Traders Talk – SeaSaltmcFish Tells of his Own Experience with Optionyard
Fresh on Traders Talk – Forum Member Seasaltmcfish Experience With Optionyard
“I’ve been trading OptionYard for about a year and got an impression about this broker, so I want to share it now.” SeaSaltmcFish, CommuniTrader.
If you also have something to say about your broker, you’re more than welcomed to share it with us. Follow this article’s structure and send us by mail to info(at)binaryoptionsthatsuck(dot)com. Thanks, and enjoy!
Why does OptionYard sucks?
It sucks because the bonus conditions are misleading. Also the platform has been inaccessible at time and couldn’t be reached for more then a month in may 2013, not responding to mail. After that, however, the platform seems to recover and last months trading was normal. Also support was active again and even fast. Still, it’s an uncertainty for trading there and it would need much more time to be able to judge about this.
- Withdrawing after accepting a bonus is not possible and an attempt to withdraw will take out the bonus. You still need to clear the bonus amount anyway before being able to withdraw. That sucks! Don’t accept bonuses here!
- Another reason why it sucks is the not so good payout on longer expiration trades and because there’s no possibility to deposit or withdraw with Skrill or Neteller. Adding Skrill and/or Neteller could make a difference to many new traders.
- The platform opens slow and it takes several seconds to change trading style (f.i. up/down to short term).
Why OptionYard doesn’t suck?
Since August 2013, trading has been without much trouble and support is reacting within reasonable time and friendly. Withdrawing my whole account (bank transfer) has been carried out without any problems within one week (Bank wire) after providing verification documents.
- Payouts on short term trades (60 seconds to 5 minutes) are much better than with most other brokers (176%). In fact, they are the best I could find until now.
- Executing of orders is fast, with a few exceptions since August 2013. Before that, I had trouble with some trades. Also the prices seems so be fair and faster than many other broker. Price changes look more accurate than with other platforms and I didn’t experience delay in expiry times more than 1-2 seconds (Can easily be cause by other software).
OptionYard Bonus Facts
When starting trading at OY, I received a 100% bonus on my deposit. That might look nice, but the string attachments were not so nice. I’ve been looking up for a copy of their T&C of that time, but sadly couldn’t find them anymore. I did find a conversation with the account manager and there I didn’t find anything about the bonus being not available for withdrawal after clearing. It did mention clearly, however, that there was no withdrawal possible at all until the bonus was cleared.
After clearing the bonus conditions, I found out that the bonus would not be payed to me, but taking away from the account. This now is stated clearly in their T&C, but i’m not sure about a year ago. However, this is a strange bonus: you cannot get any money out of your account –not even if deposited later of if the bonus is removed!!) until the conditions are met. After clearing the bonus, you don’t receive it, but it’s been taken away. You can withdraw you winnings and initial deposit, but the bonus is gone. Also their T&C states that you have to ask support to disable bonuses. Else they can add a bonus to your account with any deposit.
This is not a way to handle customers. It’s luring them into getting bound to a broker. It’s the main reason for me to call this broker untrusted for now! It’s being done by more brokers, but still it’s tricky and misleading. Bonus conditions should be very clear and a trader should always be able to withdraw his profits and deposits.
Binary options brokers could take an example from the poker rooms. They also give bonuses and you get the possibility to clear the bonus and withdraw it if the conditions are met (mostly you can also win a part of the bonus if you decide not to complete the whole bonus). You clear the bonus and only then get the money in your account.
Is OptionYard a scam?
I don’t think it’s a scam. I think the bonus program is very tricky and only meant to tie traders to the broker, but trading itself looks legit and without manipulation. After the bonus conditions were cleared, I had no problem to withdaw my complete account.
If OptionYard continues to get things in line with the customer (bonus conditions), I think they can become a good broker, but the bonus pittfall should disappear and Skrill/Neteller should be added.
My Conclusion
OptionYard had troubles in Spring 2013 with their platform. That’s not a good sign. However, since August 2013 they recovered and trading was normal (some dropouts, but not exceptional). There were a few occasions in which the closure of a trade took a few seconds, but that was not always negative and also brought winning trades that would have been lost a second earlier. Therefore I think that it was either a software problem, or a problem with a slow internet connection or a virus scanner.
I don’t trust OptionYard yet, mostly because of the bonus problem, but keep an eye open if they continue to get better. If someone is going to trade with OptionYard, he has to keep away from bonuses and be aware of the problems earlier this year. Trading itself seems fair and without manipulations and support now looks fine to me.
Further Discussion:
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