Retail trading is not itself illegal, but the SEC licenses no binary options provider, so every platform serving Filipino clients is offshore and unsupervised.
Sourcing note: we could not confirm the legal position in Philippines against a named primary instrument published by the SEC Philippines. Verify with the regulator before acting on it.
Archive notice: this page was written in 2012, before binary options were banned for retail clients across the EEA, the UK and Australia. It is kept for reference. For the current position, see Legal status by country.
Best Trading Time: Stock Indices/Stocks
Stocks are only traded when the respective exchanges on which they are traded are open for business. In the same vein, the stock indices that represent the exchanges on which stocks are traded can only be traded when they are open. The following table shows the trading times for these assets:| Index Asset/Exchange | Trading Times (GMT) |
| Dow Jones, Nasdaq, S&P500 | 1.30pm – 7.30pm GMT |
| London FTSE100 | 7am - 3pm GMT |
| Xetra DAX (Germany) | 7am - 3pm GMT |
| Nikkei 225 (Japan) | 11.30pm – 6.30am GMT |
Best Trading Times: Commodities
Commodities are traded on the commodities exchanges: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), Globex, New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), etc. Commodities are peculiar because they are not only traded on physical exchanges using the open outcry system, but also on online exchanges. This means that for each commodity, there will probably be two trading periods in a single day. The trading times for the commonly traded commodities are as follows:Energy Commodities
It is very important to keep a tab on the trading times for the various asset classes, so that traders can appropriately time when to make their trades.Trading on Weekends
Generally speaking the markets are closed over the weekend. BUT there are options to still trade with over the counter offerings. Sure, the volume is much smaller and the available options are limited but there are very few brokers giving you the chance to do so. One of them is IQ Option which became the largest broker anyways. The reason for that is their constant innovations - like the over the counter weekend trading. ...it's by far the best choice when you think about weekend trading.Funding and withdrawals in Philippines
Local rails here are GCash, Maya, InstaPay and card. Deposit method decides whether money can come back out: card payments carry a chargeback route with a time limit, transfers to an offshore entity generally do not. Confirm the withdrawal method, minimum, fee and stated processing time in writing before funding an account. Profits are generally taxable, with BIR the relevant authority.
Brokers accepting Filipino clients
Ranked by our published methodology, which weights licensing at 35% — on an unsupervised counterparty every other quality is contingent. Ratings are derived from the sub-scores, not assigned.
| # | Broker | Rating | Entity holding your funds | Min. deposit | Payout | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Deriv | 7.9 | Deriv (BVI) Ltd / Deriv (V) Ltd | $5 | up to ~95% on synthetics | Visit |
| 2 | IQ Option | 5.1 | IQ Option Ltd (international) — unregulated | $10 | up to ~95% | Visit |
| 3 | Pocket Option | 4.7 | Gembell Limited (Comoros) | $5 | up to ~92% | Visit |
| 4 | Quotex | 4.6 | Awesomo Ltd — unregulated | $10 | up to ~98% | Visit |
Advertiser disclosure: buttons marked ad are affiliate links and earn us a commission if you open an account. The others do not. The ranking is derived from the published sub-scores either way, which is why the highest-rated provider here is not the one that pays us.
Risk warning: binary options are high-risk speculative instruments and most retail accounts lose money. Nothing on this page is investment advice or a recommendation to trade.