BigOption Review
The exact owner of BigOption is unknown but there are several names circulating on the internet: Wirestech Limited, which is registered at Office 3.11, Nwms Center, 3rd Floor; 31 Southampton Row, London, WC1B 5HJ which is a virtual office. The second address for the company is Trust Company Complex, Ajeltake Road, Ajeltake Island, Majuro, Marshall Islands, MH96960. Their contact info is [email protected] and there are several call centers you can call. In the UK, the number is +442030268502.
Another possible name is Time Line Group, allegedly located at Conference House, 152 Morrison Street, The Exchange, Edinburgh, United Kingdom EH3 8EB.
However, the most likely owner is Yukom Communications Ltd. According to The Times of Israel, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested Yukom CEO Lee Elbaz on September 14, 2017, mentioning that said company, which operates bigoption.com and binarybook.com, has allegedly defrauded thousands of investors out of tens of millions of dollars.
Is BigOption a Scam?
BigOption appears to be a scam. The FSC and AMF regulatory authorities have warned and added BigOption and its owner “Big Markets ltd” to their lists of shady brokers to avoid. Not that surprisingly, a couple of Google searches will lead you to many complaints. The usual complaint explains how account managers change users passwords and proceed to wipe their accounts by placing losing trades the soon as the client wanted to withdraw their funds.
Update 2017: As we mentioned before, the company was dissolved and is under new management by Wirestech Limited since 2016. We also noticed that their withdrawal terms and bonus terms are very unfavorable and you will be losing money or meet difficulties to withdraw due to their terms and conditions – find out more under “withdrawals” below.
As for website traffic, the traffic seems irregular but recently peaked to normal traffic in relation to average levels. Despite the new ownership, there is still an influx of complaints and there have been recent warnings by authorities (found below) towards the new owners as well.
Editor’s Note – Why Does BigOption Suck in 50 Words
Unfortunately BigOption is not regulated, it’s blacklisted and warned by authorities and keeps changing their fake virtual address. Obviously the SpotOption platform itself is EU regulated but not the firm itself. The many complaints I have found about them proves why the regulators have warned against investing with BigOption. Most of the complaints are related to withdrawals but there are many other serious problems with this broker that makes them an outright fraud, I’ll discuss them further below.
Why BigOption doesn’t Suck in 50 Words
From what I can see, BigOption has made a good effort to stand out a bit. Unlike other white label brokers out there with the same look and slogan, BigOption designed the platform after their own preferences. They have added multiple exciting perks, VIP accounts and a new feature called strategy advisor. There are plenty of guides and tutorials available before you even sign in. The website is well organized and chic. BigOption has clearly spent some time and resources to provide an informative website with a packed education center. But these things are only regarding the “looks”, as for the trading experience itself, be warned, this may not a broker you want to deal with!
Should I Open an Account with BigOption?
The first important fact to share is that BigOption has created a big reputation for itself since we wrote the first version of this review. They are now quite big, when it comes to scamming people. Several authorities have issued warnings on this broker and the complaints from traders worldwide are piling up!
I was going to end my research here but my gut feeling said “do one more search”, let’s see if there is more dirt to dig up. Good thing I did! If you search for Big Markets Mu Limited which owns and operates (or at least it did at some point) BigOption on endole.co/uk, you will find out that the company’s status is “Active proposal to strike off”. What does that mean? I quote; “If there was ‘Status: Active – Proposal to Strike off’, this could be regarded as a potential ‘heads up’ for anyone looking to conduct business with the Company where payment is expected, as it does show that the Company cannot maintain even the basic duties such as, filing the annual return. The question would be; how reliable will the Company be with prompt payment of Invoices?”
Update 2017: The Company is under new ownership by Wirestech Limited for over a year but the complaints remain similar to earlier.
In other words, take your money and run as fast as you can! But that’s not all… endole.co.uk further informs that the company has changed their registered office address a couple of times! Probably because they are scamming people. (Remember the addresses are just virtual offices so it’s easy to just pay for a new address). Find out more under “Is BigOption a Scam?” right below.
The website is managed in organized sections and the education center looks promising. I like the different VIP perks you can choose depending on your deposit size. They provide live chat and their support wasn’t pushy and did answer my questions. However, the support tried to dodge my question about regulation by saying the platform is regulated which is not the same thing as the firm itself being regulated! Something a newbie might not consider. So, BigOption is not regulated and I usually advise against trading with unregulated brokers. Especially when/if there are strong claims of fraudulent activities about them.
The platform is powered by SpotOption but slightly customized by BigOption. The colors are changed and a couple of new features are added, such as the Profollow. For VIP clients, autotraders are available but I wouldn’t get my hopes too high about their performances. Risk-free trades can become available for account holders with deposits of 1001 and above. BigOption offers Islamic accounts and cash prizes too.
BigOption offers a new feature called the strategy advisor. You choose an asset and then choose among 3 different indicators to analyze your asset automatically. RSI, Moving Average and Bollinger Bands are the available advisors. Once you click an advisor, a 9 second countdown initiates where the results are being calculated. Your answer will be either Call or Put. You can then proceed by clicking on the other advisors if you want further confirmation. If all 3 come to the same conclusion the signal is stronger. I tested this feature for EUR/USD and it was pretty accurate. Unfortunately, it does not state which settings are being used for each indicator and which expiry you should pick. Recently, the broker offers an Auto Trading Bot to Gold account holders. After reading negative comments on various forums, I recommend you stay away from this feature as it is said to wipe accounts.
In conclusion, after reading some reviews and complaints I would suggest you to avoid this broker. The perks and features are exciting and new but looks can be deceiving.
Update 2017: Be warned regarding all their offers: autotrader, signals and account managers. Those are all in a conflict of interest with you and will in no means increase your profitability. In fact, these offers are used to make you deposit more. The operating company appears to be Yukom Communications.
BigOption Complaints
There were quite a few complaints about BigOption not paying or trying to avoid paying their clients. BigOption was accused of making excuses and delay withdrawals or convince people to keep trading. In at least a couple of cases a few clients claimed their account manager had without their knowledge wiped their account because they wanted to withdraw their profits. Later they could no longer access their accounts anymore. These are some serious claims and since the broker isn’t regulated there is not much you can do about it. On the other hand, some complaints were due to clients not entirely reading the terms & conditions of the service. Try typing BigOption scam, fraud, complaint, and be advised; you’re going to see some ugly things. One client had issues with getting parts of his funds back due to overuse of the cancellation feature. However, the terms and conditions clearly states what is considered abuse of this feature so we can’t really blame BigOption. Update 2017: The most recent comments and complaints share the same stories as before. There are however fewer complaints as of late but again, the company’s traffic was severely reduced for a period of a few months which may explain that.
Client complaints can be found here:
Ripoffreport.com
Further complaints can be found below this page in the comment section from ThatSucks.com (former BinaryOptionsThatSuck.com)’s own readers!
BigOption Regulatory Announcements and Warnings
08.07.2016: The BCSC in Canada warns against Wirestech LTD. Source: BCSC.bc.ca
29.06.2016: OSC in Canada warns against investing with Wirestech LTD. Source: OSC.gov.on.ca
21.08.2015: Red listed by CFTC in the US due to lack of registration with the commission. Source: CFTC.gov
11.06.2015: Anguilla regulator FSC warns against BigOption and their former owners Big Markets Ltd. Source: FSC.org.ai
BigOption Bonuses
Bonuses differ in size depending on your account type but are within the range of 20-100%. You need to generate a volume of 30x each $1 bonus which is good compared to the average wager. Update 2017: To withdraw the bonus, you now need to make 60 times for each bonus dollar you have accepted. You cannot withdraw you own funds once the bonus is accepted which we find to be totally outrageous!
BigOption Withdrawals
The minimum amount for withdrawal via wire transfer is 250 but it’s 100 via other methods. Other available methods are; E-Wallet, Netteller, Union pay, Cashu and C.C. Withdrawals are processed between 3 to 7 business days. Before requesting a withdrawal you have to submit required documents for approval.
Update 2017: Withdrawals will be charged: 50 for wire, 25 for credit cards plus 10 in processing fees, 25 for e-payments and in addition a 10% fee will be added for any account that has not executed more than 200 in turnover.
BigOption Ratings
User Friendliness 14/20
A poorly organized website, only available in English. It’s impossible to know who you are dealing with unless you turn to outside sources. The trading platform is SpotOption which is easy to use.
No. of Assets and Expiry time 16/20
The number of assets is quite high, it consists of 102 stocks, 30 currencies, 9 commodities and 42 indices, adding up to a total of 183 assets which is considered really complete. Expiry times are the typical SpotOption expiries, every 15 minutes. You can also trade short term, long term (weekly, monthly up to a year) and pairs.
Commissions, Support and Effective Return 9/20
There are no commissions but tons of fees. Please make sure you are aware of ALL their fees before opening an account. Live support wasn’t available during my visit. The highest return is 85% which is quite normal in the industry, the average is around 80%. Nothing new under the sun.
Deposit, Payment and Bonus 11/20
Minimum deposit and withdrawal amount is 250/wire and 100/C.C. Bonuses vary from account to account, and goes up to 100%. Higher bonuses are available for VIP members. Withdrawal is available via various methods, however, you can only withdraw your initial investment via the same deposit method. Rest of profits are handled via wire transfer, so say we didn’t tell you. Withdrawals are charged 50$ for wire transfer which is really high and 25$ for C.C, also high! Accounts that have not executed a turnover more than 200 and/or are not verified will also be charged 10% of the withdrawal amount which is a crazy rule. Seems many measures are taken to hinder clients from making withdrawals, a big minus for that one! Update 2017: Be on the notice that you cannot withdraw after accepting a bonus (60x the bonus volume turnover required!) which is a rule that nowadays only unregulated and/or scam brokers apply.
Website Extra’s 0/20
Some features are; roll over, cancel feature – but only up to 20% of total trades taken, Profollow and Auto Trading Bot – said to be no good, for VIP members. Oh and what about the account managers?? It should have been a extra, but instead, when we hear that account managers whipping out client’s account intentionally, the only thing we can do is – Grade 0.
BigOption Overall Ratings: 50/100