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.
Starting with a demo account
Compared to Forex trading, binary options are much easier to understand and trade. However, this does not mean that you don’t have to practice before trading with real money. The very best way to do so is opening a free demo account with play money. You can trade without any risk – when you lose it won’t hurt you and you won’t lose real money. Please bear in mind that many things can go wrong when you trade with small amounts of real money. When you deposit $100 the minimum option value is $25. Then you can only trade with four options before you go broke in the worst case. You won’t learn much with these four trades. This is not the case with a demo account where you get thousands of dollars and where you can trade with hundreds of options before there’s any chance you will go broke.To sum it up: Start trading with a demo account before you trade for real money (when possible)!
Trading with $50, $100 or $250?
We’d like to explain how to trade with small amounts of money. Beginners, in particular, are interested in investing as little as possible. When you take a look at the Forex broker market you will recognize that it was not possible to trade with small amounts such as $50. You can now create micro accounts with just a few bucks! It’s obvious that you won’t make a lot of money with investments this small but it’s a good way to start. We believe that binary option brokers will go into the same direction. It is now hard to find brokers with a $100 minimum deposit or less and it’s almost impossible to find a reliable broker that allows accounts as low as $50. The main problem is not the minimum deposit but the minimum size you can trade with. Depositing “only” $100 and trading with $25 options does not make sense. It’s likely that you won’t last long with this strategy. It’s better to find a broker with minimum options of $10 even though this could mean you have to deposit more than $100. You can always make a withdrawal and trade with less money than you deposited initially.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.