The leading UK brokerage company, (part of IG Group), has given their online binary options products a new name. The company has switched to calling the product ‘Digital 100s‘, a reference to the trade outcome from the contracts.
The product remains an exchange traded ‘binary’ outcome contract, offered over the huge range of underlying assets that IG trade. The contracts have a maximum price of 100, hence calling them ‘Digital 100s’. Traders are given the opportunity of buying or selling their contract for a particular price, with the minimum settlement of a contract set at 0.
The client will win once a deal expires if they have correctly predicted whether the given direction is up or down. Exchange traded options also offer the trader the chance to close their trade early – either to cut losses or bank gains.
Why Have IG Group Renamed Binaries?
The most likely cause of IG Group’s decision to rename their product is to distance it from recent bad publicity where binary options are concerned. Several companies in the industry, including major broker Banc De Binary, have recently seen a dramatic downsizing or even closed. At the same time, stories of scams have been spreading through the EU like wildfire.
Due to the instant nature of news in the modern age, the old adage of any publicity being good publicity is not always the case. With Google search results spitting out so many negative news stories for anyone searching ‘binary options’ it’s easy to see why a company would choose to give their product a name that wouldn’t carry those negative connotations, however inaccurate or ill-informed they may be.
In light of the current climate, this updating of marketing strategies would seem prudent, and it’s likely that other companies will follow suit, moving away from the ‘binary options’ label in order to avoid being tarred with the same brush.
Binary Trade Evolving
European regulators have also been swift to make dramatic changes to their products in light of recent events. CySEC, for example, have altered their binary options regulations considerably in a bid to move away from the negative associations that are starting to be associated with the investment. The result of this is that technology providers are starting to adapt to these new regulatory frameworks. One example of this is Tradologic, who are set to launch a new binary options exchange named Binarex.