IQ Option Review

IQ Option is an international Forex and CFD’s brokerage firm that began operations in 2013. The firm prides itself on its groundbreaking technologies it has promoted in binary options and related products since its inception. Unusually it is a Russian-based broker that has grown to encompass 30 different countries not including the United States. In this review, we will consider the background, offerings, and operations of IQ Options and all it has to offer its international clientele base today.

Who Is Behind IQ Option?

For all of its impressive operations and offerings, IQ Option is quite secretive about its founders and country of origin. Being a pioneering Russian brokerage with all of the strict sanctions on Russia, this may help to explain their reluctance to share much of their past. The firm boasts instead that it has nearly achieved a functioning global level as it works with traders hailing from 30 different nations.

It is safe to say that Vasiliy Chernukha is an important person at IQ Options. He has written over 890 different technical blog posts for the brokerage over the last few years.

What is IQ Option? Is it a Scam?

In short: it is NOT a scam. IQ Option boasts an impressive collection of stats and awards it has garnered in under a decade operating. The number of registered accounts (which they call active users) at the company has grown from 8,110,000 in 2015 to 25, 580,000 in 2017. Their numbers of transactions per day have increased from 646,000 in 2015 to 1,800,000 in 2017. Their monthly transaction value is up to $380 million each month.

Options IQ has garnered a number of diverse accolades in the past few years as well. They are the recipient of many awards like the Mobile Star Award in 2016 for their innovative Mobile App, and are the 2017 IAIR Awards winner of Best Binary Options Broker and Developer of the Best Trading Apps. Here are some of their many awards:

What IQ Option Is Not

IQ Options is not a full-service trading recommendation FX brokerage. It focuses on binary options trading and other CFDs instruments. While they provide various educational videos, blog posts, and other useful resources, they do not give specific trading recommendations and picks. For these you will need to subscribe to an FX trading software program like those provided by Lan Turner of Gecko Software or pick up a Forex trading recommendation service from gurus Russ Horn or Toshko Raychev.

What You Will Receive With IQ Option

The IQ Option provides a significant amount of educational support and a range of cutting-edged proprietary trading platforms with their service. Some of these that they actually pioneered themselves have evolved since into industry standards. Here we will consider their various product features and offerings for clients and potential customers.

Free Demo Account

IQ Option claims to be the original service to offer its members their very own free demo account to practice trading. This may be true in the world of Binary Options brokers. Certainly a great number of the binary options brokers today do include free demo accounts among their repertoire of online learning and trading tools.

This demo account is useful not only for practicing the mechanics of trading. It also allows you to learn the important aspects of trading binary options strategies before you endanger your actual money. We love the demo account feature, which is not something we have seen enough of in the standard Forex trading services and brokers.

IQ Option Blog

As of time of publication, there were 894 blog posts offered at no charge from a man who appears to be a principal at IQ Option— Vasiliy Chernukha. As you can see, these blog posts are an educational library all by themselves. They cover topics ranging from technical analysis and strategies to Forex, stocks, and trading tips, to platform upgrades and platform capabilities. A few sample blog posts are pictured to the right. Some of the ones we found more useful included:

• Trading Patters: What a Price Reversal Looks Like (5 minute read)
• Forex Market Summed Up: Learn How to Trade Currencies (7 minute read)
• Candlestick Patterns: Improve Your Results With Only 4 Tips (6 minute read)
• 5 Must Have Traits of Successful Traders (5 minute read)

Something that will encourage many users to read the blogs is that they tell you the number of minutes it takes to go through each one. This is an interesting and unique feature for educational sections.

IQ Option Mobile App

A key award winner and technological achievement for IQ Option is their mobile app. The IQ Option Mobile App has won accolades as one of the finest from any Binary Options broker in the business. The user-friendliness separates it from competitors’ products that are typically hard to utilize in practice.

It is so easy to use that a great number of the company account holders prefer it to the desktop-based website. Mobile App graphs are well-supported, detailed, and simple to read. Several of the indicators appear in the mobile app version too. You only need to click on a few tabs to place a trade.

The modern interface and features load quickly and are highly functional. The company has gone to great lengths to provide world-class cyber-security so that your personal data and money are both protected. Thanks to the timely notifications it sends on the mobile version, you are able to keep up with prices and trends in real time. This IQ Option app comes from the Google Play Store for Android device users and from the Apple App Store for iPhones account holders.

IQ Option Videos and Educational Material

We have been impressed by the quantity and quality of educational materials and videos that IQ Options includes. They really go above and beyond the average Binary Options broker in this regard. The features include all of the following:

• News Feeds – an essential resource for keeping up with breaking news affecting your trades and strategies
• Historical Quotes – this gives you the ability to view stock prices and levels at historical points
• Event Calendars – help keep you from being caught unprepared by policy announcements and data releases
• Stock Collections – with such groups as Warren Buffet’s Favorites, 10 Dividend Kings, and 10 Most Profitable Companies, you are able to select from more than a dozen different collections of stock picks
• Stock Listings by Industries – groups stocks by 11 primary industries in categories like Real Estate, Healthcare, Energy, Financials, and Utilities
• Video Tutorials – they provide many different videos in categories such as crypto digest, options trading, FX options, and technical analysis. Regardless of how seasoned a trader you are with these instruments, there is something helpful for everyone in the videos and educational section

IQ Option also has the distinction of being among the first Binary Options brokers to provide videos to its account holders. They hold the philosophy that well-educated traders are more likely to be successful and continue trading. The need for this sort of education in Binary Options trading is evident by the warning on their site.

It is worth noting that this form of trading is not for the faint of heart. IQ Options starkly states their risk warning that these types of instruments are highly risky and can quickly lose money because of their leverage. An incredible 73 percent of all retail investor accounts trading with IQ Options lose money. In other words, if you want to beat these steep odds, you had better do your homework and make sure you understand fully how these CFD products actually work.

IQ Option Members’ Website and Customer Support

We always find a closely correlated connection between the effectiveness of a broker or trading service and the strength of their customer support efforts. At time of publication, IQ Options boasted an impressive 78 different specialists who work with account holders and would-be clients via chat, contact form tickets, emails, and 24 hours per day, seven days per week phone service. The company’s phone support operates in a number of different countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Portugal.

How IQ Option Works

IQ Option offers two different types of account and a range of funding options. We go through these in this section.

Opening an IQ Option Real Account

IQ Option’s primary account type is their Real Account. This provides you with a wide range of over 500 different assets to trade. They offer an interesting benefit of participating in trading competitions with these accounts as well as with their higher tiered accounts.

This account type only requires a $10 deposit to start trading. It could be the lowest minimum deposit level available with any reputable options broker anywhere. All trading opportunities are available with this more basic level of account. The company pledges that they process all of their received withdrawal requests within a single working day.

Opening an IQ Option VIP Account

The VIP Account at IQ Option delivers all of the benefits of the Real Account and then some important and powerful additional advantages. Besides access to over 500 different trading assets, demo and real-money trading, and trading competitions, they also give you a personal account manager to help in your trading endeavors. The company guarantees quicker withdrawals in only 24 hours or less as well. This level of account membership comes with a deposit starting at $3,000.

Ease of deposits and withdrawals are another important feature with these kinds of brokers. IQ Option utilizes all of the following funding methods with their platforms:

• Debit Cards and Credit Cards (including Visa, Mastercard, and Maestro)
• Neteller
• Skrill
• Boleto
• Qiwi
• iDeal
• WebMoney
• Sofort
• Fasapay

They do not support wire transfers or allow for broker to broker transfers though.

IQ Option Account Cost and Withdrawal Policies

Amazingly, you can open an account with as little as $10 at IQ Options. To trade professionally though, you will want to fund one of their more serious IQ Option VIP Accounts for $3,000 minimally. This would provide you with full access to all of their services and account manager features. IQ Option processes withdrawals on average within a day, claiming that 68 percent of them are instantly processed as of 2018. We like their commitment to quickly returning account holders’ money as this is not always a standard feature with these types of binary options brokers.