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.
TradeRush Overview
Option Trading at TradeRush
TradeRush offers digital/binary options (also called high/low), one touch and 60 second options as well as an option builder where you can construct your very own options with your preferred risk profile expiration dates, etc. 60 second options are excellent for traders that seek action. If you want to trade many options in short periods of time, 60 second options are the right choice for you. One touch options can be traded during the weekends. This is something that you don’t want to miss when you want to buy some options during this time.Software
TradeRush uses the famous SpotOption platform which is totally browser based software with no download is required. One thing that we really like about the TradeRush platform is “OptionPro”. With this feature, you can take a very close look at charts in order to do your analysis. Overall, the TradeRush platform is very easy to use and navigate but also offers enough details and information when needed. There’s really nothing to complain about.Deposit and Withdraw
In terms of depositing money, TradeRush is OK but nothing special. You can deposit with credit cards like Mastercard and Visa and through wire transfer. In case you want to cash-out more than once a month you have to pay a $30 fee. You also have to pay this fee for wire transfers and this can be expensive. When you make your deposit using credit card and make profits, you can’t withdraw more than your initial deposit to your credit card. You can withdraw the rest of it through wire (with $30 fee). This is something that is not good about TradeRush.Bonus and VIP Program
Please be aware that the CySec prohibits brokers to offer deposit bonuses starting from 2021. Thus TradeRush will not longer be able to offer any bonuses.Service and customer support
Customer service at TradeRush is OK but not the best. On Wednesday, there’s no customer support. You can contact their staff through email, toll-free phone and live chat. Support is currently available in English, French, Japanese and Spanish but they should support some more languages in the near future.Experiences with TradeRush
TradeRush is a good broker but certainly not the very best. To be the best they should solve withdrawal problems (with wire and high fees). They already support more languages and also provide customer support in these languages. As US-trader that wants to give binary option trading a chance and doesn’t expect too much profit, it’s a good broker especially thanks to the innovative 60 second options that enable very fast trading.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.