Why Binary Options Strategies ?

Money management strategies vary in their complexity. A simple one will have you investing the same amount for every trade, but it’s risky and doesn’t take your overall level of profitability into account or how much capital you have at your disposal. So, we only mention this because you might hear it mentioned and we want you to avoid it.

Another one that you may hear about is the Martingale money management strategy. The idea behind this approach is to recover from your losses as quickly as possible by increasing the size of your trades after each loss. For instance, you could set an amount of money that you will trade with, and if you experience a loss then you double it. If it’s successful then you aren’t just back to where you started, you’re ahead.

It shouldn’t be too hard to see that there is a problem with this strategy. Namely, if you experience a losing streak that won’t quit then the Martingale strategy would have you increasing your investment on every following trade. So, if you had a run of 11 straight losses, number 12 would be a gamble that was 2,048 times bigger than that first trade. Unless you’re a billionaire, it’s going to be hard to keep that kind of optimistic speculation going.

It all comes down to how good you are at making predictions and how good you are at ending losing streaks. You need to keep in mind that there are no certainties in binary options trading. Even surefire trades that you would stake your life on can end up losing, and losses can easily turn into streaks, even if you’re the best trader in the world because at the end of the day nobody has a crystal ball. That’s why the Martingale money management system is not for everyone. It does have its place, but it needs to be employed with caution, so it may not suit beginners.

A percentage-based system doesn’t come with as much risk, so it’s the one that the majority of traders usually prefer, especially binary options trading newbies. It’s a fairly simple concept. The amount of money you put into a trade is based on the amount of money you have in your trading account. It’s kind of the opposite of the doubling down approach that the Martingale strategy uses because after each losing trade your subsequent trades will be for lower amounts. But if you win, your following wagers will be for greater amounts, because your account balance will have gone up.

This conservative approach is designed to preserve as much of your capital as possible so that you can trade for as long as possible, and it gives you the best possible chance of clawing your way back from successive defeats and capitalizing on your successes.

The only variable for you to consider is what percentage of your balance to use. Typically, a trader who is not risk-averse will probably go for around 5%, while everyone else will probably prefer something nearer to 2%.

As an example, let’s assume you feel comfortable with 5% of your balance being invested in a trade. A $500 account balance gives you a $25 trade. If your balance dropped to $300, your trades would now be only $15. If your balance rose to $800, each trade would be $40.

With this strategy, you will only be gambling with what you can sustain. It’s a measured approach that adapts to your current situation and prevents you from throwing good money after bad when you eventually stumble into a rut of successive losing trades, and it won’t let you become overconfident if you win a few either. For these reasons, it’s one of the binary options strategies that’s hard to fault.

Diaries aren’t just for moody teenagers. They are also essential for developing you into a better trader. It doesn’t matter whether you have a little black book or an Excel spreadsheet. Whatever works for you. The important thing is to record every trade that you make so you can build up a body of ‘evidence’. In time you’ll have a detailed history of what works and what doesn’t, and that will help to ensure that the trades you make in future are successful more often.

A diary is like a silent partner for beginning traders. It allows you to look back at trades and give yourself good advice. Try placing trades based on both technical analysis and news events signals but record them separately in your diary so you can see which one works the best for you. When you’re involved in the day-to-day business of trading, you may not realize exactly how you’re approaching it, but your diary will always tell you the truth. So, for instance, you might think that technical analysis suits you best because you’re getting twice the profits that you’re making with signals. But your diary will tell you that you’re actually spending twice as much time studying technical analysis, so it’s an unfair comparison. Maybe you’re getting greater returns per hour of invested time looking for news events signals. Only your diary can tell you.

A trading diary also delivers the kind of granular detail that is essential to fine-tuning any of your binary options strategies. This is important when you get to a decent level of competence and are only looking to improve by small amounts—icing the cake so to speak. But you can only do this if you understand the details of what you’re doing well enough to tweak them.

Don’t forget to use your trading diary to check every aspect of your trading strategy, including money management, your choice of assets, and the size of each trade.

When you get in to the detail, consider noting which days of the week are best and which times of day are best for the best results. Do you perform better with some brokers and some trading platforms? Make a note of it; it’s all-important.

Having said all that, try not to succumb to information overload. Although you’re recording everything you don’t have to change everything at the same time when you’re trying to refine your approach. If you do that it’s hard to know which aspect of the change worked. If you change broker and then asset class and then trade amount all at the same time and you have a run of successful trades, how will you know which one of those three things that you changed contributed to those successes? It is far better to change one thing at a time, then you will know that it was responsible for the change.