can you trade Binaries / Fixed Odds for a full time living: disscussion

[clbfjc]

Hi,

Does anyone here trade binaries / fixed odds products full time for a living. And are they making decent money from them. I used to trade futures at a prop firm, recently I have had to get into a more stable role at a fund managers due to having children, however I like the idea of using betonmarkets / ig ladders on a part time basis, maybe in the future on a more permant basis. I like the fact that you have fixed liabilty and you wont be stoped out only to see the market go in your favour. Obvioulsy most of us have had that experience v.frustrating. Using these products obviously allow you to stay in the market.

Trying to start a thread on this subject and would like people opinons, trading techniques, i.e do they scalp and trade many times a day looking for small profits or do people trade them a few times a day / week looking for larger profits.

It may be the case people feel these products cant be used as full time income stream. So comments please.

 

[donaldduke]

you can make enough to live on, however like most forms of trading its not a steady income stream.. you cant make money every month.. you will have losing months and long periods when you dont really want to be betting due to market conditions being out of synch with your preffered style.

there will also be the issue of being dependant on the binary bet firms for a living.. some have closed down in the past or just stopped offering binaries.

 

[clbfjc]

I belive reading an FT article this week that IG and Betonmarkets are going to increase exposure to the binary markets but other than these two players I do not belive there are other companies in the area..

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2cb03578-7362-11df-ae73-00144feabdc0.html,

This said I am sure you can make a decent amount of money using binaries either full time or part time.

 

[D70]

1. Spreads are too large for scalping.
2. Make sure you build your option pricing model.
3. Pay close attention to vol and be on the right side of it (especially with regards to pricing).

Good luck.

 

[ns1000]

In all honesty I'd look at other products. as D70 says, spread will kill you in the long run. I'd be reluctant to limit myself to binaries if it was my livelihood.

 

[shadowninja]

The dependency on IG Index for my particular style of binary trading got me looking into "proper" trading.

 

[clbfjc]

How about, if trading over a longer term timeframe, ie a week or a month...

 

[pssonice]

"How about, if trading over a longer term timeframe, ie a week or a month..."

do u know about a single longterm trend of a financial instrument wo any huge pullback and snapback ?
Gold i.e. snaped back severall times by 15%...20%. would u hold your long position if gold is snaping back 10% within a week?

 

[Vandalay]

I think binaries are perhaps one of the best ways to trade for a living, IF it is used to manage risk correctly.

I don't use binaries to trade on pullbacks etc as they are too unpredictable and leave you pretty open.

The beauty of the instrument is the predictability of it. I based my basic strategy on the premise that 'if the binary is >80 in mid afternoon it isnt all that likely to reverse'. It has been refined a lot from that point over the last 6 months.

 

[Sharepunter]

Hi,

Does anyone here trade binaries / fixed odds products full time for a living. And are they making decent money from them. I used to trade futures at a prop firm, recently I have had to get into a more stable role at a fund managers due to having children, however I like the idea of using betonmarkets / ig ladders on a part time basis, maybe in the future on a more permant basis. I like the fact that you have fixed liabilty and you wont be stoped out only to see the market go in your favour. Obvioulsy most of us have had that experience v.frustrating. Using these products obviously allow you to stay in the market.

Trying to start a thread on this subject and would like people opinons, trading techniques, i.e do they scalp and trade many times a day looking for small profits or do people trade them a few times a day / week looking for larger profits.

It may be the case people feel these products cant be used as full time income stream. So comments please.

I have just taken the plunge and gone full-time trading binaries after recording 23 profitable months trading out of the last 24.
I like binaries because one's maximum potential profit and loss is known at the time the bet is placed. I specialise in the 5 minute FTSE100 binaries and place many bets each day.

 

[doobs]

just started using them myself and so far so good- tho to be truthful its early days.

daily one touch are favourites using price action off s/r.

only worry i have is that your kinda limited in choice of broker and reliant on their pricing as there isn't yet enough competition. Although it is encouraging to read post above ( ftse 5 min one

Oh and another thing is that i personally find them psychologically easier to trade, - your either right or wrong and you find out pretty quick either way, and no agonising wether to **** about with your stops etc.

 

[Sharepunter]

just started using them myself and so far so good- tho to be truthful its early days.

daily one touch are favourites using price action off s/r.

only worry i have is that your kinda limited in choice of broker and reliant on their pricing as there isn't yet enough competition. Although it is encouraging to read post above ( ftse 5 min one

Oh and another thing is that i personally find them psychologically easier to trade, - your either right or wrong and you find out pretty quick either way, and no agonising wether to **** about with your stops etc.

Yes. It's immediate decapitation rather than death by a thousand cuts when you get it wrong!
I guess there must be some shrewd traders around who have profited from binaries as the choice of companies quoting them has diminished over the past year e.g. Choice Odds & Ladbrokes.
The good news is that IG made £10.6m trading revenue from them in the year to 31st May 2010 - up from £10.0m the previous year. IG also bought some technology last year which allows punters to design their own bets.
see: http://www.sourcewire.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=49008
See http://www.financial-spread-betting.com/BetsForTraders-interview.html for what may be offered by IG in the future.

 

[Sharepunter]

The quote below is from
http://www.johnpiper.info/academy/#0

I'm not John Piper and so I hope he doesn't mind me posting his wise words!

What makes a successful trader?

Becoming a successful trader is a journey but many fall by the wayside. What is it that differentiates the winners from the losers?

Commitment - The journey to success is never easy and if you are not committed then you will simply never make it - I am talking fairly heavy duty commitment here.

Facing reality - Many come to the market expecting easy money. Sometimes it does work that way but more often it does not. You need to face this reality and decide to continue on down the road.

Discipline - This is essential. First you have to control your emotions so you only take trades for the right reasons. Not easy, although fixed odds bets do lend a big hand as every bet has built in limited risk.

Relaxation - Pretty much the opposite of discipline but required when running profits.

Balance - Whilst doing all this you need to ensure you do not get over-confident when you win and fearful when you lose. Many traders find that they have good winning streaks but give it all back when they think they can walk on water.

Your edge - It is the combination of YOU, reflected in the qualities I have mentioned so far, linked to a trading approach that has an edge that results in profits. Make no mistake - you need BOTH. If you haven't got your head straight then you destroy your edge and without an edge you can only lose.

 

[doobs]

Thanks for posting that sharehunter, some wise words in that.
Personally i think its a fine line (for me) between heavy commitment and total obsession!
Also I can totally identify with the balance part. This trading really is totally in the head it seams.

 

[Greed Is Good]

I think its possible but long term you will most likely fail. Whoever you trade with will eventually prevent you from getting an instant fill & Binaries are all about getting the best price at the right time. I tried to do this for a living about 5 years ago (read some of my posts on the subject by searching for them on here) but found the reality is that you will eventually come unstuck. You can make perhaps £1-2K per week but as you will not know when to stop the reality is that the £2K profit per week becomes a loss when the market unwinds against you in a sudden manner.

No-one can predict these events & a few bad trades can wipe out a months profit in several seconds. I know as I have been there & had the t-shirt where I would spend weeks building up healthy profits then overtrade & lose it all very quickly!! If your serious about trading Binaries are not the right instrument to use. Try something less volatile with more chance of you taking corrective action when your trade goes bad (believe me it always will). I can assure you that there are very good reasons why most pro traders do not work from home trading binaries & getting super rich from it with the tax free profits!

The psychology of trading with your own funds for a living is a far different animal to trading with someone else's funds...... that alone tells you all you need to know......

 

[barrie1000]

Binaries are the future, you cannot get the kind of risk, reward thats possible with binaries,
where else could you risk £100 to make £10,000? It's unique.

 

[Crushabet]

Our information suggests that somewhere between 15-25% of binary option/fixed-odds traders are profitable over a reasonably sufficient number of trades.

So yes, you can make a living at it, but it is going to take patience, discipline and a good methodology.

 

[arabianights]

where else could you risk £100 to make £10,000?

 

[gibson]

I have previously looked at Binary betting although not as my main source of income. One reason why I would personally not look to do it, is because of the Risk:Reward ratio isn't high enough for my trading style. Although I am testing it out on Betonmarkets.com

Out of interest, what other companies offer Binaries? I know Betonmarkets, Igindex. Choiceodds is now closed.

Really appreciate any help.

Cheers

 

[Crushabet]

I have previously looked at Binary betting although not as my main source of income. One reason why I would personally not look to do it, is because of the Risk:Reward ratio isn't high enough for my trading style. Although I am testing it out on Betonmarkets.com

Out of interest, what other companies offer Binaries? I know Betonmarkets, Igindex. Choiceodds is now closed.

Really appreciate any help.

Cheers

Other binary option/fixed odds services besides BetOnMarkets are: Startoptions, Anyoption, TraderXP, Winoptions and Nadex (owned by IG)

BetOnMarkets is in my view the best of these, more bet types, the ability to customize bets, and in general much better prices. However they dont serve US customers. Also worth keeping an eye on is Nadex as they are an exchange and in theory once they get enough volume will have very competitive prices. They also accept US customers.

Check out my blog if you want to find out more - not trying to be spammy, just helpful