Alpari UK Launch Binary Options Web Platform

Alpari UK has announced that it:

Has expanded its product range with the introduction of binary options. Alpari UK’s new web-based binary options platform gives new and experienced traders even more opportunity to take advantage of short and long-term market moves.

Alpari UK is one of the few global brokers authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) currently offering binary options.

Alpari UK CEO Daniel Skowronski added that:

Our number one focus is to ensure that we continually evolve and enhance our consumer offering. Binary options are the latest addition to our product portfolio and follow on from other recent product launches in 2013 such as our social trading product TraderConnect and VPS.

Binary options are traded through a new web based platform, and not the familiar MetaTrader 4 platform known (and loved?) by Alpari's existing forex trading clients. According to the news release:

Traders follow only three steps. Firstly, they choose the financial market (asset) they would like to trade; then they select how long the trade will last (from a variety of timeframes such as 30 seconds, 60 seconds, end of day, end of week and up to one year); and finally they select the amount they would like to trade.

If you're an existing Alpari customer opening a new binary options account couldn't be simpler. Login with your MyAlpari credentials, click a few buttons (making sure to read all the small print when prompted!) and in no time at all you'll be looking at something like this:

Alpari UK binary options platform trading the FTSE 100 and S&P 500

Alpari's new platform is evidently a "white label" version of the SpotOption platform, and should you wish to experiment with a "demo" version of Alpari's offering you can in fact do so on the SpotOption web site! Alpari also provide a video to help you get to grips with what they say is a very simple way of trading the financial markets – "You simply decide if the market will go up or down. Your risk is limited":

As the Alpari UK binary options page on their web site explains:

With an Alpari UK binary options account you have a choice of 16 currency pairs, 24 indices indices and 10 commodities.

The minimum deposit for an options account is 100 units of your favourite currency, unless you're a fan of the Yen in which case you'll need 10,000 of them.

The first obvious question to ask at this juncture is how Alpari intend to compete with IG here in the UK. The second obvious question is how can you turn even a modest profit using binary options?

I'll let you know if I discover the answers to one or both questions!