual stocks or commodities. After all, it is rare that an individual would own and be able to profitably monitor all 500 stocks in the S&P 500!

Trading in index options also allows investors to trade in particular sections of the market on a larger scale. For example, at anyoption we offer the following indices that specialise in specific segments of the market:

DAX (Deutscher Aktien Index) – representing 30 of the largest and most liquid German companies operating on the Frankfurt exchange.
FTSE 100 (Financial Times Stock Exchange), otherwise known as the footsie – representing 100 of the largest British companies that trade on the London Stock Exchange.
CAC (Continuous Assisted Quoatation) – The French Stock Market that tracks the 40 largest French stocks that trade on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The ease and simplicitiy of monitoring and understanding price changes in the stock indices can be of an advantage when trading in index options. Because they consist of well-known, frequently referenced companies in the media, the burden of keeping informed on the movement of indices is kept to a minimum. The indices are price-weighted so this means that a price change in any of the stocks will have an equal effect on the index.

It could take as little as a lunch-time financial news report that puts you in a good position to make a backed decision on the movement of an index option. In this example let’s say that you are informed that the FTSE 100 is up 4,914.220 and is continuing to rise. With the easy online accessibility of anyoption, within minutes of hearing this news you could be placing a Call option of say $300 on a 1 hour expiry time with a 70% return. If the financial news report is anything to go by and the option expires in-the-money, even by 0.001, you would be receiving a healthy return of $510 ($210 of the 70% and $300 of your original premium). That’s the icing on the cake to a satisfying lunch stop.

So the simplicity of index options seems to be a winning tool to its growth and open interest, which gives us a clear indication of its growing liquidity. The exposure it gives us to the market  in exchange for a marginally small premium makes these compact, no-fuss options a great route to investing for those of us who would frankly rather not get into too much detail.

© 2010 – 2011, Binary Options. All rights reserved.

Index Options – Stocks in a nutshell - Binary Options

To start, with confidence, a strong eagerness to grow and prosper coupled with a high savings rate; Asia offers many lucrative opportunities for traders including fixed return options. Asia is the world’s largest and most populous continent. Japan placed second on the IMF’s GDP list for 2009 after the United States and China followed in third. Asian countries are growing rapidly as middle and upper-middle classes are emerging with plenty of money and a desire to spend it.

By 2020, more than 1.2 billion people are projected to have a per-capita GDP of more than $5,000, according to the IMF and the World Bank. Analysts predict that this growth and willingness to spend will make the American post-WWII growth look like peanuts.

And so investors, including digital options investors, are heading East these days for higher returns as growth continues to be sluggish in the developed world. For digital options or binary options, anyoption offers a wide range of Asian-based assets to invest in. Here’s the run down:

Bombay 30 Index: Contains 30 of the largest and most traded stocks from various sections on the Bombay Stock Exchange. This index is also known as the BSE Sensex.

Hang Seng Index: Consists of 41 of the largest companies traded on the Hong Kong Exchange like China Mobile, Cathay Pacific and Bank of China.

Jakarta Index: a modified capitalization-weighted index of all stocks listed on the regular board of the Indonesia Stock Exchange.

KLSE Future: A contract on the KLSE index that consists of the 100 biggest Malaysian companies.

SSE180 (China): This index tracks the daily price performance of the 180 most representative A-share stocks listed in Shanghai.
Fixed return options traders can also purchase Call and Put options on the EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY and USD/JPY currency pairs at anyoption. So as you can see there is quite a variety of Asian assets to choose from in digital options. There is also a growing prominence of Asian markets. In late 2009, the FTSE promoted South Korea to Developed Country status. China’s A shares and Taiwan may be next.

Most analysts predict that China will lead the Asian and possibly global recovery as consumer spending heightens and credit markets loosen. It is already apparent that the Chinese middle-class is spending heavily to improve their lifestyle. In addition, urbanization is sweeping the continent as more people from rural areas to the cities in search of a ‘better life.’ This will lead to higher incomes, better educational opportunities and higher spending to improve quality of life.

If you already have experience trading digital options, you’re probably familiar with the basic prediction you must make when purchasing a Call or Put binary option. Will the spot price go or down and by when? That’s about as much as you need to know about Asian markets in order to get started. We recommend that you do a thorough, yet focused financial news scan before you submit any digital options trades. When we say focused, we mean that you should concentrate on one or two markets only, understand them very well, study their movements and purchase fixed return options on them exclusively.

We believe in not putting your eggs all in one basket, but in this case, it’s worth narrowing it down, at least in the beginning. Knowledge is power, so become an Asian market expert in a few countries and enjoy the influx of steady returns…

© 2010 – 2011, Binary Options. All rights reserved.

Looking East: Digital Options in Asian Markets - Binary Options

Purchase a Call or Put option

The most straightforward binary options trading strategy is purchasing either a Call or put option. The advantage of this strategy is that it is very simple. For example, if you invest $500 in a Put option of the EUR/USD, end-of-hour, then for example, with anyoption™, if the pair finishes trading lower by the end of the hour, you get $850. Even if the option you purchased finishes trading out-of-the-money, you still receive 15% return of your initial investment.

Purchasing both a Call and a Put option

Increasingly popular binary options trading strategy nowadays is that when traders are often in the middle of a trade, and they see that their option will finish trading out-of-the-money, they buy an options in the reverse direction. For example, if you invest $100 buy an end-of day Call option of Nasdaq at a strike price of $1,1800, and if after a few hours you feel, the option is going against you, you may think about several binary options trading strategies. One of the most straightforward of these binary options trading strategies is buying a Put option of the same value ($100). By choosing this binary option trading strategy, at least you can minimize your potential losses.

Doubling your trades

One of the most popular binary options trading strategies for advanced traders is doubling your trades. Let’s say that you purchased a $100 Put option of Dow Jones at 10,033. If the trade is going in your favor and trading below this level, then purchasing another Put option may be an attractive binary option trading strategy to adopt. The benefit of this is that you can make very high profit on your initial investments. Binary options trading strategies such as this are usually only adopted by binary options traders that have advanced knowledge of the financial markets.

Market pull strategy

One of the most straightforward, but tricky of all the binary options trading strategies is the market pull strategy. The idea of this binary options trading strategy is to invest in either a Call or Put Option on dramatic changes in the financial markets. For example, news was leaked that the dollar will plummet, and then a skilled binary options trader may purchase a Put option of USD/JPY. The basis of this binary option trading strategy is that the pair will decline. Therefore, the trader will receive high profits. Many binary options traders have made huge profits from this binary options trading strategy.

Minimal experience necessary

The binary options trading strategies that you can employ during your binary options trading experience are countless. The basic binary options trading tip for employing different binary options trading strategies is that you’re the boss. This means that you should do what’s right for you, as you should choose the binary option trading strategy that best suits both you and your trading style. You should also take into account that most successful binary options traders simultaneously adopt different binary options trading strategies. Therefore, the more binary options trading experience that you have – the better.

© 2010 – 2011, Binary Options. All rights reserved.

Binary Options Trading Strategies - Binary Options

This basically means that, as a part-owner, you would have claim on the company’s assets. This can be a good investment if luck is on your side but when buying stocks an investor would need a big chunk of capital and then it’s just a case of sitting tight and waiting for a lucky break. Binary stock options offer investors the luxury of investing in the same stocks minus the commitment to ownership and the lay-out of capital.

Binary stock options are simply the right, but not the obligation to buy shares of an underlying stock, at a given price and at a defined time in the future. So, instead of forking out a sum of money to physically purchase a stock, stock options offers leverage and with this one can reap the benefits of a price increase in the value of an asset with less money than buying the asset outright. Otherwise known as a “no tears” investment.

For example, let’s say you decide to purchase binary stock options with McDonald’s Corporation. You read a financial report the other day that there has been increasing international growth in the multi-national food chain and you have seen by following day-to-day reports that their figures are on the rise.

Their current stock price stands at 67.730 and you decide to put $200 on a Call option in the hope that the price will rise before the 1 hour expiration, even just by 0.001. With a 70% return you could be in with a high chance of walking away with $340 (70% of the premium in winnings plus the original $200). And if the stock option expires out-of-the-money, here at anyoption we offer 15% return on out-of-the-money expirations so your losses are kept to a minimum.

One of the benefits of trading in stock options is that you are aware from the onset of what your potential losses are and you can never lose more than the initial premium, definitely offering a certain amount of security for investors. Looking again at the McDonald’s stock option, if you then wanted to secure yourself even further and minimize your losses you could purchase a Put option if you felt the stock might drop but you didn’t want to sell.

So, in this case, if the price took a sudden fall to 67.728 from 67.730 you could purchase a Put option which would give you the right to sell the stock at the strike price of 67.728. If the stock does fall to say 67.726 you could exercise the option and sell at the higher price for a profit.  So here we see, different from simply buying assets outright and waiting for a win-fall, the leverage of stock options can be used in attempt to make more money from a price movement than we would from simply buying it like you would do with regular stocks.

For your investing needs, at anyoption we offer a large base of 18 leading stock options to choose from, from the American corporations such as Microsoft, Apple and Coca Cola to the European companies such as Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Vodafone. Our clear website offers an easy, straightforward route to investing in stock options.

With uncomplicated explanations of the already simple market terminology and up-to-the-minute breaking financial news, anyoption makes this already thriving trading platform something accessible to even the beginners among us. Suddenly investing in stocks doesn’t seem like such a scary game.

© 2010 – 2011, Binary Options. All rights reserved.

The benefits of Binary Stock Options - Binary Options