Binary options are not prohibited in South Africa. They are treated as OTC derivatives, which means the counterparty needs an ODP licence — and no binary options provider currently holds one.
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.
- Access to the largest financial market in the world
- Sufficient liquidity
- Trading of various currencies around the clock
- Knowledge of exact income on in-the-money trades
- Simple risk management
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This raises the question then of what is the best currency pair to trade. This is not so easy to answer, because each currency pair has its own personality, and every trader also has his or her own personality. Essentially, deciding upon the best currency pair to trade is simply a matter of finding your own personal advantage in the market. Moreover, it of course also depends on what time of day a trader prefers to trade . For example, those who wish to trade in Asian currency should choose Yen currency pairs, even though the GBP/USD is a more popular currency pair to trade . Here are some additional currency pair trading tips.EUR/USD
The EUR/USD currency pair has the highest order flow and thus the best liquidity in the entire forex market. You need not be afraid of possible slippage (with few exceptions), and your trades will always be executed immediately. Also, trading of EUR/USD currency pairs will typically have a lower amount of volatility. Therefore, this currency pair is particularly suitable for beginners. Another advantage is the very low spread, especially if you are considered to be a scalping trader.USD/JPY & USD/CHF
With USDJPY and USD/CHF currency pairs, traders january also have an advantage. These currency pairs have a very strong order flow, however, these currency pairs sometimes have too little "action."AUD/USD& USD/CAD
In the AUD/USD and USD/CAD currency pairs, the liquidity is a lot less. Therefore, their movements are sometimes very surprising and there are often unexpected reversals. The AUD/USD and USD/CAD are often referred to as commodity currency pairs, as their prices correlate strongly with gold and oil. Australia is a large producer of gold and therefore the price of AUD/USD is typically influenced by the price of gold. Likewise, Canada is one of the largest oil producers worldwide, and therefore the price of the USDCAD often depends closely with the price of oil.GRP/JPY
The GBPJPY is very volatile and therefore suitable only for more experienced binary options traders. This volatility is especially present when Japan publishes new economic data, causing drastic movements in the currency values.GBP/USD
The GBP/USD is also a very solid currency pair for beginners to the binary options trading arena. Here you will find very good liquidity and very good movements. The GBP/USD is slightly more volatile than the EUR/USD, but not as volatile as trading the GBP/JPY currency pair.Conclusion
It is proposed that the EUR/USD and GBP/USD currency pairs should initially be the first priority for newcomers in the binary options trading industry. In order to ultimately find the best currency pair for yourself, it helps to test, test, test. In doing so, traders should initially put very small sums into these trades, and then document all trades in a trading journal. You can scale up and raise your investments if you see that your plan works in the relevant currency pair (you will need about 100 trades in order for the statistical significance to be relevant as well). Another final tip: If you're really interested in trading the Forex through binary options and you want to know the background and strategies in more detail, we recommend the book "Funding and withdrawals in South Africa
Local rails here are instant EFT, card, and local bank transfer through Ozow or PayFast. 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 SARS the relevant authority.
Brokers accepting South African 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 |
| Regulated alternative — does not offer binary options | ||||||
| — | Exness | 8.8 | FSCA (South Africa) — ODP · FSP 51024 | $10 | n/a — CFDs and FX only | 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.