CloseOption Review – Benzinga

CloseOption offers binary options trading on over 17 fiat currency pairs, including major pairs like EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY, along with a selection of crypto-fiat pairs such as BCH/USD, ETH/USD and LTC-USD. You can access and trade these instruments on its user-friendly proprietary trading platform through live, demo and contest account options. All these account options are accessible with one profile or login information. Here’s a brief overview of these account types.

CloseOption offers just one live account where binary options traders can speculate or bet on the price movements of its available assets and potentially earn profits. The minimum deposit is $5, and the trade sizes range from a minimum of $1 to a maximum of $1,000. Live account holders can fully access its benefits and trading tools, including the robust and user-friendly proprietary trading platform (or the Trade Room), round-the-clock support and trading content. Payout is not fixed but varies with market volatility. Placing multiple orders in a short time can also impact your payout. However, you can upgrade your account to a VIP status with larger deposits to unlock better payouts. For instance, instead of the default 76% payout for an account size of between $0 to $1,000, you can access up to 93% by depositing between $50,000 and $100,000 for diamond VIP accounts. 

The available payout for various VIP upgrades is shown in the table below. 

CloseOption offers a free demo account with $100,000 in virtual funds to help beginners familiarize themselves with the platform, develop and practice their option trading strategies and learn how binary options work. There are zero restrictions on account setup and trading strategies. Additionally, all the platform features, including available assets, range of expiry times and payouts, mirror that of the live trading account.  

The dashboard interface is easily navigable, and a virtual tour is provided upon signing up for a more straightforward introduction. The side menu grants access to wallet deposits, trading history and integrated tutorials. However, you must understand that any profit you earn from demo trading is virtual and, therefore, cannot be withdrawn. CloseOption allows you to recharge your demo balance three times when the recharge sign appears next to your balance. However, if you wish to recharge it more than the permitted three times, you must request that by submitting a ticket.

CloseOption’s weekly binary options trading contest or tournament grants traders a risk-free opportunity to learn and trade binary options. By fostering a sense of competition, traders can enjoy the thrill of risk-free trading and engage in social trading, all while having the opportunity to win a big cash reward from the prize pool. You can participate in the competition using your contest account, which can share the same profile and login credentials as your live trading account. The broker provides an initial virtual balance for the contest account, meaning you don’t have to worry about funding.

You need to trade more profitably than competitors and climb the leaderboard to win a low or grand cash prize. The competition makes for an excellent introduction to binary options trading, especially for beginners, providing them an avenue to learn, gauge their market position, monitor their progress and gain an edge over competitors, ultimately preparing them for real-world trading. At the end of the competition, traders are notified via email, and the prizes won are deposited in their trading account, where they can use it to trade or withdraw it to be used for other purposes. 

CloseOption offers a web-based proprietary trading platform — the Trade Room — easily accessible on Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and other browsers. The user interface boasts a clean and intuitive design, enabling you to access its valuable features with just a few clicks. The platform incorporates all the basic features and functionalities you need to analyze assets and trade binaries successfully. These include multiple charting styles (candlestick, bar, lines and area charts), analysis tools like Fibonacci and trend lines, plus full order history. 

There are also multiple charting timeframes, including 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds and 1 minute. The top navigation bar offers essential contract details, encompassing payout percentages and profits based on the investment size. Binary options contracts span 15 expiration intervals, ranging from as short as 30 seconds to as long as 1 month. The Orders tab in the side menu offers a comprehensive order history, including details of open trades and recent position payouts. The Buy and Sell commands are prominently displayed to prevent confusion. The potential payout is stated clearly before opening a position.

Additional features are available to enhance user experience. For instance, the draggable button offers you the possibility of changing the Call/Put button’s position with a single click; you can activate night mode and change your trading background image to boost aesthetics during extensive trading periods. When faced with a problem, you can contact support via live chat directly from the Trade Room. Nevertheless, this trading platform has limited advanced indicators and drawing tools for expert or seasoned traders. 

CloseOption provides a knowledge-based education hub or blog with diverse and regularly updated content or articles. Topics encompass trading strategies, options and options risk management strategies, technical analysis and indicators, forex, blockchains and metaverses and CloseOption official news updates. The tutorial section offers guidance on various tasks, such as checking order history, adjusting the expiry time of a binary options contract or participating in a contest. The CloseOptions FAQ is a rich source of answers to potential questions or issues that traders may encounter during registration or while using the platform, offering an alternative learning resource.

CloseOption offers round-the-clock customer support on multiple channels, including email, live chat, phone and Skype. Typically, live chat features facilitate real-time responses and immediate assistance. However, Benzinga couldn’t validate the efficiency of CloseOption’s live chat because they were unresponsive even after multiple attempts to connect with the team via that channel. So it might be a good idea to go for phone support if you want an immediate response. You can email the support team for less urgent inquiries or complaints requiring extensive explanations.

The FAQ page offers an even better means of accessing answers to your questions. It serves as a comprehensive repository of carefully curated questions and answers that can address queries you might have, reducing the need to contact customer support. CloseOption also maintains a media presence on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. While these platforms provide an alternative means of connecting with the team, available posts date back to 2020, indicating inactivity, which might make it challenging to receive a response through this channel. 

CloseOption has a modest 3.5/5 rating from 42 reviewers on Trustpilot. Many reviewers commended the company for its low account minimum and trading sizes, hassle-free and flexible fast deposits, demos, promos and bonuses. Most complaints were mainly about the withdrawal, and the team responded professionally to such criticisms. 

CloseOption prioritizes user privacy protection and implements standard security measures to safeguard personally identifiable information collected during registration, ensuring it remains secure and is not vulnerable to theft or compromise by malicious cyber actors. The broker doesn’t share or sell users’ information to a third party except on consent or in compliance with prevailing legal requirements. Regardless, the available security measures are flawed compared to other platforms. For instance, it has no additional safety measures, like two-factor authentication (2FA) during sign-in, and once you place an order, it becomes irreversible. CloseOption is not regulated by any reputable regulatory authority. The broker claims to adhere to the regulations and guidelines of the National Bank of Georgia; however, this regulator is not widely recognized within the retail trading industry. While it’s not unusual for binary options brokers to function without comprehensive regulatory oversight, you must exercise caution when risking your funds.

CloseOption doesn’t charge option trading fees and commissions, though a 0.5% inactivity fee applies for dormant accounts after three months. A reactivation fee may apply. Payouts are reasonable, with the most favorable returns accessible to traders holding Diamond status (up to 93% for the EUR-USD pair at normal market conditions). Due to the inherent volatility of digital assets, its payout is significantly lower (as low as 40%). CloseOption supports multiple payment options, including Perfect Money, Web Money, PayPal, Mastercard and cryptocurrency. 

All payment methods provide instant funding, except for cryptocurrencies, which depend on blockchain processing times and can take up to 30 minutes to reflect in your account. There are no deposit fees for any of these payment options, although third-party charges may be applicable. The minimum deposit amount to start trading is $5; however, you needn’t make any deposit to open an account. Withdrawals are processed via the original payment methods. You can also withdraw via a bank wire transfer. 

The minimum withdrawal amount is $1 for all withdrawal methods except Mastercard and bank wire transfers, with minimum withdrawal requirements of $20 and $500, respectively. There are no withdrawal fees for all the withdrawal methods except bank wires, in which case a charge of $50 to $100 may be applicable depending on the withdrawal amount. Again, there’s no limit to the number of withdrawals traders can make on a given day. However, a maximum withdrawal of $10,000 is applicable per transaction. The withdrawal process takes about three business days. CloseOption offers various promotions and bonuses, including weekly option trading contests or tournaments. 

You can register for this contest with $10 and access $10,000 in virtual funds to compete for a chance to win up to $1,000 in cash rewards. Usually, CloseOption provides a total prize pool of $3,000 per week for the top 20 competitors in the contest, and prizes are awarded depending on the profit earned. CloseOption also offers a $10 cash gift to new clients. CloseOption provides a 44% deposit bonus for every deposit traders make. This bonus can be withdrawn once you’ve completed 20 times the trading volume of the deposited amount. All VIP-level customers receive cash gifts (not bonuses) without strings attached. CloseOption also offers a referral program enabling traders to earn extra cash or commissions for every user referred. 

CloseOption offers an excellent user experience thanks to its user-friendly, highly intuitive, straightforward trading platform. Besides the demo account, it provides excellent educational resources to help beginners learn the ropes and develop winning option trading strategies. The weekly competition or contest further allows traders to apply these strategies and potentially win a cash reward, which they can reinvest or use as they see fit. This significantly improves the user experience. Moreover, CloseOption does not impose trading fees, commissions or deposit/withdrawal charges, and traders can access a range of bonuses and gifts. The registration or signup process is seamless and takes only a few minutes. To get started, navigate to the CloseOption website and complete the online registration form; then click Sign Up.

After signing in, click on the Trade Room icon in the top right corner, and from there, you can choose between a live account or a demo profile; your login credentials will function for both types of accounts. If you’re a new user, you must comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) requirements. To complete your registration, you must upload proof of address and identity documents like passports. To activate your account, navigate to the Settings section on the dashboard interface and choose Account Approval. It often takes up to two working days to approve a new account.

CloseOption has a few similar competitors, such as Dukascopy and Focus Option, and these brokers offer beginners a straightforward means to speculate on financial markets. Dukascopy and Focus Option offer a more extensive range of financial instruments, including forex, stocks, commodities and crypto, compared to CloseOption, which supports only forex and crypto. CloseOption offers a lower minimum deposit of $5 compared to Dukascopy and Focus Option, with $100 and $10 minimum deposits, respectively. Focus Option and CloseOption share similar minimum trading sizes at $1 compared to Dukascopy’s 0.01 lots. Despite its limited advanced tools, Close Option’ straightforward proprietary trading platform is part of its competitive advantage. Additionally, CloseOption provides a superior customer service experience compared to its competitors, as evidenced by independent reviews.

CloseOption provides option traders an excellent environment to speculate on select financial instruments (forex and crypto) and potentially earn profits. Its intuitive trading platform, round-the-clock customer support and various bonuses and promotions, including the weekly option trading contest with cash prizes, enhance its overall user experience. It charges no trading fees or commissions. However, the broker offers a limited range of assets compared to competitors. Additionally, it lacks robust security measures like 2FA and comprehensive regulatory oversight. Traders can only unlock favorable payouts if they upgrade to VIP by depositing large amounts.