The Future of Binary Options Trading: Trends & Predictions


Regulatory inputs, global economic realities, and the impact of AI, among other considerations, can all seriously impact the future of binary options trading. Here, we look at the most relevant considerations, what’s likely to stay, what’s probably going to go, and how you can boost your trading performance.

Key Facts On The Future of Binary Trading

  • AI and machine learning algorithms are increasingly used in binary options trading for enhanced technical analysis. They can identify subtle market patterns and analyze large amounts of data quickly and accurately, leading to better decision-making for traders.
  • Stricter regulations are imposed to ensure fair practices, transparency, and investor protection.
  • Regulatory changes are reshaping the binary options market, leading to the emergence of new brokerages.
  • There is a trend towards mobile-first device builds and accompanying apps in binary options trading. These platforms are expected to simplify and diversify trading, catering to the preferences of the next generation of traders.
  • Despite increased regulatory scrutiny, bonus offers will continue in binary options trading. However, these bonuses will likely be more transparent, standardized, and compliant with regulatory stipulations. Traders are advised to exercise caution and understand the terms and conditions associated with bonus offers.

What Will Happen in the Future of Binary Trading?

The following things from our research will occur in the Binary Trading niche in the future:

  1. More automated binary trading via AI
  2. Stricter regulation around the financial product of binary options
  3. More brokers will start appearing
  4. New binary trading apps and analysis tools
  5. Increase in bonus offers


1. More Automated Binary Trading via AI

Technical analysis is a valuable and essential tool that allows traders to make informed decisions when trading binary options, but it has limitations. For this reason, many are now looking to machine learning algorithms and AI as a whole to improve their technical analysis ability.

AI can undoubtedly identify subtle patterns often invisible to traditional technical analysis practices. AI can also analyze much larger amounts of data quicker with greater accuracy, allowing traders to make better decisions. Indeed, in almost any field of human endeavor, when speed and accuracy improve, that’s a perhaps subtle but significant score.

AI can identify market patterns that might elude the casual or even diligent observer, allowing for better profit opportunities. This is more than just adoption and acceleration for the sake of progressivism: automating a trustworthy alert to specific market conditions not only potentially enhances profitability but also reduces risk, and that’s another huge plus for binary options traders.

Extrapolating this reality further, the practical implications of employing AI are that it allows you to focus on the various other aspects of your trading strategy without missing out on potential opportunities the market presents. That’s demonstrably a three-way win for traders using AI.

AI can also deeply analyze different trading strategies traditionally demanding serious study time from traders.

Bells will certainly ring when perusing that kind of intel for every trader, as personal dispositions can mesh with idealized strategies when the information is on hand. On the flip side, a steep learning curve will demand traders a basic but thorough understanding of how exactly machine learning works and, thus, what data it requires to be accurate.

Traders must also choose which learning model is best suited to enable them (supervised or unsupervised machine learning). Once chosen, it becomes a task of feeding in historical data, current news headlines, stock price movements, trading volumes, etc. If that sounds like a lot of initial work, it is, but the benefits are definitely there, and maintenance is minimal.

Remember, most experienced binary options traders view currently available binary bots as complete rubbish, and that’s because it takes the same kind of research and learning to successfully leverage actual improvements in your trading from machine learning and AI.

Robotic aid can’t be store-bought but must be selected and developed for genuine advantage. No doubt, however, that process too will be simplified by AI, and ‘AI building binary trading AI’ will likely soon come down to a series of questions for the trader, after which something as close as possible to “out of the box” binary trading AI will become a reality.

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2. Stricter Regulation Around the Financial Product of Binary Options

The binary options sector grew for many years largely without extensive regulatory oversight. In short, when the sector cottoned onto just how appealing it was for especially new retail traders, the “bonus offer” (discussed in greater detail below) became a default expectation of traders.

It sparked a protracted marketing battle between binary platform providers. This, in turn, was probably the greatest spur for global regulators to take a closer look at binary options trading, and it’s worth noting that several countries have banned its practice.

This indicates an inability or unwillingness to police the sector on behalf of those countries’ financial regulators rather than a comment on binary per se. Still, it’s fair to say that regulators have caught up with the sector and, as bureaucratic interference often does, it’s likely to only become more onerous from here on out.

Bonus offers functioned as a strong competitive tool for binary options brokerages to onboard clients, but the ultimately terminally aggressive bonus promotions had to eventually exhaust themselves. Most reputable brokers worldwide may still offer bonus incentives (where regulators allow for it), and they’re extremely welcome.

Still, a new era of value-adds hinges more on service provision than freebies. It’s a sure bet that those service providers with a cut-and-paste approach to clients, merely offering fat initial bonuses (and precious little else) while hoping to glean profit from users over the medium to longer term, will fall by the wayside. This is all for the good, and the sector’s future looks set for greater service sophistication and ease of use alongside regulatory compliance.

3. More Brokers Will Start Appearing

Extrapolating the point above further, it’s likely that more binary brokerages will emerge from the threshing of the current players. This will happen on the back of forex and other brokerages who also include binary trading in their offer streamline in the face of regulatory moves against aggressive bonus marketing, thus de-platforming a large swathe of current retail traders.

Couple with this perpetual renewal in the form of a new crop of potential traders emerging into adulthood, a new generation if you like, seeking platforms that offer real value. This is a positive for the sector, as those brokerages offering real value will retain their clients (and gain new ones) and shape the sector’s future more directly.

Newer brokerages will be obliged to match the now fleshed-out offer of those who have come through the regulatory fires, meaning greater cohesion and sophistication of the sector, thus making for a greater appeal to retail traders in a self-perpetuating business cycle.

With past mistakes being rectified by various individual brokerages worldwide that either develop their offer or exit the sector, the binary options arena will improve for all players.

Likely, the risk administration strategies and mediation roles (between clients and the trading coalface) of successful brokerages will morph into greater value for traders and more transparent and consistent income for the brokerages. This is the ideal, and the sector is already on its way there.

4. New Binary Trading Apps and Analysis Tools

AI aside (although it will manifest in diverse forms in all apps and analysis tools known to man, including those pertinent to trading), mobile-first device builds and accompanying apps will proliferate to enable future generations of traders to wholly escape the legacy requirement of investing in expensive trading systems to be able to access financial markets.

Already heavily streamlined on traditional trading terms, the mobile-first compulsion will further simplify and diversify the nature of trading apps. It’s likely that apps will concentrate on delivering a specific service to traders and that trader preferences will streamline the apps on offer into a top tier considered essential. 

This will then spawn a proliferation of me-too competitors and a subsequent generation of fill-in and wholly new apps on the back of the demand of the next generation of mobile-first traders. They will look for other value-adds, most likely on the back of regulatory impact and the overall evolution of the binary trading sector.  Different versions of mobile binary trading platforms abound as, unlike a desktop build (Windows, Mac, or Linux OS), the scope is far wider in a now-established mobile-first culture.

Android apps will likely lead in terms of the number of overall mobile users and the number of mobile-first binary traders. This is the status quo, and Android developers must make serious miscalculations to lose their leading edge.  Look to Android for the most trading apps and the most significant impact on binary trading apps in terms of specific tools and sophisticated interconnectivity.

iOS is a close contender, with 33% of the mobile market share. It’s unlikely, however, that iOS will usurp anything Android develops for traders in terms of apps and their innate trading value. In fact, iOS risks losing market share if it seeks to differentiate itself among traders.

Traders find value in the same inputs, regardless of whether they’re on an Android or iOS system, so iOS will match and maintain or try to sparkle and lose trading clients. And then, there’s Windows-phenomenal computer success and simultaneous mobile nobody. With less than a 1% market share, unless they reinvent binary options trading somehow, who cares what Windows OS will do?

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5. Increase in Bonus Offers

Returning to the issue of bonus offers, and notwithstanding outright bans by some regulators and strict monitoring by others, if we can understand anything of successful historical marketing ploys in business, they always find a way around obstacles and take on new forms to persist.

To be fair, traders primarily welcome the offer of a trading bonus, and there’s nothing innately corrupt about enticing clients with a deal. It’s a staple of business, and you’d need to search far and wide to find a trader complaining that they were given free money in any form. 

It was the descent into a virtual bonus riot that first prompted regulators’ concern, as indeed, some unscrupulous (and even unregistered) brokers had to be making it back somehow, probably not ethically. That said, while bonuses tied to trading volumes draw the most ire from regulators, simple and transparent bonus offers will likely remain a staple of binary trading platforms. Indeed, bonuses, now streamlined and approved, will likely increase as the industry assimilates regulatory stipulations.

The bitter truth is that it counts for nothing, even if given millions in bonuses unless someone is a competent and diligent binary options trader. This is where the regulators initially stepped in, trying to shield unskilled retail traders from the lure of bonuses they understood (in a way newbie traders didn’t) would only end up costing them in the long run.

Bonus offers vary between brokerages and in type, and if a bonus offer seems too good to be true, it is. You’re out of the regulated market and dealing with charlatans.

Legitimate, registered brokers make unambiguous and attractive (but not ludicrous) bonus offers. If you’re beyond regulation (off-exchange, in other words), farewell. You might as well feed the one-arm bandits at the local casino. Always read the fine print to determine bonus conditions.

Sign-up bonuses are self-explanatory and largely acknowledged as a legitimate aid to new traders, enabling them to make a few mistakes while getting up to speed without having to exit the game on short notice. However, some regulators don’t feel that way, and some countries have banned them.

Deposit bonuses are also legitimate and will standardize going forward, but traders must guard against the knock-on effect one can succumb to when accepting deposit bonuses. Many are tempted to deposit more than planned to score a higher deposit bonus, which rolls on into trading either more excessively or otherwise beyond their legitimate means. If deposit bonuses are accentuated in the sector’s future, don’t let them beguile you into extravagant trading-stick to your plan and original budget.

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Rebate bonuses are old hat for the insurance industry and largely devoid of any manipulation. They have a slight edge of compulsion to them for some, spurring a desire to trade copiously whether signals are good or bad.

Still, by and large, they legitimately reward diligent and frequent traders and are welcome as a loyalty overture. Ditto refer-a-friend bonuses are standard practice for network marketing companies and other sectors. 

There’s nothing illegitimate about being paid a finders fee, and if you’re a particularly gregarious person, it can prove to be a welcome intermittent reward. There is no doubt that other bonus structures will emerge as the industry develops going forward.

The History of Binary Options Trading

For a relatively new industry, binary options trading certainly has a detailed history, but here are some pertinent milestones that paint the picture:

  • The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) was launched in 1973.
  • In 2008, the SEC approved binary options trading, and in the same year, Amex, Banc de Binary, 24option, and AnyOption launched binary platforms.
  • The following year, 2009, the North American Derivatives Exchange (Nadex) launches too.
  • In 2010, Israeli SpotOption collars around 70% of the binary options software market, gleaning up to 12.5% of revenue from brokerages using its product. Ironically, Israel banned binary options in 2018. SpotOption’s offices were also raided by a joint Israeli-FBI task force investigating a case against subsequently convicted fraudster Lee Elbaz, CEO of Israeli Yukom, a binary options scam brokerage.
  • In 2012, CYSEC recognized Banc de Binary as a registered binary brokerage and classified binary options as legitimate financial instruments.
  • This was followed in short order in 2013 by a warning from CYSEC about unregulated brokerages, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charge against Banc de Binary of illegally soliciting $11 million from US clients in the same year.
  • 2014 it’s reported that over a dozen Israeli companies are making around $10 million per annum as the country morphs into what is rapidly becoming a festering binary scam epicenter.
  • The CFTC and SEC jointly issued a 2014 investor alert about fraudulent binary options, and Nadex reported a 54% increase in trading volumes in 2015.
  • Also, in 2015, UK regulators delineated binary options as financial rather than gambling products, while there are now approximately 2.5 million binary options traders worldwide.
  • In 2016 (before the raid), SpotOption recorded 5 million mobile app downloads.
  • CYSEC banned sign-up bonuses in 2016, while binary broker service provider TechFinancials (today more of a news agency) floats on the London Exchange for £18.4 million.
  • Nadex again posted a massive 64% yoy growth in 2016, while at the same time, Australian authorities are issuing warnings about some sector players. In the same year, France bans the advertising of binary options, and Belgium bans them altogether, along with forex and CFDs. Google searches on binary trading are almost equal to those for forex. Banc de Binary coughs up $11 million in settlement of US authorities’ charges and goes belly up.
  • This brings us to the present day, after the last few years of regulatory overtures, heightened scrutiny, and the emergence of legitimate, ethical binary brokerages. However, the ‘win or lose’ allure of binary keeps scammers constantly looking to tarnish the industry by duping newbies for as long as they can get away with it.

Conclusion: More Regulation, More Opportunity

The future of binary options trading looks bright, notwithstanding the murky past, sullied as every new thing always is by the fraudsters who prey on traders’ lack of understanding. The sector will likely morph into a more tightly regulated arena, with some of today’s practices eliminated yet most likely replaced with even better options for traders.

While most countries have assimilated binary trading and not railed against it, regulators will now be far more visible on the back of AI-enabled trading-a whole new dimension in a still raw sector.

Binary options trading is far from alone, however, as an industry that has tentatively emerged, only to be sullied by charlatans and fraudsters, flailing somewhat for a decade before shaking off the dirt and coming out cleaner for the journey.

It’s won the major battle for recognition as a legitimate financial instrument. Still, a few corners and the trends and future inputs listed above will only aid the sector in becoming an established, more streamlined, and more legitimate component of speculative trading.

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Most asked questions:

What technological advancements are likely to impact the future of binary options trading?

The increasing integration of AI and machine learning algorithms is expected to significantly impact the future of binary options trading. Traders leverage AI to enhance technical analysis, identify market patterns, and automate alerts, leading to improved decision-making and risk reduction.

How is the regulatory landscape evolving in binary options trading?

Stricter regulations are becoming a prominent trend in the binary options sector. Regulatory bodies worldwide impose measures to ensure fair practices, transparency, and investor protection. Bonus offers, a previous marketing tool, are now replaced by value-added services, contributing to a more sophisticated and compliant industry.

Can we expect more binary brokers to enter the market in the future?

The regulatory changes are likely to reshape the binary options market, prompting the emergence of new brokerages. Established brokers adapting to regulatory requirements and new players entering the scene are expected to enhance sector cohesion and sophistication, ultimately benefiting traders.

What are the prospects for new binary trading apps and analysis tools?

The future of binary trading is expected to witness a proliferation of mobile-first device builds and accompanying apps. These apps will simplify and diversify trading, catering to the preferences of the next generation of traders. Mobile trading platforms, particularly Android and iOS, are anticipated to dominate the market.

Will bonus offers continue to be a part of binary options trading?

Despite increased regulatory scrutiny, bonus offers will likely persist in binary options trading. However, these bonuses are expected to be more transparent, standardized, and compliant with regulatory stipulations. Traders should exercise caution, understanding the terms and conditions associated with bonus offers.

About the author

Marc Van Sittert
Marc Van Sittert is an experienced Binary Options Trader and coach who is originally from South Africa. He started his career in 2014 by trading old-school Binary Options online. His main focus is on short-term contracts with 60-second trades.

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