Opteck Review 2013 – A New Look For A New Year
Opteck is a smaller, niche style brand but they have been gaining in popularity lately due to the fact that they accept most clients worldwide, more than any other binary options broker we know of. This Includes unrestricted trading access for US-based binary options enthusiasts, whom many brokers will not even accept as clients, unfortunately. Opteck is registered for business in the UK and was founded by a group of friends and trading professionals with many years of combined experience in the financial markets as traders themselves, and with binary options trading in particular. This gives the ownership over at Opteck a unique perspective on the needs of binary options traders.
Opteck, of course, has both its strengths and its weaknesses and we will cover both of these aspects in the comprehensive review which follows.
The Opteck Review Basics
Opteck Home Page : http://www.opteck.com
Foundation : 2011 – Registered In London, UK
Opteck Minimum Deposit : $200
Minimum Trade Size : $25
Maximum Per Option : $500 (one of the lower maximums among binary brokers)
Payouts / Returns At Opteck Review :
***Up To 85% On Standard Hourly Contracts
***Up To 600% On Weekly One-Touch Contracts
Opteck Demo Account Available : Not At This Time
Opteck Deposit Bonus Available : Yes
Review Of The Opteck Trading Platform (7.5/10)
The trading platform is actually fairly nice as far as look/feel and operation and would score much higher if this were the only basis for our scoring. Their detailed graphs in particular are both better looking and better functioning than most other brokers covering the binary options market.
As we noted earlier in this review the functionality of the platform appears to also be quite good and we also could not find any complaints in that regard (we did find too many complaints related to other areas though, which we shall get to later). Opteck offers both the standard “High/Low” binary option contracts as well as the “One Touch Binary Options” of the weekly option variety. The returns offered by Opteck on winning trades are also at the high-end of what is offered by any of the popular binary brokers. Payouts for successful trades on the standard high/low options range from 65%-85%. For the somewhat more exotic one touch options, returns for winning trades will run from 250%, all the way on up to as high as 600% in some cases. Opteck also offers some returns on select losing trades, with those returns ranging from 0-15%, depending on the underlying asset and several other factors.
Notable features of the trading platform would have to include the feature to trade directly from their detailed charts, and the ability to request an option’s price history on the platform. This is done simply by scrolling directly from the detailed charts. We haven’t seen quite that exact feature anywhere else we’ve traded at (which is quite a few places over the last few years). And finally, Opteck offers a feature which allows you to close out your positions – winning or losing – before their expiration time. This is something only a handful of other brokers offer and it is an excellent feature to have at your disposal. In fact this is a feature that you may want to look for in any binary options broker you might be considering trading with.
Review Of Opteck’s Underlying Assets (6.75/10)
Now we come to the first (but unfortunately not last) significant negative of our Opteck review - their selection of underlying assets on which to base your binary options trades. We’re told that it has much improved from not too long ago though and their selection apparently continues to keep growing so that is encouraging. As things stand as of this writing (03/25/2013) Opteck is offering about 50 underlying assets to base your trades on.
This may sound like more than enough but remember that aside from currencies, different global assets are traded during differing times so there is always only a fraction of the total number of assets available for trading at any one time. This selection really isn’t terrible and they do offer all of the most popularly traded assets. However, the average of brokers we have reviewed and/or traded at is around 60-70 or so underlying assets (with brokers adding more assets almost every day this average will continue to steadily rise), with a few brokers having significantly more than that even.
Opteck Review – Banking (6.5/10)
Deposit Methods: All Major Credit Cards, Wire Transfer, Western Union, Moneybookers, and CashU
Withdrawal Methods: Credit Card You Used To Deposit, Wire Transfer, Moneybookers, and CashU
The unfortunately low Opteck review score for this category is a result of just a few too many customer complaints regarding the withdrawal process. While it is the case that many complaints found for various brokers can be fairly easily dismissed as being of either the “sore loser” variety or – distressingly often – simply disguised attacks by competing brokers and/or their unscrupulous marketing partners. The fact is most complaints you will find online regarding binary options brokers are fake. This can make it difficult to determine what is real and what isn’t but a few things can potentially tip you off – though not conclusively of course. If it’s totally anonymous, you should probably discount it without hesitation unless there is other supporting evidence. If it is just over the top vitriolic or absurd, discount it. And, if you find that there is only a small handful of complaints to be found on the broker anywhere, no matter how hard you look, again, you should probably just discount them.
However, in the case of Opteck there is simply too much evidence of selective client mistreatment, a few too many similar stories to be written off. It is clear to us at least that there are in fact legitimate customer grievances against Opteck. While the majority of their customers experience no problems, and express no dissatisfaction with the company, for the purposes of our Opteck review we wanted to bring any potential problems to light so people could make fully informed decisions – or at least more informed decisions.
Opteck Customer Service Review (7.0/10)
Opteck customer service offers support in multiple languages including English, Italian, German, and French, among others. Client support channels also include phone, email, and live chat directly from the opteck.com home page.
While Opteck attempts to be one of the most welcoming for US customers of any binary broker out there, it can occasionally become apparent that English is not the first language of much of their team (this is not nearly as much an issue as it was when they were a younger company). However this is only rarely an issue of any kind since most employees are in fact competently fluent in English and if you happen to get someone who you are having trouble communicating with you can always politely request to speak to someone else. Nonetheless we felt the need to mention it since we did also find two complaints related to this issue and it is at least possible that it could be an issue for others at some point. Overall Opteck definitely has room for improvement here and they are also not quite as responsive as we expect from our top-rated binary options brokers.
Opteck Review Conclusions
Opteck may be a smaller brand but they claim to have big visions. Opteck is sometimes billed as being “The Premier Binary Options Platform For US-Based Binary Options Traders.” However, after trading with them for this Opteck review article we’re not sure that they are quite living up to either this billing or their own stated goals. Opteck may be targeting US traders aggressively but they need to make some changes in their customer service and other areas before they can hope to attain any significant market share here.
For More Information On Binary Options Consider Visiting: OIC – The Options Industry Council
