Trading Pair Options with StockPair Platform
Inventing a Modern Options Trading – StockPair makes Pair Options Exciting and Easy
The StockPair Company offers its own proprietary platform that is web-based and designed in a fairly clear and attractive format. The Stockpair platforms allows for quick and accurate trading execution that can be utilized on all time frames. The technology of the platform itself is current and impressive, and is laid out in a format that allows you to keep your financial information secure. The platform itself has features that will be advantageous for traders of all experience levels, from beginner to expert, so new traders will not feel overwhelmed and platform based trading mistakes are unlikely to result in unnecessary losses.
On the whole, the website avoids using complicated market jargon and presents their market offerings in a straightforward manner. The main focus of StockPair is to trade “pairs” of assets against each other, so this makes trading easier in both rising and falling market environments. Binary options are also available on stocks, indices, currency and commodities. Overall, the StockPair platform offeres a very interesting trading experience and can be viewed as one of the leaders in the business in terms of innovation and flexibility.
StockPair Binary Options Trading Platform
Although StockPair began as a pairs platform it has expanded into quite the impressive binary platform as well. The new and unique Binary Options trading platform is still quite fresh but has revealed itself to be one of the most advanced on the market. The asset list is full but lacking in Asian indices and stocks; this limitation is more than made up for in available expiry on the more than 200 other assets that are available.
Platform Rating
Platform functionality (10/10) Perfect score for platform’s unparallelled added features
Platform efficiency (8/10) Some problems with trade execution
Ease of use (9.5/10) Very clear, very visual layout
Additional information (9/10) Technical chart analysis available
Expiry times –15 minutes, 30 minutes, hourly, daily, 1 week, 14 days, 21 days, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days and 150 days.
Trading tools available – Trade Control (for stop losses and profit taking)
Trading options available – Pairs Trading, Binary Options (high/low)
Prices & Rates: Highly Accurate – Live feed directly from Reuters
Why StockPair doesn’t suck?
Put simply, StockPair offers one of the most attractive trading platforms that I have seen. The pairs trading is quite interesting but the binary offerings are what make it really shine. The asset list is a little limited but not too bad. There are options on most major U.S., Australian and EU indices and stocks, all the major forex pairs and a few commodities. Expiry is the area where this broker shines brightly. They extend from short term 60 seconds out to end of the day, week, month and on for up to 5 months.
In addition to this, StockPair offers trading tools that are not available from the average broker. One of these is the Trade Control feature, which allows you to set stop losses and profit targets for your trades. StockPair is ahead of the curve in the Binary Options world in this offering and this will be especially attractive to new traders that have previous spot trading experience.
Another feature I found particularly useful was the charting software that is offered on the platform. Most Binary Options platforms are amazingly primitive and deficient in this aspect but StockPair allows for sophisticated technical indicators to be used when trades are placed. This is a must for traders with charting foundations in their trades. The time bar is another nice feature, as this allows you to get a visual representation of the contract duration and this is accompanied by charting tools that show you the relative performance of both stocks in your “StockPair.”
Why does StockPair suck?
In all fairness, there is very little that is negative to say about the platform when it is compared to other brokers in the industry. StockPair offers many features that are not seen in other brokers and will be the most attractive for a wider number of trading styles (new traders, experienced traders, technical traders, etc). But at the same time, the technical analysis functions are still primitive compared to what is seen in spot trading stations and because of this, advanced technical traders will need additional software to conduct their analysis. All technical analysis features are static, so even relatively uncomplicated things like trend line drawing and Fibonacci retracement are not possible on the platform. So, whether or not the platform can be said to truly offer “technical analysis” features will be debatable for some. Also, I would like to see the company expand on its educational offerings, as this can be critical for short term pairs trading in individual stocks.
Platform Technology
The visual layout of the platform is about as clear as a trader can reasonably expect. Assets are divided by market type and region on the left side of the panel, and open markets are shown with a green button. To place trades, simply find the market you are most familiar with, pay attention to the sentiment gauge at the bottom of the platform and then choose direction and trade amount. Time durations are also very easy to find, just above the assets being traded. Fixed and floating options are also offered, which is another nice feature (fixed options offer set payouts while floating option payouts can vary).
My Trading Experience with StockPair
The first thing I did was opening the StockPair trading platform, looking at my possibilities alongside with my breakfast coffee. I was looking for trades with end of the day expiry, or as my good morning motto says – when you have a good morning, close the day now. I found that order execution was sharp, with little lag times between entering the trade and receiving confirmations. Switching from asset to asset was also quick and simple. Expiry was also uncomplicated. I don’t recommend the short term options like 15 minutes on any platforms but the end of day and end of week that I tend to use most did not have noticeable price manipulations.
Overall, the StockPair platform does have its weaknesses but what platform doesn’t. For Stockpair these tend to be in areas that are even more deficient in other platforms so the total impression is that this is one of the best platforms in the options business. Technical traders, however, will still need additional charting software in order to properly gauge exit and entry points.
Special Features
The most impressive special feature of this platform is the pairs trading. Not only are there standard binary options on many stocks, indices, forex pairs and commodities there are also Pairs Trading. Pairs are sets of assets such as Google and Microsoft or Gold and Silver that are charted together much the same way a forex pair is. You make a trade based on whether you think one pair will out perform the other. The other special feature is the extensive list of option expirations that range from 15 minute to one hour, end of day, end of tomorrow, end of the wee and the month on out for five months.
Pros
- Extensive expiry
- pairs trading
- Fast order execution
- Advanced technical analysis tools
Cons
- No range, touch or boundary options
- No Asian stocks or indices
- Charting could be better