Often in reviews of a particular binary options broker you can hear: “the broker closed my trade with a minus of just one point...”. Does this mean that the broker is a scammer or is there a reason for this? Let's find out in our article.
Content:
- Why can a deal close at minus one point?
- Quote providers;
- OTC quotes;
- Trading through “black” brokers;
- How to check quotes from binary options brokers;
- Quotes from reliable brokers: verification using specific examples;
- Pocket Option;
- Quotex;
- Binarium;
- Deriv;
- Alpari;
- Conclusion.
Why can a deal close at minus one point?
Quite a few traders have found themselves in a situation where a deal, even with an honest binary options broker, closed in the red by just one point. This outcome of the transaction is very unpleasant, and if this happens several times, then thoughts creep in that the broker is a fraudster and is deliberately closing your transactions at a loss. These are the conclusions you can often see both on others and on our forum :
But in reality this is far from the case, and in 99% of cases this is not due to deception on the part of the company. Moreover, very often the opposite situation also happens, when the transaction is closed at plus one point, then you are not saying that the broker is cheating with quotes?)
The main reasons for such unsuccessful deal closures are three reasons:
- various quote providers;
- OTC quotes ;
- trading through “black” brokers.
Quote providers
Every reputable binary options broker gets quotes from a specific provider, and it is rare for different companies to have the same liquidity provider. That is why it can happen that a transaction is closed in the minus by just one point in one terminal, although in another it would have closed in the plus.
The most popular liquidity providers are:
- MetaTrader 4/5 (MetaQuotes);
- SaxoTrader;
- Integral;
- CQG;
- LMAX;
- Rithmic;
- Currenex.
MetaQuotes, which is first on the list and which created the well-known MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, allows you to work with the following companies (these companies can be selected as a quote provider if you are a client of the company):
And these are not all liquidity providers, since there are also smaller companies about which little is known, but their services can be used by binary options brokers.
OTC quotes
OTC quotes are over-the-counter and each company has its own algorithm for constructing prices on weekends and holidays. Such prices are not real and trading at them has only indirect similarities to regular trading, since you cannot conduct fundamental or technical analysis . More precisely, any analysis can be carried out, but whether it works or not will be decided by chance.
To understand how real prices differ from OTC, you can look at the same currency pair at the same time, but in the case of MT4 these are real quotes, and in the case of Pocket Option – OTC:
| MT4 | MT5 |
 |
 |
The difference can be seen immediately, since the graphs are directed in opposite directions. Therefore, if your trade closed with a loss of minus one point, check whether you are using over-the-counter quotes.
Since we're talking about brokers, let's now take a closer look at the quotes of different binary options brokers and different trading platforms , including scam brokers.
Trading through “black” brokers
In rare cases, your trade may be closed at a loss due to just one or a few points due to the fact that the company you are trading with is fraudulent and “paints” its quotes, passing them off as real.
A striking example is Stars Binary . Be sure to check them out as they pretend to be an honest company which they are not. One of the most striking cases of deceiving their clients on quotes, which was noticed by one of the users, is shown in the image below:
Of course, the structure of the price movement is preserved, but pay attention to individual candles that are completely different from the real ones.
Few people engage in such price manipulation anymore, but there are still such companies, so carefully study the broker through whom you are going to trade.
How to check binary options broker quotes
You can check the quotes of any broker in different ways. For example, the MetaQuotes company has its own archive of quotes for each currency pair, which can be downloaded.
In the MetaTrader 4/5 terminal, when you press the “F2” key, a window opens where you can select the desired currency pair and download the history of any time frame . Quotes in MetaQuotes are saved for each week at the end of the week.
Quotes are downloaded directly from the company’s servers, so it doesn’t matter which broker you use. The exception is Alpari, which has its own archive of quotes.
Another easier way to check is to use the TradingView platform , or our live chart . In this case, you do not need to download any quotes, and you can compare them with any broker without moving from terminal to terminal. The only thing you need to do is add the desired currency pair. This is done by clicking on the “plus” in the asset panel:
Next, in the window that opens, find the desired currency through the search and select it:
Quotes from reliable brokers: checking with specific examples
Should trusted brokers be considered scammers if a deal on their platform closes at minus one point? The answer is of course not. The simplest explanation that this is not a scam is the fact that deals are often closed and vice versa, one point in plus. In this case, none of the traders will be against it, but for some reason, when the opposite situation occurs, they blame the company for deception.
To check the quotes, let's look at some of the most popular companies that provide binary options trading:
- Pocket Option;
- Quotex;
- Binarium;
- Deriv;
- Alpari.
Pocket Option
Pocket Option has both exchange-traded and OTC quotes, so always pay attention to this to avoid making a loss due to the use of fake prices. You can understand which asset is currently used for trading (exchange or OTC) using the signature or lack thereof:
If you received a loss in the event of a failure, then this circumstance is spelled out in detail in the Pocket Option regulations:
Therefore, if you received a loss of minus one point, but the reason was that there was a failure, then PocketOption will return the funds to your account or correct the quotes.
And now, to be sure, let's compare the price of the EUR/USD currency pair in Pocket Option with a broker that is a quote provider (FXCM) in the manner described above to make sure that the quotes are not different:
As you can see, the price is no different at all.
Quotex
Quotex also provides both exchange-traded and OTC trading. It is not difficult to distinguish between assets; they look like this:
It was about Quotex that there was a complaint from the example at the beginning of our article, so let's check the quotes of this broker:
As you can see, the price difference is only 0.00004 pips, which equals a 0.004% difference. That is quite acceptable.
Binarium
Binarium also provides OTC trading, but only on weekends (Saturday and Sunday), so making trades at exchange prices should not be a problem. Speaking of quotes and checking them, we compared them on this broker too, and here is the result:
The difference between the quotes is just 0.00003 pips, corresponding to a 0.003% difference.
Deriv
Deriv went even further in terms of over-the-counter prices and gave traders the opportunity to trade synthetic assets whose prices are randomly generated all the time. There are now twenty-two such assets in Deriv and they look like this:
Therefore, be careful when making transactions on such assets, since the outcome can be unpredictable and can easily close your transactions by just one point in the minus, even several times in a row.
If we talk about EUR/USD and exchange prices, we also checked them, and here is the result:
The discrepancy in quotes is 0.00005 pips, which equals a 0.005% difference.
Alpari
Alpari itself is a supplier of quotes for some companies, which already indicates its reliability in terms of supplying prices. In addition, Alpari does not have OTC prices, so you will always trade only at real prices.
Despite the above advantages, we still compared its EUR/USD price with the price from FXCM:
Here, we observe the largest price difference of 0.00019 pips, which corresponds to just over 0.017%. This is still considered an acceptable discrepancy.
Conclusion
Drawing a conclusion, we can safely say that closing a transaction at minus one point does not at all mean that the broker is a fraudster. This is confirmed by our simple check, which every trader can carry out independently at any time.
Also, always pay attention to what quotes you are working with, and if it is OTC, then your trades can easily close with a loss, since there is no logic in such prices and they are built randomly.
In conclusion, I would like to give advice - always check the broker’s quotes before replenishing a real account, and if the company manipulates prices, you will immediately see it.
See also:
Current bonuses and promotional codes
Binary options trading platforms
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