What is Binary Options

You’re probably wondering what binary options are. As far as you and I are concerned, they’re a highly effective way to make money quickly as long as you know the secrets.

In finance, a binary option is a type of option where the payoff is either some fixed amount of some asset or nothing at all. The two main types of binary options are the cash-or-nothing binary option and the asset-or-nothing binary option. The cash-or-nothing binary option pays some fixed amount of cash if the option expires in-the-money while the asset-or-nothing pays the value of the underlying security. Thus, the options are binary in nature because there are only two possible outcomes. They are also called all-or-nothing options, digital options (more common in forex/interest rate markets), and Fixed Return Options (FROs) (on the American Stock Exchange). Binary options are usuallyEuropean-style options.

When buying a binary option the potential return it offers is certain and known before the purchase is made. Binary options can be bought on virtually any financial product and can be bought in both directions of trade either by buying a “Call”/“Up” option or a “Put”/“Down” option. This means that an investor can go long or short on any financial product simply by buying a binary option. Binary options are offered against a fixed expiry time which may be e.g. 5–30 minutes in the future, an hour ahead or at the close of the trading day. Binary options once bought cannot be resold before the expiry time is reached.

For example, a purchase is made of a binary cash-or-nothing call option on XYZ Corp's stock struck at $100 with a binary payoff of $1000. Then, if at the future maturity date, the stock is trading at or above $100, $1000 is received. If its stock is trading below $100, nothing is received.

In the popular Black-Scholes model, the value of a digital option can be expressed in terms of the cumulative normal distribution function. Due to the difficulty in hedging binary options that are ATM near expiry, they are much less traded than vanilla options, but can be approximated with vertical spreads.