The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has come out with an official statement, saying that it will extend the prohibition on binary options for a further three-month period from October 2, 2018. The European regulator initially banned the marketing, distribution or sale of binary options to retail clients as of July 2, 2018 due to investor protection concerns. Interestingly, ESMA explicitly excluded certain binary options products from its prohibition. These are long-term (at least 90 days) options which are fully hedged by the provider or another entity within the same group as the provider, and are accompanied by a prospectus. Only binary options that meet cumulatively these three conditions are considered to mitigate the risk of investor detriment and are therefore allowed for retail clients.