A similar ban on binary options bets has been introduced by the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) on 2nd of July, 2018. The European measure, however, is still temporary in nature and need to be extended every 6 months.
Another difference is that FCA extends its restrictions on the so called ‘securitised binary options’ that were excluded by ESMA.
“Binary options are gambling products dressed up as financial instruments. By confirming our ban today we are ensuring that investors don’t lose money from an inherently flawed product”, says Christopher Woolard, Executive Director of Strategy & Competition at the FCA.
Personally I like Binary Options - I hope this ban only applies to UK brokers though, as I’m actively trading them with an Aussie broker.
Bit frustrating to say the least though.
Things like that couldn’t go on indefinitely. There is so much shady things going on in stocks, options, forex and crypty and various bizopps, that such government actions are only a matter of time really. Thanks to the god I am not located in the UK and didn’t affected by that.
If binary options are banned across the major markets (UK, EU, US, Japan, Australia, Canada, etc), can we expect the binary options section and threads on BabyPips to be closed?
I was wondering about that too.
Personally I hope that it won’t be, the Asian market is massive and binary options are legal in most jurisdictions there, as far as I know. There are a lot of English-speaking Asian traders who can and do find their way here, they may want to discuss the issues related to binary options too.
Still not banned in the US. I’m seeing Nadex ads on this site. I suppose when it’s banned in the US too being that this site is based in the US. Wouldn’t make sense for them to keep that section up.
I think that this is going to be permanent ban. I don’t have nothing against binary options trading, but indeed, they tend to be very risky. It is not at all easy to make right decision when to buy option and let along that there are not so much risk management tools which can be applied
That’ sounds like a reasonable assumption. But given the status of some of the bans as mentioned by others (the ESMA extended their ban only until Jun 2019), and the fact that binary options trading is still allowed in the US, it makes since to keep the section open.
Perhaps even if a complete ban comes down the line, globally, we’ll just make the section read-only with disclaimers that this form of trading is no longer legal or allowed in certain markets.
So currently, we’re taking a wait and see approach.
But at least now, less people will fall victim to this. 