Old Review:

UKOptions offers a simple and straightforward approach to binary options trading.This philosophy is seen through its trading platform (SpotOption) which uses a clean and simple interface for maximum ease of use. UKOptions’ site also boasts a large collection of educational resources and information for both beginner and advanced traders, reflecting the company’s approach in facilitating easy trading by giving aspiring traders the information they need to get started.

Its trading platform, which comes highly rated, also has an impressive array of financial products from which to choose from. You may read more in our review below.

UKOptions Special Features

In our assessment, what makes UKOptions stand out from the crowd is its modern, and easy-to-use trading platform, which uses the highly rated SpotOption software. While it has a simple interface, focusing on functionality as opposed to multiple different features, it is also highly integrated with all of UKOptions other services. Overall, UKOptions’ trading platform offers an excellent user experience that we are confident that most, if not all traders will find pleasing.

Another thing that really makes UKOptions stand out from its competitors is that it also offers Islamic Accounts. This sharia-compliant account upholds the key tenets of modern Islamic finance such as ‘No Riba’, which allows account holders to keep open positions indefinitely without any additional charges or fees. Further, such accounts also facilitate an automatic donation to charitable organizations, free of charge, should the customer elect to do so.

UKOptions offers bonuses, typical of most binary options brokers, which can go up to $30,000 for their VIP customers. We should note however that binary options brokers generally impose a minimum trading volume requirement on bonus credited accounts, expressed as a multiplier of the total account value of deposits plus bonuses, before allowing withdrawals. This is a standard practice; there is no such thing as free money after all. In the case of UKOptions, the multiplier is 40x, which we view as high compared to other brokers. Traders should be aware of such conditions prior to accepting any bonuses.

UKOptions also offers one-on-one training for each of their customers at all tiers, from beginners all the way up to VIP. In addition, it also has an extensive resource of educational materials relating to binary options and markets in general in its Academy section. This section not only has informative articles, but video tutorials, webinars, and even ebooks! While most binary option brokers have an educational section on their website, UKOptions has clearly gone above and beyond in this respect.

UKOptions Trading Software

One of the major ways that binary options brokers differentiate themselves from their competitors is their selection of trading software. While estimates have put the number of binary options brokers at over 200, there are currently only about 15 different trading software options available on the market today.

In UKOptions’ case, as mentioned previously, it uses the SpotOption trading platform, which is not only the most popular trading platform currently in use but has also been rated as the most user-friendly trading platform out there. Despite that, it is also highly integrated, with account management options, payment options, tech support, and even risk management tools all available through the platform. Further, they also have a mobile platform, giving traders using UKOption the ability to trade almost anytime and anywhere.

The use of this platform allows UKOptions to offer its trader a wide variety of options products to trade, from the usual high/low, long-term, pair, and 60 second options, up to the new ladder options and forex options. The ladder and OneTouch options are one of the latest innovations to the binary option market, standing out for offering returns of up to 550%! Of course, with the potential for such high returns, the risk is also commensurately higher. For the more traditional binary options, UKOptions payout ratio for in the money options is in the 70 – 85% range, while a 10% return of investment is provided for options that expire out of the money.

Another feature we like is the SocialTrader option, in which a trader can choose to automatically follow another trader’s trades, essentially piggybacking on his or her success. This feature is extremely beneficial to the customer, as it is basically free, on-the-job, live training! If you are a newer or inexperienced trader, this feature can be extremely useful in accelerating the learning process into becoming a skilled trader yourself.

The list of assets available to trade is fairly standard, with 18 different stocks, 12 different currency pairs, 7 different commodity types, and 20 different indices available. We found this to be a little disappointing as while the amount of assets offered is not far from the norm, we had expected more from a broker such as UKOptions.

UKOptions Support Information

The support options offered by UKOptions are industry standard, with four different modes available: live chat, email, web form, and of course, phone support. We tested out their live chat and email support options and we found the results satisfying, with prompt and informative responses. To us, this helped compensate for their FAQ, which was much less comprehensive than we expected.

UKOptions Banking and Company Information

Banking options available to UKOptions customers are fairly standard, with them accepting the usual credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Maestro) and wire transfers. However, we note that they also have several Paypal-equivalent options available, being Neteller, Skrill, and CashU, with the first two being UK-based payment companies while CashU is to cater for its Middle Eastern clientele. We view this as a definite plus, as in the age of big data, many people who make frequent online transactions are highly concerned about privacy and such online payment systems are seen as less intrusive or less connected to the normal ‘big data’ companies.

Minimum deposit and withdrawal amounts are also standard, with a minimum deposit of $250 and a minimum withdrawal amount of $100. They offer one free wire transfer per month with any additional withdrawals via transfer being charged $25 per transaction.

We view this fee as restrictive by comparison as other brokers we have reviewed waived all fees for all wire transfers; further UKOptions does not allow withdrawals, barring what they deem as ‘special circumstances’ within the first 30 days of opening an account. In our assessment, this is a definite minus point against UKOptions.

As we have mentioned above when discussing bonuses, traders must fulfill the minimum trading volume requirement of 40x total account funds if they wish to withdraw said funds. UKOptions has stated that should a trader insist on a withdrawal despite not fulfilling the minimum trading volume requirement, a special committee would review the request and if approved, the withdrawal would be subject to a maximum handling fee of 30% at their discretion.

On a final note, we want to point out that even though the company is called UKOptions, it is actually ultimately owned by a company called Smartech Limited, which is based out of the Caribbean island of St Vincent and the Grenadines. While this is perfectly fine, we just want to caution potential traders to not take company names at face value, especially in the largely unregulated binary options broker market.

Related Pages:

• Is UKOptions a Scam?
• UKOptions Withdrawal

References/Further Reading:

1. Transparency and bypass in electronic financial markets (Weber)
2. Effects of Financial Globalization on Developing Countries (Eswar Prasad)
3. Governing finance: East Asia’s adoption of international standards (Andrew Walter)
4. Introduction to ‘Secrecy and Transparency’ The Politics of Opacity and Openness (Clare Birchall)
5. INFORMATION RICHNESS, WEBSITE FEATURE, AND FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY (Budi Hermana)
6. What is Financial Transparency? (Richard Murphy)
7. Transparency and Political Budget Cycles at municipal level (Cristina Vicente)
8. Transparency, Corporate Governance and Capital Markets (Ronald Gilson)
9. The institutional, economic and social determinants of local government transparency (Daniel del Sol)
10. The brave new world of IFRS: IFRS have been widely accepted, and are expected to enhance international financial reporting transparency (Eva Jermackoviz)
11. Effect of Stakeholders’ Pressure on Transparency of Sustainability Reports within the GRI Framework (Silvia Romero)
12. Transparency and fragmentation: financial market regulation in a dynamic environment (Charles Stephen)
13. PRIVACY AS ROGUERY: PERSONAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION IN AN AGE OF TRANSPARENCY (J. Sharman)
14. Identifying transparency (Greg Michener)
15. DebtRank-transparency: Controlling systemic risk in financial networks (Stefan Thurner)
16. Investors’ Interpretations of the October 15, 2002 Standard & Poors Transparency & Disclosure Rankings (Denton Collins)
17. Island Goes Dark: Transparency, Fragmentation, and Regulation (Charles Jones)
18. Corporate governance and market valuation in China (Chong Bai)