Binary options trading is often done by beginners, but can a beginner really make money doing it? The easy answer that many want to hear, of course, is that sure they can. They think that all a trader needs to do is go on one hot streak! They say to themselves, just ten wins in a row and all of a sudden I will be a new trading mogul. People looking for quick money think that they can quit while they are ahead on a hot streak and go home richer than they could possibly imagine. The problem with this dream is, how often does this really happen?
How To Get Started
Especially if you are a beginner, you should pick a broker that offers Risk Free Trades.
Common Mistakes of Beginners- And How To Fix Them
When a beginner goes in unprepared trading binary options, the broker will feast on them. New traders often make mistakes such as taking way to big a position for one trade, taking a bad loss, and then staying way to small the next 5 times. They may even experience winning easily on small trades, but they never make back the big loss. New traders take way too many trades, let emotions control their trading, and don’t have the self control to stay out of low percentage trades that they know have small chance of making them money.
After knowing all the pitfalls, why would a new trader ever decide to open a binary options account and become a trader? Well, they do it because they have the power to win systematically if they have some intelligence and a plan on their side. A new trader needs to understand the most common pitfalls, otherwise they may not even know that they are making a mistake while they do it! With that in mind, here are the most common mistakes new traders make, with what they should do instead.
1. Not taking every trade with a purpose. Beginners often find themselves taking trades based on a feeling, or out of boredom. This is a surefire way to make a broker rich.
Never enter into a trade without a defined thesis as to why you are doing it. Think the trade over rationally before entering. Is your thesis really valid? Is it strong? What do you estimate the probability of winning given your experience? Are you hoping for the best outcome or considering the most likely outcome? Make every trade count.
2. Letting emotion influence when a trade is entered into, or how big the size of the trade becomes.
Never let emotion influence your trading. Good or bad it will never help you. Trading is for cool rational thought, striving to systematically take profits.
3. Taking way too big sized trades.
Understand that you are going to have losses along the way. Even the best professionals do. Never let one trade significantly affect your account balance in a way that would affect your future trading. A good rule of thumb is never to take on a trade bigger than 1/15 of your total account value. With binary options I would recommend 1/20.
4. Not learning from mistakes and repeating them over and over.
Keep a trading journal as we have recommended before. Jot down a quick sentence or two whenever you learn something new. Do whatever you need to do to prevent yourself from repeating mistakes.
5. Becoming frustrated and quitting right before you get good.
The difference between making a lot of money systematically and losing money can be very narrow. Don’t let frustration keep you from realizing your ultimate goal. Understand that there will be lumps along the way, but there will also be victories, and the lumps make the victories feel so much sweeter.
How Beginners Can Make Money
Even with so many ways to mess up, beginners to binary option trading can make money if they work hard and follow a system. The key to binary options trading is to control risk. A trader can never lose too much money on any particular trade. Hypothetically, a trader has a 50% chance of being correct on any trade whether they buy a call or a put option. To make money, a trader only needs to be correct on about 60% of trades of the trades that they take. This means that of the trades that a beginner with absolutely no edge (an edge is something giving a trader a better than random chance to make money) would take, they need to figure out how to turn about 20% of them into winning trades. Here are possible ways that any beginner can easily do this:
Use a signalling service. While most are not are not going to give a trader a significantly better than random chance of making money, they still should tilt the odds into the trader’s favor. This is all any trader can ask for. There are paid services out there such as elite trader, but even a free service from a site like barchart can give you the edge you need.
Learn to use technical indicators. Technical trading involves using strictly price action (price charts) to predict future movements. There are a lot of indicators out there, but some of the most common ones involve using moving averages. Examples of popular indicators are MACD, relative strength index, and bollinger bands. If you can find an indicator that works well for the security you are trading you can gain the edge you need in order to turn some of your would be losing trades into winners.
Trade stocks before trading binary options. Stock trading is less volatile for a trader’s account than binary option trading as long as the trader does not use leverage and sticks to securities priced over $5. If you can figure out how to be correct on more than 50% of your stock trades, you can take what you learn and apply it to binary options to multiply your earnings power.
Track your performance in each binary option security. Most people will be better at trading some stocks or commodities or currency pair than they are at others. The simplified reason for this is that each particular symbol will move differently than the others because each one has its own characteristics and traders involved in moving the price. If you find a handful of option trades that you are consistently profitable in, stick with what works and increase your size. You don’t need to waste your time and money on unprofitable trading.
Buy the right option length for your trading style. Some trading styles will work better over very short term trades, and some will work better over trades held for a long time. Know your style and the appropriate length option you should buy. A value investor for instance would not be sensitive to price changes over a 1 minute option, but may be correct on a super high percentage of trades over a 6 month period.
