"The corporate regulator will ban the issue and distribution of binary options and contracts for difference to retail clients, on the basis they are "highly speculative products" which are very likely to lead to big losses.Over-the-counter binary options have characteristics "akin to gambling", ASIC warned.
Retail client losses from trading binary options were at least $490 million in 2018, while losses for contracts for difference (CFDs) are around $1.5 billion.
The move will hit Australian operations of providers such as IG Markets, Plus500, CMC Markets, IC Markets and Interactive Brokers."
