ExpertOption Review
| Broker | ExpertOption |
|---|---|
| US Traders Accepted | |
| Company Name | EXPERTOPTION LTD |
| Headquarters | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |
| Regulation | VFSC, Certificate #15014 |
| Bonus Type | Match bonus |
| Bonus Size | 125% |
| Max Payout | 95% |
| Out-of-Money Reward | 45% |
| Trading Platform | Proprietary |
| Early Closure | |
| Deposit Options | Credit/debit cards, Skrill, Neteller, PAYweb, Perfect Money, QIWI, Yandex.Money, WebMoney, Alipay, WeChat, FasaPay |
| Deposit Currencies | US dollar, Russian ruble, Chinese yuan, Thai baht, Indian rupee, South Korean won |
| Minimum Deposit | $50 |
| Minimum Trade | $1 |
| Maximum Trade | $1,000 |
| Online Since | 2014 |
| Trading Instruments | Currencies, commodities, stocks, indices |
| Number of Trading Instruments | 49 |
| Binary Option Types | High/Low, Short Term |
| Customer Support Types | Phone, email, web form, paper mail, live chat (multiple languages) |
| Education Offered | Glossary, FAQ, articles, individualized education plans |
| Tools Offered | Daily economic analysis, account manager, individual trade history analysis, advanced charts, social trading, signals, early close |
| Languages | English, Indonesian, Malaysian, Filipino, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai |
| Demo Account | Yes, no restrictions |
For those in search of a binary options broker which breaks the mold a bit, ExpertOption may be worthy of consideration. This site is owned by a company called EXPERTOPTION LTD. and is based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The site is aiming its services largely toward customers in Russia and Asia, and unfortunately does not accept USA customers at this time. ExpertOption is regulated by the Regulated by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission, certificate #15014.
Opening an Account on ExpertOption
To open an account and start trading on ExpertOption, you need to select one of the following account tiers:
- Mini: $50+
- Silver: $250+
- Gold: $1,000+
- VIP: $2,500+
$50 is the minimum deposit, which gets you a Mini account with basic features including full access to the site’s library of educational resources (which looks to be quite good), a 50% bonus, and a maximum trade size of $50.
Features and bonuses increase as you move up along the tiers. The VIP account comes with the educational materials, a personal manager, an expert consultation with a leading trader, priority withdrawals, increased profits from winning trades, individual trading history analysis, and the ability to make trades up to $1,000. The bonus at that level is 125%.
This is a rich abundance of features. Having taken a look through the educational library, I was very impressed with the quality of the articles, many of which are thorough tutorials complete with images for various trading strategies. This far outstrips the really basic “what are binary options” types of articles that most sites settle for.
The low maximum trade size is something which you may wonder about—but it is not necessarily a bad feature. If your account is $50 in size, you really should not be trading more than a fraction of that anyway. It is somewhat fascinating to me that the $2,500 VIP account is capped at a $1,000 maximum trade size, but this really is not unreasonable until you have grown your account quite substantially. You should be limiting your trades to around 3% of your total bankroll. To hit $1,000 with that, your account would need to be more than $30,000.
That does mean this site is not suitable to traders with larger accounts. Most binary options traders are starting out with a few hundred or thousand dollars, making this site quite appropriate.
No Fees
There are numerous deposit methods and currencies available for trading, including a few which are uncommon elsewhere, like Thai Baht, Indian Rupee, and South Korean Won. Noticeably absent however are British Pound and Euro, which are standard everywhere else.
The minimum withdrawal threshold is just $10 (contrast that with the $100 which you will find on most sites), which is awesome. Additionally, the site explicitly states that there are no fees of any kind for withdrawals (except for the fees your bank may charge you for certain types of payments).
Beautiful Site and Platform Design
When you are checking out ExpertOption, you will notice that the site has a lovely design to it and that all the pages load quickly and correctly. The information provided across the site is thorough and consistent.
You can preview the proprietary platform with a free demo account, no registration necessary. You will see that while it looks quite a bit different from SpotOption or other common white label platforms, it is easy to use and has an abundance of great features. You can copy trades directly on the platform, and you can also access advanced charts with indicators and lines to visualize trade setups. It is nothing short of outstanding that you can practice without registering or depositing money, because that means that you can do so for as long as necessary to make sure you are truly prepared to trade.
When you do decide to trade, the minimum investment size is just $1. So even with a very small account, you can trade a responsibly small percentage.
Customer Service Seems Mixed
About the only complaint I have about ExpertOption is the customer service, which struck me as standoffish and possibly a bit slothful.
There are many ways to get in touch with the company—and that is a good thing. You can access an agent via telephone, live chat, email, web form and paper mail. There are even separate email addresses and telephone numbers for different languages, which is very impressive.
When I got on live chat to ask a few very simple questions, I was greeted immediately by an agent. But before I could even get out a question, he typed, “We do not accept traders from the USA.”
“Great,” I said, “That was my first question. But I am reviewing the site for international traders, and I have a few more things to ask.”
I asked my questions, and he told me to email them. He then offered contradictorily to answer any further questions I might have. So I repeated the questions, and was again told to email.
To give him the benefit of a doubt, I can understand why a broker which does not take USA traders might react aggressively to someone with a USA IP address. That being said, I found it quite unreasonable he could not take five minutes to answer some basic questions. I was able to find those answers myself by hunting around on the site, which means he should have been able to answer them with ease. Instead, he decided to force me to spend ten extra minutes searching around. I am not sure what that accomplished, except to save him the trouble of looking them himself.
Conclusion
ExpertOption is an intriguing broker for traders outside the USA. Aside from the rather unapproachable customer service agent, ExpertOption impressed me. This site has a lot going for it: a totally free and unlimited demo account, no withdrawal fees, support in multiple languages, and a low minimum trade size. They are regulated, and on top of that, the site is well-designed and the proprietary platform works well. If you are not in the USA, you may want to consider this broker.