CapitalOption Review
| Broker | CapitalOption |
|---|---|
| US Traders Accepted | |
| Company Name | Trademarker Cyprus Ltd. |
| Headquarters | Cyprus |
| Regulation | CySEC license 151/11 |
| Bonus Type | Match bonus |
| Bonus Size | 100% |
| Max Payout | 85% |
| Out-of-Money Reward | 10% |
| Trading Platform | SpotOption |
| Early Closure | |
| Deposit Options | Credit and debit cards, wire transfer |
| Deposit Currencies | EUR, USD |
| Minimum Deposit | $100 |
| Minimum Trade | $5 |
| Maximum Trade | $2,000 |
| Online Since | 2011 |
| Trading Instruments | Forex, Commodities, Stocks, Indices |
| Number of Trading Instruments | 83 |
| Binary Option Types | High/Low, Long Term, 60 Seconds, One Touch, Ladder, Pairs |
| Customer Support Types | Web form, email, live chat, telephone, paper mail |
| Education Offered | FAQ, how-to pages, video tutorials, daily market reviews, personal finance experts, VIP signals, one-on-one training, personalized trading strategy |
| Tools Offered | Early close, double up, rollover |
| Languages | English, Arabic, German |
| Demo Account | Up to 20 risk-free trades |
CapitalOption is a binary broker that has been around since 2011, and is operated by Trademarker Cyprus Ltd. As you would guess, the company is headquartered in Cyprus. They have a CySEC business license, 151/11. There are a lot of positive things about this company. For one, they are very transparent with information about their operations. For another, they offer a number of different ways to trade, including long-term trades. They have a wide array of features available for traders who have larger accounts. The main drawbacks are their website and virtually nonexistent chat. There are a lot of informational gaps, which is not a great sign in light of the company’s age. The chat desk is not staffed, and there are errors with the registration form. CapitalOption does not offer trading to USA customers.
Opening a New Account on CapitalOption
To get started on CapitalOption, you will need to register a new account. This by itself is problematic. The first time I filled in the form to try and register, I received an error telling me that my account did not exist, and I could not log in. Since this was the registration form, this error made no sense. Unable to register an account, I was unable to log in at all. I tried again an hour later and had better success. CapitalOption will need to fix errors like this in order for them to provide a valuable service to traders.
Assuming you can make it past this step, you can open an account with as little as $100 in EUR or USD. Four account tiers are offered above the minimum deposit threshold. Micro accounts start at $1,000. The largest accounts are for V.I.P. traders depositing $50,000 or more. The more money you deposit, the more benefits are offered to you. Match bonuses of up to 100% are available. At the top account levels, you get access to daily market reviews, premium account management, advanced signals and training, and personalized trading strategies.
Also of interest are the risk-free trades. CapitalOption does not have a demo account, but they do offer risk-free trades at the Silver, Gold, and V.I.P. account levels. The higher your account tier, the more risk-free trades you qualify for. At the top level, that is 20 free trades. A demo account would be far better, but the risk-free trades are a pretty nice offer.
A Variety of Trade Types
One of the best things about this broker is their numerous trade types for currencies, stocks, commodities, and indices. Along with the usual currency pairs, you can trade a bitcoin pair. The platform is SpotOption, which will be familiar and easy to use for the majority of binary options traders. Early close, rollover, and double up are all available to help you to control your trades. The types of trades on the platform include High/Low, Long Term, 60 Seconds, One Touch, Ladder, and Pairs. Ladder and Pairs are both newer trade types that are still not offered across the board by the majority of brokers, so these are great additions.
Long Term is a particularly exciting trade type. Binary options brokers typically cater to short-term traders, and most brokers only allow same-day expiry times. The Long Term options on CapitalOption allow you to enter into trades spanning weeks or even months. This is great if you are a position trader who has been left out of the binary options game until now. With Long Term options, you finally have a way to trade that fits within your style and preferences.
Trade sizes are geared mostly toward traders with smaller accounts. $2,000 is the upper limit, which is pretty low. The lower limit for most types of trades is $25, but for 60 Seconds it is $5, which is typical. The average payouts max out around 85% for most trade types, and there is a 10% out-of-money refund available if you lose your trades.
Website and Live Chat Issues
Along with the failure of the registration form, there were a couple of other issues with the website. The FAQ is extremely short and generic, delivering more information about binary options in general than on the specific features offered by this site. It took a fair amount of hunting to find additional information on CapitalOption’s features.
The other issue with this site was the live chat feature, which appears to be a link to email and nothing more, given that it took me straight to an email form when I clicked it. This was during a weekday on standard business hours. There really is no reason the live chat should not be staffed. This was quite unhelpful, given that I had a number of unanswered questions—and also given that the registration form was broken.
Conclusion
CapitalOption has a fair bit of promise. They offer a lot of different types of trades on a nice, clean platform. This is great if you need to be able to trade while you are on the go. The risk-free trades are a very nice feature at the upper account levels, even if demo trading would be better. There are many different trading resources provided to traders at all levels, especially at the upper tiers. Even though the company only provides a business license number, this is still more transparency than we typically find on these sites. They also provide information about how much deposit money must be ensured under Cyprus law.
That said, the site suffers from some technical and information problems that at this point make trading with them difficult to contemplate. If the company can resolve these issues, they may be worthy of consideration. It is possible even that the problems with the live chat are also technical in nature. Nonetheless, if you are thinking trading with them, it is important to get a hold of customer service and speak with them personally. This will help you to gauge the quality of service you can expect as a registered trader on the site.