GCMBinary Education Review – New Sheriff in Town?
Full Review of GCMBINARY Binary Options Education
The whole world was keeping an eye on the US Presidential Elections and I cannot help but think about what was going through the two candidate’s minds before the official results. Will we have a new champion or will Obama defend his belt? Seems like the United States still love the Champ and he will hold the belt for four more years; but let’s focus on our brokers more because none of the two candidates will teach us about Binaries. For that we must rely on Binary brokers so let’s see if we have a new sheriff in town when it comes to Binary Options education.
GCM Binary – First impressions – A breath of fresh air
Finally, after a long string of brokers with websites so similar that you could think they are twins, I found GCM Binary. They have a different structure compared to others and I give them a plus for originality. I don’t know if it’s better, but for now, the different structure is a breath of fresh air. The colors are well chosen and give a professional, not too flashy look to the site. The educational material is easily found, on the right side, on top of the page and also on the bottom. So far so good, but let’s get to the actual education and see what I can learn from it.
GCM Binary – Education Basic Level – Test passed…barely
Glossary…where is the Glossary? Lately I see more and more brokers leaving out the Glossary and instead describing the most common terms in the “Frequently Asked Questions” section. Well, this is all right in some cases, if the FAQ section is well written, but sometimes, a new trader might find the terms easier in a Glossary so I am not really a big fan of missing Glossaries. However, they do a good job on the FAQ section, giving straightforward answers to the questions and explaining the terms in an easy to understand manner. There are exceptions, though: I don’t really understand the explanation for the “underlying asset”…and I don’t understand it because it does not exist; instead of telling me what the underlying asset is, they just tell me that they offer options on various assets. Hmm…what about a guy that wants to know what exactly is an underlying…? Seems like GCM Binary doesn’t care about that. Anyway, I don’t want to bash them too much for that little mistake because one who is interested in finding out what an underlying asset is can do so using the other information provided by them.
GCM Binary – Medium Level Education – A rollercoaster ride!
In the “First Impressions” section I told you that the educational material can be found in three places: the top of the page, the bottom and the right side. Well, I didn’t lie, because you can find it there but the fact is that the top section contains all the material from the bottom and right side so I’ll focus on that. We kick off our medium education with some advantages of Binary Options, reasonable explanation of High/Low and One Touch Options and the dreaded statement that… “There is no risk as you are not buying the asset, just predicting whether the price will rise or fall.” Oh, no! GCM Binary was doing an acceptable job with their education until now. Is there any need for this “there is no risk…” bull$#!7 ??? Never mind, it was a rhetorical question. Knowing the risk before entering a trade does not make it risk free and I am still risking money even if I buy the option and not the underlying asset. Just to make it crystal clear to everybody, including GCM Binary: trading Binary Options involves serious risk! Of course, there are tons of advantages but that does not make them risk free. Ok, moving on, I got to the “Step-by-step Guide” on how to trade with their platform and I understood it from the first read so I really consider they did a good job there, explaining with pictures, examples and clear wording. But…I found a big mistake when I got to their explanation for One Touch options: in the example used they say the payout for a successful trade is 300% but they are not even close when they get to the math part. On a $1000 investment they calculate 300% as being just $850…lately I see more and more brokers are in need of math lessons from me. Ok, first math lesson for each broker is free: $1000(investment) + 300% (payout) =$4000. Of course, $1000 is my investment and the profit is just $3000. They also describe their “Early Closure” function but they don’t say anything about what is the commission I have to pay to close it early. Maybe there is none, but I think a few words about that would have been nice, not just keeping me guessing whether they will charge or not.
Extra Education – The cherry on top?
Finally I got to their free e-book and free trader manual. They started good, but my opinion on GCM Binary slowly deteriorated throughout my stay on their website and to be honest, somehow I wanted them to give me some good information in the e-book and trader manual. But unfortunately, they failed to “wow” me as the e-book contains almost the same material found on the site, with some additions regarding In the Money, At the Money and Out of the Money expiries and some more details about the various functions of the platform. All the information in the Trader Manual is contained in the e-book and also on the site so there is really no need for this manual. Even if I didn’t learn anything new from the e-book or the Trader Manual, I think their purpose is to gather all the information in one place, making easier for the new trader to get the full picture of their educational material. Not what I expected, but definitely not bad.
The mixed conclusion
Although I found some mistakes and quite a lot of duplicate content, there is a part of me that still wants to consider GCM Binary a decent broker. Maybe it’s because they try to raise their head above the crowd and do things a bit different than the other brokers. Unfortunately, I cannot get over the “there is no risk…” thingy and the fact that they cannot do basic math. Overall, they are on the right track, but they definitely need some more work done if they want to be a top notch broker in terms of education.