A few days ago, what we all expected became a reality. The European Union has officially banned binary options and many advocates of this investment method have been in the cold. In this article, I will show you what exactly the regulation will be and what alternatives you can change to. Of course, the regulation itself does not only apply to binary options, and above all, limiting leverage on forex and securing investments by blocking the negative balance on brokers' cats - you simply will not be able to get into debt by opening an unfortunate position. However, this article is primarily about binary options so we will focus on that.

When does the ban come into effect?

The currently announced decision is only preliminary information for brokers who must adapt to new regulations. This means that some aspects may change (I would not expect the option to be unlocked) in the next few months. For the Act to enter into force, it must be translated into all the languages ​​of the European Union, and only from that moment can it be considered official. The whole process can take about two or three months. Until then, investing in binary options it will be available all the time - unless the broker decides to withdraw this investment instrument earlier. In case of IQ Option binary options are to be removed one month after the act enters into force. This does not mean, however IQ Option it will only stay with cryptocurrencies and forex - there will be alternatives, which I will talk about later.

What about brokers outside the European Union?

Theoretically, there is no prohibition to set up an account with a broker outside the Union and invest there binary options (or also Traders Union: Best Low Spread Forex Brokers on better conditions). In practice, it can be different because it all depends on how the European Union will react to the migration of investors to other countries. It may be that the EU will press against companies outside the EU and will end up with Poles (and other EU residents) not having access to platforms registered and certified in Australia, Russia or even the UK. At the moment it is not known exactly how it will look, so it is difficult to discern anything from the coffee grounds. I just remind you that the United States applies a similar pressure - that is why virtually no broker allows US citizens to enter their platform.

Binary options and the United Kingdom

At the time of writing this article, UK is still in the European Union, so regulations also apply to that country. However, once he officially leaves the Union, the ban will have no grounds and binary options they will be regulated by FCA, which is currently in favor of REGULATION, not ban. Thus, it is possible that additional obligations will be imposed on brokers to improve investment security and filter credible brokers from unreliable. At the moment, there is no indication that options will be blocked in the UK.

Do we have alternatives?

There are really a lot of alternatives, but the problem is that people expect quick profits. For reminders, I would like to inform you that on one 60-second transaction on binary options you can do up to 90% of the bet (maximum loss of 100%). This feature mainly defined the investment risk. It will be hard to find a similar financial instrument that will work in the long run because a new regulation may come in at any moment that will tell us that the XYZ instrument is banned. That is why I suggest sticking to the most popular instruments:

• Forex
• CFD
• Cryptocurrencies

I also know that IQ Option prepares alternative financial instruments for investors from the European Union. I am convinced that in the coming months there will be a flood of new financial instruments and everyone will be able to find something for themselves. Also, I would rather not panic, but rather focus on developing knowledge related to price movement - if you know how the market works, you should be able to adjust to each instrument.