In the Money, At the Money, or Out of the Money: The Story of Binary Options

This article is brought to you by iOption. iOption offers one of the most extensive affiliate programs that is customizable to fit each partners needs. Before making a decision, let the affiliate managers at iOption share with you their years of knowledge from both the gaming and the investing markets. Take a few minutes to learn before making your decision, so that you can make the most profitable choices. Sign up now.
Binary options is the perfect offspring conceived with the genetic characteristics of gaming and the genetic codes for investing. This child was allowed to mature in an environment surrounded by investors, traders, players, gamblers, and dreamers. Slowly overtime, it adjusted and adapted its styles and its ability to deal with all player/trader types. It honed its marketing skills to have appeal to every possible group, widening its ability to bring new players into its web. This child learned to attract the dreamers, looking for extra easy money, to the risk takers, to the thrill seekers and cloaked itself in a guise of work and earning money, as opposed to its father, who is basically thought of in terms of entertainment and relaxation. Binary options, found that it is easier to increase player value when they think of it as investing, worked… building a future.
This hybrid, which is a tool to offer sophisticated gaming or financial gambling, has become the perfect agent for pulling everyone from every walk of life into its net.
The idea of creating a hybrid between gaming and investing is not new or earth shattering. Many of the casino operators and affiliates, realized that investors were a great revenue stream a natural extension to the gaming casino industry, whereas all the previous marriages had failed. Many were tried.
Etoro, now one of the most successful Forex companies, began with the idea of building a site to offer races and competitions between currencies and assets. Although a unique idea, it did not have the crossover appeal. Investors saw it is a game and gamblers thought it was just silly. In time, the idea was abandoned but served as a great stepping stone for Etoro.
Not to give up, UMOO introduced the Fantasy Traders Contest, which was similar to fantasy football, but it never got any traction.
The most remarkable effort, and you have to give them an “A” for concept and ingenuity, was Trade2Win, these guys developed entire online virtual video game where assets were the race cars and it was all done within a virtually reality game. Here is the link, take a look at the video if you like.
All of these quickie marriages, between the Forex industry (investors) and gamers, gamblers, and players ended in very expensive divorces.
Capitalists, Casino Operators and Affiliates, knew there was a solution but no one was sure exactly what it was, what it could be called or how it could work, they just knew, that investors especially “traders” were perfect marks for gaming and gambling, if they could get past the “gambling” aspect.
In time, the concept of binary options, was developed, first called digital options, this new type of easy trade, a trade based on odds and percentages and risk, were actually built on modified gaming platforms, allowing the broker or operator to adjust payouts and offerings. The first offering was a simple up down trade, where a trader selected the asset pair, and determined if it would go up or down, in a short period of time. The profit ratio was determined by the chances of the movement and the goal being reached in that short period of time. The entire process was 3 easy steps: select your asset, and predict if it is going up or down and the amount of your “investment.”
There were only 3 possible conclusions. In the Money, At the Money, or Out of the Money. The concept was so easy anyone could do this without a great training or learning time. Because of the simplicity, the industry moved away from involved demo accounts that are offered by Forex Brokers or Casino operators.