Margin
Forex: You can use margin to trade Forex. The maximum margin is determined by each broker, and sometimes can be up to 1:200 or 1:500. Margin allows you to increase your investment capital so you can make a larger trade and make a larger profit if your trade is a winning one.
Binary Options: Margin is not used when trading Binary Options. You can still make a large return on your investment (up to 80% or sometimes 400%), so Binary Options are still very attractive for traders. The good news is that you can never get a margin call.
Payouts and Losses
Forex: With Forex you never know what is the maximum profit you can make on a trade. You can set a limit or stop order so that you can be guaranteed a certain percentage profit if the limit or stop is executed. The losses in Forex can be managed with limit/stop orders, the same way profits are managed. The maximum loss with Forex may be all of the money in your trading account.
Binary Options: Before you make your trade you will know exactly what is the payout and loss return percentage that you will get for the particular option, when it expires. Some brokers offer payouts up to 80% or sometimes 400% depending on the option traded. This means that if you invest $500 on an option and the payout is 80%, you will make $400 profit if the option is a winning one. Some brokers don’t offer “loss back”, which means that if your option trade is a losing one, you will lose the amount you invested in the trade, but not more.
Closing a position
Forex: You choose when to close the position. You can close your position anytime the market is open and the broker has to accept and execute the order.
Binary Options: Before you make your trade you have to select when you want the option to expire (example: 1 hour or 1 week from now) – at the “expiry time” your trade will close automatically. The broker offers you different types of options with predetermined expiry times. Some brokers allow you to close your trade early, but you will exit your option at a percentage of the expected return. The “early closure” option is not offered by all brokers, and might not be available during the whole time the trade is active. Another important point to mention is that some brokers allow traders to delay the expiry time, to the next expiry time. This is called “Rollover” and the traders will need to increase their investment by a certain percentage, sometimes 30% in order to be able to do this.
