Want binaries banned in Europe? Provide evidence NOW!

[AsstModerator]

Want binaries banned in Europe?
Provide evidence NOW!​

Have you been scammed by a binary options broker? Would you like to see the European Securities and Markets Authority ban binary options? If so, you need to provide evidence now.


What's going on

EMSA, the European Securities and Markets Authority is considering restricting or completely banning binary options. They want input by February 5th, 2018. I don't know if they mean it must be received before February 5th or before February 5th, so please try to get your submission submitted by February 4th. If you miss the deadline, there's nothing the FPA can do about it.

You may also post your information below if you want to share it here, but that does not submit the information to EMSA. You must submit your own information to EMSA yourself.

The call for evidence covers binaries, CFDS, and even crypto trading. The second 2 subjects are important, but the FPA considers the possibility of getting binaries banned to be the most important part. If you have input about CFDs or cryptocurrency trading, go ahead and submit it.


Your information CAN help get binaries banned

People often ask why they should bother to complain, since the regulators don't do anything. In this case, the regulator is asking for evidence. This is your chance to share your experiences and know that the regulators will be looking at it.

Right now, there are binary companies submitting their own comments, claiming that binaries are a wonderful and fair opportunity for traders to make money. What happens if victims of binary scams say nothing and the brokers are the only ones who comment? Little or nothing. What happens if thousands of victims come forward, tell their stories and provide evidence? If this happens, the best binary brokers can hope for is very tight regulations. The more likely option is that binary options gets banned in Europe. This would be a huge step towards ending binary options worldwide.

My message to everyone who was scammed by any binary options company is simple. If you want to help put an end to binary options, follow the link and submit your evidence.


Submitting your evidence to EMSA

Here's what the submission form looks like...



Let me try to clarify a few points on the form.

Activity: I suggest selecting "Individual" from the drop down list.

Institution in this case would be the binary company which caused the problem. To further make it plain that you were not an employee, I suggest writing "Client of" followed by the name of the binary broker. If you have been scammed by more than one binary broker, fill out a form for each one.

Your response and other evidence must be uploaded as files. As it says, you can only upload pdf, txt, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, pps, ppsx, odt, ods, or odp files. Zip files are not an option. Images are important, but cannot be included as separate files. Include your images in a document or power point presentation.

You get a choice about whether or not your submission will be publicly published on EMSA's website. If you want the world to see what the broker did, you can leave the box checked. If you prefer not to have it publicly visible, check the box. If you do plan for your submission to be public, edit out anything you don't want published from your files before submitting them. Your credit card numbers, bank details, and other personal info should be edited out first.

This is going to regulators who are familiar with complaints against binary options companies. Saying things like "they are the biggest scammers in the world" isn't going to help. Saying "Here is the evidence of how they would not process my withdrawal" is helpful, if you include the evidence.


What kind of evidence should be included?

Start with the name of the company. The date you opened an account. How much you initially deposited. Did the "account manager" trade for you or tell you to make trades? Were you pressured into making more deposits? Were your withdrawals blocked? If you have screenshots or emails to support any of this, include those.

Do you have evidence of price manipulation? Something like 2 hedged trades on the same item with the same expiration date both losing? Price suddenly moving to cause your trade to lose while another price feed doesn't show any sign of movement? If you have anything like this, tell about it and include images if possible.

If you chose to have EMSA publish your submission, remember to edit out any private information before submitting the documents.


Need more information?

If you wish to read all the details, CLICK HERE to access the whole document on EMSA's website.


Ready to give your evidence?

Are you ready to provide information? CLICK HERE to go to the response from on EMSA's website.



I'd like to thank FPA member retribution2u for bringing this to the FPA's attention.

 

[Pharaoh]

A little followup on AsstMod's encouragement for binary victims to report these companies:

If binary victims from around the world hadn't reported to the FBI and US Regulators, then the FBI wouldn't have had the evidence needed to arrest the person behind some binary brokerages or raid the offices of Spot Option. If victims from around the world hadn't complained to the ISA, the Knesset wouldn't have banned binary options in Israel. Binaries have also been banned in Canada and Belgium.

Now is the time. If you've been ripped off, strike back! A little bit of effort by each victim who reads this thread can remove binaries from a big group of countries. Each country they lose legal access to makes it harder for binary scammers to stay ahead of the law. Each country they lose makes finding new victims harder. Sooner or later, these scammers will have to disappear or they will be caught. This will only happen if victims keep reporting them.

You could sit back and do nothing. That way the scammers can keep steal money from other people, maybe even your friends and family. Maybe your boss will even "invest" the company pension fund in binaries. More lives will be ruined and the criminals will have a big party to celebrate.

Do you want to fight the binary broker scammers, or do you want to surrender? I say it's time for all FPA soldiers who were scammed by binaries to use this golden opportunity to fight back against these scammers!

 

[ruseneca]

I've already filled the form and I suggest every victim in Europe does the same!
The deadline is 5 Feb, on 8 Feb ESMA will host a public discussion with individuals and companies.
What ESMA proposes is to ban binary options because the percent of clients losing funds is high. For CFD products, it is proposed a decrease in the leverage to 1:20.
Apart from this, all companies will be required to publish data about the percentage of losing and winning clients.

I know that companies will do their best to oppose ESMA proposals, so every complaint is in plus for us, individuals.

 

[BinaryLad]

Why do we have to get them banned ? I'm profitable for over 4 years with Binaries, every year. It provides me a very good living for minimal risk and I only work 3 weeks a month which suits me. To me they key is that they are the simplest way to trade the market as whilst I know the market is going to reverse, pause, pull-back through mathematical algo's and trading rules I don't know by how much (and don't need to worry about that part of the algo).

The reason so many people loose is:
1) The "brokers" make them lose through price manipulation and other unscrupulous practices
2) Non-regulated or incompetent regulators don't take action
3) Marketing / sales tactics get people who have no clue get involved with trading
4) Too many people that don't know what they are doing or have the skill set to be a trader
5) People think it's a get rich quick scheme - it's not as it takes hard work, skills, discipline and a lot of knowledge to succeed (this applies regardless of what product is used to trade the markets)
6) No idea about risk or financial management
7) People with addictive / gambling tendencies get involved

The plus for Binaries are:
1) You know exactly what your P&L (and risk) is before entering a trade (OK if placing SL's and TP's correctly this is also true of most products except fees / margin calls or course)
2) No fees, which in other products can be very complex
3) No leverage - I can never understand people, unless you are very experienced, using leverage
4) You are just predicting market direction, not market direction and magnitude of that direction

I think the public should be allowed to trade the markets if they want for a living, many people and companies do. Binaries when there is a level regulated playing field to me is the simplest way to trade the markets successfully.

Simply the regulators need to do their jobs and set a level playing field - that's what they are there for and it's their responsibility. They are just being lazy and taking the easy option if they ban them. If they do ban them they won't go away, just go to locations where regulators can't touch them and 100% will be scam. Plus I'd have to go and get a "proper" job.

I'm putting together a paper for the ESMA consultation to detail the above and outlining that the problem is not binaries but their lack of regulation and action. A scam is a scam, doesn't matter what is being used to perpetrate the scam.

 

[ruseneca]

I think the public should be allowed to trade the markets if they want for a living, many people and companies do. Binaries when there is a level regulated playing field to me is the simplest way to trade the markets successfully.

The problem is that the law always has a backdoor! And companies always find one. In case of an issue, noone will be able to help you. Neither Ombudsmen, nor the regulator. You've just lost some money and that's all.
With BO, your result depends on a miliseconds sometimes and it is an instrument that is classified as "betting" in some countries. I you want to bet, just go to a regulated and licensed casino.
SpotOption was just caught in manipulation and casinos cannot manipulate the outcome, it is all based on the chance which in the long term is in casino's favour, this is simple math.They don't need to manipulate anything.

I used to be successul trader as well until Iqoption started to manipulate the platorm by sending new and new upgrades. They were executing options with 30 sec. latency at different prices which was a breach in the contract, changing the outcome of winning options to "loss". And after that, they simply quote a term in their contract that they are not responsible for ANYTHING!
The idea of BO companies is to limit the number of winning clients and increase the number of losing ones. This is the only way that they get profits. There's no other way.
The above-mentioned broker is regulated but even the law cannot cope with such scam schemes. If you cannot control something, you just ban it!
To you - get a proper daily job, betting on markets, on sport results etc. cannot be classified as a job!
One day you will become a devil for your broker and they will start scamming you!

 

[BinaryLad]

The problem is that the law always has a backdoor! And companies always find one. In case of an issue, noone will be able to help you. Neither Ombudsmen, nor the regulator. You've just lost some money and that's all.
With BO, your result depends on a miliseconds sometimes and it is an instrument that is classified as "betting" in some countries. I you want to bet, just go to a regulated and licensed casino.
SpotOption was just caught in manipulation and casinos cannot manipulate the outcome, it is all based on the chance which in the long term is in casino's favour, this is simple math.They don't need to manipulate anything.

I used to be successul trader as well until Iqoption started to manipulate the platorm by sending new and new upgrades. They were executing options with 30 sec. latency at different prices which was a breach in the contract, changing the outcome of winning options to "loss". And after that, they simply quote a term in their contract that they are not responsible for ANYTHING!
The idea of BO companies is to limit the number of winning clients and increase the number of losing ones. This is the only way that they get profits. There's no other way.
The above-mentioned broker is regulated but even the law cannot cope with such scam schemes. If you cannot control something, you just ban it!
To you - get a proper daily job, betting on markets, on sport results etc. cannot be classified as a job!
One day you will become a devil for your broker and they will start scamming you!

My point exactly, the type of behaviour you describe is nothing to do with the type of product / contract you are using to trade the markets. The forum is full of accounts of this type of behaviour that has nothing to do with binaries. The lack of regulation or effective regulators (IQ is CySec i.e. not effective) creates an environment for scammers to operate in.

Ultra short term expiries are gambling. I wouldn't go near that. There is no such thing as a market trend over these short periods of time. If trading the markets is gambling then ban it all (not just binaries), at least for any individual unless they can prove they have the required skills, experience, etc. Some sort of registration maybe as is the case if you work at a company in this capacity. Trading the markets, when regulated by a proper regulator that provides a level-playing field, is not gambling. There is no such thing as quantifiable trends on a roulette wheel, etc. Markets do though and mathematical models / indicators can be applied - which I hope is what traders on this site are doing.

A good example would be Nadex. You can't say if they did what these scam platforms did they would get away with it. They are regulated by a reputable and effective regulator. Regardless of the trading products offered / used this is what's required. Therefore if you only trade with a reputable / well regulated broker you just need to focus on your algo, strategy, trading rules, risk / financial management, etc. and choose the trading product that works for your style of trading, strategy and goals. That's not gambling unless all trading of financial markets is gambling (that's a different debate).

Like mentioned, if you only need to worry about direction and period (binary options) it's a lot easier to model then direction, period and magnitude (CFD, physicals, etc.). P&L and risk is also easier to quantify with a binary option (Fixed Return Option) making risk / financial management more easily quantifiable, less variables.

The "proper" job comment was just a bit of levity - sorry. I always tell people it's not a job, just a way of making money that provides a life-style I like and want at this moment in my life - reasonable working hours, 14-16 days a month, I'm here when the kids wake-up and return home from school, etc.

I have no wish to start some sort of argument, I agree with your comments when in the context of scam brokers and / or those with no or ineffective regulation. I just want to make some points which I think are very important and valid about binary options as a product for trading financial markets when the broker is not a scammer and regulated by a reputable regulator that takes action for breaches of it's regulation.

 

[oscarra]

No Nadex in europe, but we have Spotoptionexchange

 

[BinaryLad]

The point I keep making is if we did have binary platforms, for example like Nadex, which has regulation enforced by a reputable regulator they are an advantageous vehicle to make money from trading financial markets due to the points I have made, given that the trader has the required skills. Binary options as a product actually have advantages as noted and are not inherently the problem.

Any financial product provided to the public needs some sort of regulation enforced by a reputable and accountable regulator otherwise it should not be allowed period. I think it's a copout on the part of the regulators to simply ban it without banning all the other rip-off products out there as well.

I've made some valid points, lets discuss those.

 

[ruseneca]

I have no wish to start some sort of argument, I agree with your comments when in the context of scam brokers and / or those with no or ineffective regulation. I just want to make some points which I think are very important and valid about binary options as a product for trading financial markets when the broker is not a scammer and regulated by a reputable regulator that takes action for breaches of it's regulation.

Let me clarify something! The ban is intended to restrict the usage o binary options, not normal vanilla options where you can always hedge your risks. Serious brokers can always offer this type of product which in not only regulated but exchange-traded.
Binary options are not exchange-traded. In Europe, there's OTC market which is controlled by SpotOption. Taking into account that 99% of their clients are scammers and use the manipulation softwares SpotOption provides to them to limit their risks, the inner SpotOption exchange is completely worthless.

I do respect your point of view but the situation here is similar to ICOs. What regulators do is to ban ICOs and thus protect potential investors, not to set up a legislation which may favour scammers and legalize the scam schemes.
This does not work, there are many findings, many countries have experience on that. The only way is to ban the instrument and tell investors: "Trading this type of instrument guarantees 100% loss of your money. If you are looking to lose some money, simply donate to charity!" If someone wants to trade options - there are regulated instruments! Using binary options is not trading, it's betting - you bet on whether the price will be higher or lower than a price ( strike ) after some time. And here is how brokers can manipulate! Firstly, they can offer you a BO with expiry time of 5 minutes ( or they might not! ). Secondly, they can manipulate the win percent. For example, Iqoption always advertise 80%-87%. They usually offer 50%-60% or they increase the payout rate of instruments with very high volatility. Guess who favours the high volatility - you, as a trader, or the "broker". You may want to purchase a BO with expiy time ater a month - broker can easily check the situation in the options or futures markets and say "Oh, no, we cannot offer you BO with expiry time after a month, you can purchase such option after 2 weeks", for example, when the price will be different and not on your favour.

As per Nadex, it is US-based broker, we are talking about a potential ban in the European Union which includes 28 countries, or 27, if we exclude UK as they prepare to leave the union.

Institutional investors, funds, insurers etc. do not use binary options so there's no point to offer this instrument to institutions only.

 

[megabizland]

sorry i play binary no more. it was veryyy looong time ago