Weekend Binary Options Trading

Although the world’s markets traditionally run through the working week, many retail binary options traders are busy with work or other responsibilities during ordinary trading hours and prefer to trade on weekends. Fortunately, there is a diverse choice of assets available for weekend binary options trading, from OTC stocks to cryptocurrencies and synthetic indices.

This beginners guide will serve as a tool kit for understanding everything there is to know about trading binary options on the weekend. Learn why investors choose to trade on weekends, trading strategies to help get you started, as well as what to expect from the weekend binary options market. We have also listed the best binary options brokers that support weekend trading in 2024.

How Does Weekend Binary Options Trading Work

For many investors either the Monday–Friday trading life isn’t enough, or their only option is to trade on weekends. These traders regularly turn to out-of-hours trading – trades that take place during the pre- and after-market phases of an exchange – or they trade assets or products that are available 24 hours a day, such as binary options on cryptocurrencies.

Some have the misconception that it isn’t possible to trade outside of the set trading hours. While this may be the case for certain assets, forex, cryptocurrency, and indices markets are some examples where borders and times have a limited effect on when you can trade.

Good & Bad Of Binary Options Trading On Weekends

Advantages

• Extra opportunities to make profits: For some, trading is a full-time job. Being able to trade on weekends as well as weekdays allows traders to potentially make even more profits as they capitalise on additional opportunities and ideas.
• Earn money in your free time: Not everyone can trade during the week due to their work or other commitments. The option to trade on the weekends provides these individuals with the opportunity to trade binary options when it works for them.
• Strategy and markets: There are specific trading strategies that work better on weekends and under some circumstances, certain markets may even be more active during weekends.
• Distractions: The weekend not only provides a calmer environment for most trading markets but also in many traders’ lives. A not-so-secret hack known by many traders is to cut out all distractions while investing online. This allows traders to properly monitor the markets and creates a good chance to predict new market trends.

Risks

• Asset selection: There are fewer underlying assets and instruments available to trade on weekends due to some markets being closed.
• Brokers: A smaller selection of binary options brokers is available since some that only offer certain assets and markets will not trade during weekends.
• Low trading volume: There is less trading activity on weekends, so reduced volume compared to weekdays. This can impact binary options strategies since the market will behave differently. Due to fewer trades occurring, volume rising may be a weaker indicator of trend strengths.
• Trading hours: Although time zones mean certain markets are active on the weekends, they may only be active at inconvenient times for you. For example, when trading binary options on stock indices from exchanges in the Middle East, the United States of America (USA) or the United Kingdom (UK), there will be significant time differences requiring you to be up at challenging times.

Top 3 Binary Options Brokers That Offer Weekend Trading

Most binary options brokers with an open web platform on weekends will offer at least forex and/or cryptocurrency. However, some binary options brokers offer additional assets. The lists below shows some of the most popular UK binary options brokers that offer weekend trading as well as the assets available.

Quotex

Quotex offers over-the-counter (OTC) weekend binary options trading, meaning trades are done via a broker-dealer network instead of on a centralized exchange. The session opens immediately after regular weekday sessions close and remains open for 48 hours.

Some of the most popular assets, including stocks, commodities, and forex, available to trade are:

Pocket Option

Similarly, Pocket Option offers a range of OTC assets available to trade on weekends, as well as cryptocurrencies. Below is a table of some of the most popular assets available to trade on weekends with Pocket Option.

RaceOption

RaceOption has a more limited range of assets than some of the other weekend binary options brokers on this list. However, some underlying assets become available to trade from Sunday (specific times vary, with the latest start time being 07:15). Futures are also available on Saturdays.

Comparing Weekend Binary Options Trading Brokers

There are more factors than just underlying assets to consider before you settle on a binary options company:

Payouts

Weekend binary options brokers may offer reduced payouts on Saturdays and Sundays. Volatile markets, such as cryptos, also tend to have lower payouts. At the top brands, payouts range from 30% to 100%+.

Tip: open a demo account to check the payouts available on the weekends.

Also check for any non-trading fees. Examples include withdrawal fees and currency conversion charges.

Reputation

While there are some trusted and well-reviewed binary options brokers that are unregulated, there are also lots of scams operating online. With this in mind, make sure you sign up with a top-rated binary options broker.

Note, weekend binary options brokers cannot help you plan for trading taxes.

Customer Service

Good customer support is important to make your trading experience with a broker hassle-free. The best brokers offer 24/7 customer service, including on weekends.

This could be either via phone or live chat. Some binary brands even offer support via real-time video chat for support with account registration and platform questions, plus withdrawal rules and problems.

Demo Account

Binary options demo accounts are common among brokers nowadays and many traders consider them to be an indispensable feature. They allow traders to get a feel of a platform and the exercise of trading with a broker before staking real money. They can also be used to build and test a weekend binary options strategy.

Paper trading accounts are typically free to use, and some, like Pocket Option, don’t even require you to log in.

Features

Some of the best weekend binary options brokers set themselves apart with unique features. This can include no deposit welcome bonuses and doubled first deposits, copy trading availability, or the option to download a free app for on-the-go trading.

Other elements to compare include economic calendars, platform instructions, live quotes, investment experts that provide market insights, data and real-time charts, plus support to download algorithmic programs, signals and robots.

In addition, what timeframes does the week binary options broker support? Can you trade 30 second, 1 minute and 30 minute binaries, for example?

All of these tools can aid the weekend trading experience.

Binary Options Weekend Trading Strategies

When you start trading binary options on the weekends you will need to learn new trading strategies to take into account the market’s different characteristics.

Indicators 101

Some of the most popular indicators and tools for weekend binary options trading include Heiken-Ashi candlesticks, Bollinger bands, stochastic oscillators, and the relative strength index.

Bollinger Bands

During weekend trading, Bollinger bands can be used to ascertain the range an underlying asset is trading within and to gauge trends, just as during normal weekday trading. However, traders should also take into account the lower trading volume over the weekend and the impact this may have on price action.

When using Bollinger bands on their own, many binary options traders wait for the market to reach one of the boundaries. The general prediction is that the market tends to reverse and not surpass the boundary.

However, it is hard to judge new trends or price movements with any degree of certainty using only one indicator. With this in mind, Bollinger bands can be used in conjunction with other indicators to further support any predictions and as a form of risk management.

Closing Gaps

Gaps are price jumps – for example if an asset’s price suddenly rises from £10.001 to £10.010 without first passing through £10.002 and so on.

On weekdays these gaps are usually the result of significant economic or market news and events triggering many trades at once. However, during periods such as weekends when trading volume is lower, the influence of each individual trader on the market is amplified. In this case, the market will tend to view the price movement as unjustified and the gap will often close with a price movement in the opposite direction.

This is an opportunity for a binary options trader to make money – if you can spot a gap and predict with confidence that a price movement is coming in the opposite direction, you have a good chance of a payout on a well-placed binary options trade.

Weekend Binary Options Trading Tips

Some tips and advice for weekend binary options trading beginners include:

• Research strategies: Like the strategies mentioned in this article, some systems simply work better on weekends. With a long list of strategies to choose from, ensure the one you select makes the most of the specific low-volume trading environment on weekends.
• Practice: Practice is the key to finessing your technique and becoming a master at binary options weekend trading. Although mistakes are inevitable, practising with simulator accounts takes away the risk as you become better at reading signals and implementing trading systems.
• Journal: Keeping notes on either Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets can be helpful for beginner traders as it can allow them to identify what works for them and what doesn’t. Some things to keep track of are the time you trade, the assets you trade, which indicators you use, how you feel about trades as you make them, and the outcome of the trade. Eventually, you will collate enough information to figure out the best combination of things (time, day, asset, and indicators) that encourage successful binary options trades on the weekends.

Bottom Line On Trading Binary Options On The Weekend

An exciting way for everyday traders to switch up their investing approach, or a way for full-time workers to incorporate binary options trading into their lives, there are many reasons for individuals to consider weekend trading. As long as the strategy you use is tweaked for specific weekend use, it can be profitable to trade binary options on the weekend – as long as OTC, forex, or cryptocurrencies are your preferred asset to trade.

Use our list of the best binary options brokers that support weekend trading to join, login and start trading.

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