The trading of binary options used to be limited to a select few who participated in a semi-official over-the-counter market. This type of option was considered to be exotic, and therefore unsuitable for the majority of investors. Before 2008, few people had even heard of binary options, and even fewer understood what they were.



Individuals from the general public who wished to trade binary options in the past would have to hire broker to access the market for them. In 2008, some of the major exchanges began to list binary options, and now there are several companies that make it easy for interested individuals to open small accounts and begin trading binary options almost immediately.


The newly expanded availability of these options has created an explosion of interest from day-traders, who trade on intraday time frames that do not easily allow for the inclusion of traditional options into their strategies. Now that options with hourly expirations—binary options—are available to them, day-traders are taking full advantage.

Traditional option traders are also increasing their exposure to binary options. Even though this new class of option cannot be sold before expiration, and it does not offer the same theoretically unlimited gains that traditional options can yield from huge moves in the prices of underlying assets, there are certain aspects of it that traders find irresistible.



With option trading, the large fluctuation in the market can create the opportunity for huge gains when trading binary option because the risk of the trade is highly controlled. Binary options eliminate much of the market uncertainty by fixing the odds, risks, and rewards, and eliminating the need to sell or exercise your options to achieve profit.