Since the inception of the financial derivative known as binary options almost a decade ago there have been accolades and success stories but also losses, scandals and critics – as with many industries.
Currently there’s an uptick in stories regarding binary options, nevertheless, and the media is focusing solely on a few negative developments – utterly skewing the overall binary option industry despite there being many satisfied clients and ethical, regulated companies.
A series of highly opionated articles in the Times of Israel that began in March 2016 have recently been targeting binary option companies, individuals, practices and the industry as a whole. As part of a campaign to smear the industry under the auspices of saving all investors from potential losses, some media outlets are waging a moralistic war.
Believing it’s better to sacrifice the truth than not to have an effect on the people they are supposed to report the news to they end up attempting to manipulate those of us who depend on objective reports to learn about unfamiliar territory.
While some binary options companies have performed illegally and the industry has raised red flags in such countries as the US as too risky of an investment vehicle – the media is trying to fan the flames beyond all reasonable discussion into a blazing whirlwind of radioactive evangelism. We at Binary Scam Sniffer decided to reveal the truth about binary options trading and cover the vast majority of questions that arise among our visitors.
Media Bias and the Fleecing of the Truth
The media bias stems from a growing number of people coming forth after having been victimized by an unregulated or deceitful binary option firm. Fair enough. Like every industry – there are bad actors who intentionally seek to game the system or break the laws in order to cheat clients. These scammers and individuals should rightly be investigated, penalized or put out of business.
Attacking or slandering an entire industry to satisfy some sort of bloodlust or to boost ratings, however, is completely unethical. “The biases the media has are much bigger than conservative or liberal,” W.W. Adams once said, “They’re about getting ratings, about making money, about doing stories that are easy to cover and keeping us in an uproar.”
In fact, if we look at some of the binary option related stories circulating in Israel or France lately, it’s easily seen that there’s hardly any verifiable evidence presented with a plethora of scathing opinions and a ridiculously extensive mix of anonymous sources, unsubstantiated statements and boatloads of fallacy-laden conjecture. In other words – where’s all the proof that indicts the entire binary option industry as fraudulent while so many clients are reasonably happy to trade and reinvest?
When Bernie Madoff maintained one of the worst billion dollar Ponzi schemes ever perpetrated in the US – detailed evidence was exposed and brought to light. In fact, Madoff committed securities fraud on a massive scale and yet the entire asset management industry had not been attacked – so why does the media vilify binary options and the entire industry as fraudulent when just a few unregulated companies are at fault?
Perhaps the media cannot fathom why anyone would consciously invest in something as risky as binary options? Is it because binary options is a short-term investment vehicle that happens to advertise high returns in exchange for a risky prediction that may ultimately lose most or all of the funds invested that has overzealous news outlets rankled beyond all reason? If that’s the case then why aren’t reporters also targeting other numerous risky ventures?
Here’s a wide-ranging list of risky investments that have not been condemned by the media across-the-board as the entire binary option industry has recently:
- Microcap or penny stocks
- Futures and options
- Foreign Stocks – Emerging and frontier Markets
- Foreign Bonds
- Forex – Currency trading
- Non-convertible debentures (NCDs)
- Corporate fixed deposits (FDs)
- High-yield NCDs and Bonds
- Portfolio management services (PMS)
- Guaranteed equity bonds, capital plans and stock market bonds
- Protected investment funds
- Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs)
- Spread betting
- Contracts for Difference (CFDs)
- Leveraged Oil ETFs
- Initial Public Offerings (IPOs)
- Venture capital
- Real estate investment trusts (REITs)
- Real estate speculation
- Precious metals
There are many other investments that are also risky unless you have experience or expertise with them. Of course, there are also many companies’ unrelated to financial investments that also make mistakes like oil producing companies. British Petroleum accidentally spilled oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and threatened an entire ecosystem but the public or governments didn’t ban risky oil production or refuse to buy petrol for their collision-prone vehicles.
Nevertheless, the Times of Israel has not only tried to deter investors but attempts to manipulate potential employees from working anywhere in the binary option’s industry – falsely claiming that the entire industry is fraudulent or tainted with corruption all built on a straw-man rhetorical argument that provides scant evidence and tons of conjecture.
The gruesome truth is that the media isn’t just biased in this way but reveals its manifold strategy to willfully damage and destroy the binary option industry. Hyper-inflating particular stories of fraud or reports about bad companies isn’t just media sensationalism – it is part of a misguided, moralistic conspiracy by those who think they’re saving people from losing money.
Unfortunately, it’s not just lawful, registered binary option companies that have been unfairly targeted, harassed and attacked by the Times of Israel and others – respectable nations have also been maligned.
Indeed, Israel and Cyprus have been accused of being complicit for what bad actors in the industry commit and so have been targeted in a cynical BDS-style campaign that has now involved the French media.
Binary Options – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Binary options is a unique investment vehicle because they offer investors a fast way to trade without much knowledge, experience or ability. And trades can be made from just about anywhere or anytime there’s WiFi or a mobile network.
That’s actually everything that can be summed up as all good, bad and ugly. On the one hand trading is easy and offers high returns above 70% for risky predictions and on the other hand – to consistently succeed at trading binary options one needs to research and practice. And practice inevitably also means failing.
Unsuccessful traders also means complaints and unhappy clients who some journalists are elevating to victim status in their sanctimonious pursuit to demonize the industry. Amateurish journalists often cite how traders are misled or target naïve clients but there will always be people who make poor decisions or make risky investments.
Vulnerable traders who are prone to risky behaviors in general could absolutely find themselves with remarkable losses as well – as with any investment vehicle. Are we then going to torpedo the binary option industry to protect the few traders who misunderstand binary options or ban those who consistently lose trades?
Trading binary options is risky but there’s no deception as media outlets erroneously report as they attempt to diabolize the entire industry and shape the minds of their readers. After all, traders are clearly cautioned by regulated companies without exception about the terms and risks just as with any investment that is properly regulated.
There are dozens of fallacies throughout the recent media’s scatter-shot arguments aimed at not just the bad actors but the entire binary option industry in the hopes to defame and ultimately destroy it. Somewhat like the puritanical ‘dry crusaders’ of the 1920s who had tried disastrously to prohibit all alcohol consumption in the US – sensationalist journalists seemingly looking to expose the next big scandal are actually trying to stage the next big scandal.
Abraham Lincoln, The 16th US President, once said in an apropos comment that, “Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes.” The incessant media attacks on the industry indeed resembles an attempt to terminate the binary option’s industry based on an irrational and needlessly hyperbolic assessment.
The ‘Fallacy of Division’ stands out among many which is: ‘assuming that something true of a thing must also be true of all or some of its parts.’ Journalists are essentially hoping to divide and conquer binary options by first highlighting and exaggerating unlawful companies or practices but then in a Machiavellian move – rabidly attack an entire legal and registered industry used by millions to try to earn extra money or to balance long-term portfolios.
If clients also happen to enjoy the fast-paced and sometimes exhilarating trading experience – binary option companies have the right to celebrate that as well.
After all, must Coca-Cola’s employees feel guilty if some folks enjoy a syrupy soda even though some abuse it and jeopardize their health? Should automobile companies be put out of business because of the fraudulent criminal activities of one irresponsible company like Volkswagen who flagrantly broke laws, cheated millions and damaged the environment – or should we outlaw cars because some people abuse the law and speed or get in horrible accidents?
An Alternative Financial Derivative for Earning Extra, Fun and Portfolio Diversification
All of the negative press aside, clearly there are dozens of legitimate reasons as to why novice and experienced investors would want to invest in risky binary options that warrants upholding its current legality around the world.
There are essentially four types of binary option investors:
- Traders yearning to earn extra-money: investors who appreciate having a small chance to quickly and easily earn high returns to supplement their incomes.
- Traders desiring entertainment: investors who trade for fun, excitement and the adrenaline-rush one may experience while speculating.
- Experienced traders: practiced and skilled investors who either work to diligently increase their incomes or day-trade for a living.
- Diversifying traders: clients who may trade to round-out their portfolio of long-term, safe investments with more short-term, riskier investments that offer the potential for earning higher returns and hedging against inflation.
Ultimately, whether a client is trying to earn extra money quickly, escape boredom or trade for all the above reasons – it means taking risks and that’s where binary options serves a basic, inevitable purpose for all types of investors.
Though binary options is relatively easy to learn – it cannot typically be mastered overnight. However, with in-depth research, hard-won insights and with evermore experience in gauging trends – it is a potentially lucrative financial derivative that’s undeserving of all the bad press and fearmongering.
Of course, it may be sensible in the end for the binary option industry as a whole to explore additional regulations or to increase oversight themselves to better deflect the media’s aggressive approach, preempt broad legal actions and to perhaps better deter the small percentage of scammers that defile the industry.
In the end, the hostile press regarding binary options has only managed to make the media in general less trustworthy. While the recent binary option editorials disguised as objective reports utterly lack journalistic vigor, integrity and rationality – they are perhaps a crude wakeup call for the industry to at least start asking questions of itself.
Although registered binary option companies fully warn traders of the risk of losing all of an investment, maybe the way binary options is promoted or advertised needs to be reexamined or adjusted as well so that its inherent riskiness is even clearer to novices.
Are binary options marketed too much like traditional investments such as ordinary stock purchasing where shareholders often retain some value even if a stock drops, confusing inexperienced investors who may equate the two?
Are binary options adverts appealing to clients with high-risk behaviors commonly found in those addicted to fast driving, candy or gambling?
Should there be tempering mechanisms set in place to establish controls for high-risk traders to be cut-off from making further trades if their suspected of losing too much, being compulsive addicts or are unstable financially or unbalanced mentally? How can scam brokers use such traders?