SEC accuses three men of $100 mln binary option scam

Discussion in 'Wall St. News' started by mlawson71, Sep 30, 2019.

  1. Sig

    Sig

    That's interesting logic, how about you deliver me 100 contracts of VIX? How about 100 contracts of Case Schiller Home Prices. How about 100 contracts of PJM Western Hub Real-time Peak MWH? I could go on and on and on about non-deliverable futures, fops, and even the cash settled CBOE index options on SPX, RUT, and the Nasdaq 100. Clearly, your definition of gambling bucket shops based on deliverability leads just a tad bit to be desired?
    The real question though is one I already asked but you seem to have missed. You can make offers inside the spread on Nadex now. You can set yourself up as a full fledged market maker with only $500K in capital (I double checked that number). If there's this massive "house edge" you're so sure is there, why in the world aren't you (and everyone else) taking advantage of it by acting in the same capacity as "the house"?
    And while you're not going to get sued for defamation here on ET, words do have consequences and you're a generally intelligent and civil guy. Claiming that Nadex "paid the CFTC enough to look the other way" is a pretty damn serious allegation to make without a scintilla of evidence, don't you think? Wouldn't you think such an unsupported allegation would reflect poorly on you, at the very least?
     
    Last edited: Oct 1, 2019
    #11     Oct 1, 2019
    gaussian likes this.
  2. gaussian

    gaussian

    Yeah that's fair. I wrote what I said hastily.

    I don't have 500k capital. If I did, there are better and easier ways to make money (for example making markets in futures is probably what I would do).

    It's opinion, so I seriously doubt NADEX would take my criticism very seriously. Your response is fair and I clearly misspoke. I have an unfounded bias against binary options vendors.

    I'll concede and I probably don't know enough to talk about it. Perhaps you can give me a reason that it's not glorified gambling. Can you hedge usefully on NADEX? The purpose of speculation is to provide liquidity to hedgers. Why would I hedge on NADEX? It seems like a gambling operation to me. For reference, I am a speculator myself. I understand my role (generally). However, what does NADEX provide that another options platform doesn't? Why can't I build my own binary options? I just do not see the utility in speculation on NADEX.
     
    #12     Oct 1, 2019
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  3. Overnight

    Overnight

    I liked your post there, because you fessed up. But you think you can make a futures market with half a million? Mruhahah! Yer smoking the funny stuff I believe.
     
    #13     Oct 1, 2019
  4. Sig

    Sig

    At one point Nadex was the only place that had daily options expirations, and there were strategies that benefited/used that. To be honest now that CBOE has added MWF PM expirations, combined with Nadex raising their commissions (they used to cap them per transaction), I don't really use them much any more. But at one time they were offering something you couldn't get elsewhere. And binary options are a product you can go down to GS and get to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in notional, so obviously they have legitimate uses. To be fair to your position, no doubt plenty of folks use Nadex to gamble as well, and if you don't have any qualms about parting them with their money then there is money to be made trading against them.

    Sincerely appreciate your civility as well, apologize if I came off a bit snarky in that last post.
     
    #14     Oct 2, 2019
    GregorySG9 likes this.
  5. pipeguy

    pipeguy

    Nah, its a confusion, the guys you mentioned are great, but binary options are really a crap. I think they have to be regulated same as casinos
     
    #15     Oct 3, 2019
  6. I am thinking of opening a binary options firm which has a physical presence. It would be a large room full of mini trading workstations that take cash or credit card swipe. Active traders get comps and there would be low cost food available,drinks etc. this should not be a problem since its a trading firm.
     
    #16     Oct 4, 2019
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  7. mlawson71

    mlawson71

    Why a binary options firm exactly?
     
    #17     Oct 4, 2019
  8. pipeguy

    pipeguy

    Binomo or IQ option or maybe Plus500. As far as I know they were all run from Israel
     
    #18     Oct 6, 2019
  9. That is definitely a great idea. Haha. I love it
     
    #19     Oct 6, 2019
  10. mlawson71

    mlawson71

    Actually Israel banned binary options a while ago.
     
    #20     Oct 7, 2019