FAQs . . .

Question: I see that you have not updated your App much at all, and not as much as the other versions I see for other Apps. Why?
Yes you were right. FairOption took six months to develop. Every component was designed and programmed very carefully and thoroughly tested at each individual stage. The App was also packed with powerful features at 'day-one', and without requiring any further in-app purchases.

Update Sept 2022: There are numerous reasons why suppliers update their apps (including for marketing reasons being one of them, and apps than have many problems and bugs being another one). FairOption version 2 (released in 2016) continues to this day to work well. However, over the last eight months, FairOption has been updated to version 3.2 using the latest new technologies including the SwiftUI framework, reliable Cloud synching and with several other new and improved features. The App is also now supported on, and can sync across all main Apple devices.

Question: It's all very well having a pretty welcome screen as the first screen you see in the App. But my time is precious and I want to get straight to the main part of the App and don't want to go through any extra screens every time I launch the App.
There is a setting in 'App settings' to turn it off so the 'Welcome screen' is skipped upon every launch. However the integrated user guide is only available from the 'Welcome screen'.

So in circumstances that you skip 'the Welcome' you can still navigate using the top-left, blue navigation, back to the 'Welcome Screen' if you need access to the user guide.

Update Sept 2022: Version 3.2 now just loads a welcome screen that you can dismiss with a single tap if desired. i.e. no setting re it's quick anyway and will disappear at any stage with a single tap.

Question: If FairOption is capable of calculating theoretical fair option values for weekly options then why do you need to specify whether you want weeklys included as a results column for each security. Can't it just do it automatically for all securities?
Some securities do not have weekly option series available for them. Also it takes up a results column and computational time. All-in-all the method used amounts to a one-off, single tap when editing the security record and for which you will need to specify the particular monthly expiry cycle anyway when within that security record. Even when you do need and engage the weekly facility button for a particular security, no result columns 'are wasted' because when the expiry of 'a weekly' coincides with a monthly expiry on that same security, only one result column is calculated and listed. In multiple ways, it is currently the most efficient method.

Update Sept 2022: Things are slightly different now: Weeklys (and now the added LEAPS) do still take up computational time (negligible now) but more importantly they take up space and can 'cloud'/clog up the displayed option results tables. The limited number of displayed expiry data columns is no longer any consideration (re in 3.2 we have 2-way 'spreadsheet-like' scrollable grid cells. However, users may still wish to only see the option expiries that are available for a stock or index. (and that may vary from security to security and exchange to exchange). So FairOption provides the flexibility.

Question: Is there a version compatible with the desktop MAC OSX?
No, We haven't got around to it yet.

'Portable' was the first priority. iPhones normally have more communication options available to them (WiFi & mobile) and are easier to always have with you in-person wherever you go.

The App is also programmed in such a way that even if communications are totally 'down' on the iPhone, then useful pricing can still be successfully carried out. A desktop version may be produced if there is a reasonable level of requests for it.

Update Sept 2022: Apple Mac (now macOS), iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch versions are all now available in the latest FairOption V3.2 development, and all are now avialable in the Apple App Stores.

Question: The theoretical option prices obviously depend on the parameters used to calculate them. Where do I get them from?
To best override the default parameter values supplied when you first receive the App, it may be necessary (and is recommended) to peruse the included user guide (which covers all the parameters). This will provide a basic understanding of the main parameters together with the importance of each. The main 'setting' parameters are volatility, dividend rate and the risk-free interest rate for cash deposit. (Continuously compounded rate) Of all three, the figure for volatility is usually the most significant, but the most underestimated parameter in terms of importance. However it is covered in appropriate and deeper detail within the user guide. Interest rates are usually the least important parameter, especially when they are low which they recently have been. This usually smaller determining factor (the continuously compounded annual risk-free interest rate) is commonly derived from treasury bill rates. Dividend rates are obviously the dividend rate for the stock or index security which the option is based on. (It may be preferable to keep the global 'Settings' default for dividend either set at zero, or the average for the market, but to also make sure that the actual rate for a dividend is set within the 'edit security' screen for each individual security record)

The latter overrides (and is used in preference to) the former.

Update Sept 2022: This still predominantly applies, but read our latest FairOption V3.2 PDF Help Document for more details.

Question: I see on the Web that there is much about Binary Options and related services plus lots of free Apps for them. What are they and is FairOption suitable for them?
Binary Options are more akin to gambling than to the financial options used in investment management or as risk-reducing instruments used in hedging strategies. With Binary Options you 'wager' an amount, and you commonly either loose all of 'that bet', or otherwise can benefit by a fixed amount, or sometimes by an amount by which the option may end up 'in-the-money' at expiry. The total payout on Binary Options for 'clients' over time is commonly negative overall. (Just as with playing on a roulette wheel in a casino over time.)

To try and explain it in a different way:- The reward is commonly less than the risk taken in terms of the likely total outcome over time. (And in such circumstance, is not fair to 'the investor'.) It 'goes without saying' that the marketing spiel of Binary Options sites may well not expound this 'virtue'.

Binary Options have commonly been unregulated and open to fraud and are numerously banned by regulators throughout the world. A large concentration of unregulated binary options 'brokers' operate out of Israel even though that jurisdiction (/Security Authority) has banned Binary Options recently from being sold to their own Israeli customers. As of late 2016, no such ban from that jurisdiction exists for sales to foreign customers though, . . maybe on account of the trade contributing about 0.4% to Israel's total GDP? Although normally unregulated, in the United States binary options have been approved to be traded on the main US regulated exchanges. However, even in the US, there has been numerous warnings and examples of fraudulent schemes related to binary options trading sites. Also complaints and reports concerning manipulation of software to the detriment of customers, identity theft, and failure to register with regulators. And in the case of one Israeli firm, a report of it pretending to be in the US, but whilst not actually trading on any US exchange. And despite in 2013 that Cypriot-based firm being banned from selling 'binaries' to US customers, the firm still continued online, selling binary options to many other countries. With the internet, it is obviously extremely hard to ban such unregulated transactions across borders and when based 'offshore'.

With a binary option you commonly have no possible way of selling that option before expiry (i.e. it is purely binary, having only two possible outcomes and even then, only at expiry. i.e. very like 'a bet'). Therefore FairOption is not suitable for such. The prominent links or apps you refer to, many of which are 'Free' in terms of apps that you see specifically designed for binary options, commonly do also have in-app purchases for related services. The operators obviously make their money from these additional customer purchases and services to people who are enticed by this low-level invitation 'to invest'. The operations are slick and may also offer a 'free lunch' similar to the way casinos have traditionally offered similar 'punters' over time, or in terms of a free initial deposit (commonly with onerous withdrawal conditions). From what has been observed, they frequently describe or even also emphasise that their operations are fair. But with binary options you are 'hemmed in' and commonly cannot trade or exercise these options.

With FairOption there is no such related service and you get a powerful tool that is capable of the many more intensive calculations required to value traditional exchange-traded options that can be exercised at any time up until expiry, and can be freely bought and sold at any time before expiry, on regulated markets. These traded, non-binary options always have a close and direct link to the physical underlying security (and whether that be a stock, market index, commodity, or currency.)

At the end of the day, it is about personal choice. Many of us may like 'a flutter' on 'The' National Lottery and also probably like the fact the related proceeds go to good causes. However, it is abundantly clear that there are havens to which binary option firms gravitate, and then numerously operate to the serious detriment of decent, trusting, and well-intentioned investors. (This is a time of hardship in the world. Profiteering from poorer members is the last thing required.) Scotland is another location where it is widely reported there are many unregulated binary options brokers allowed to use loopholes and Scottish Limited Partnerships as 'shell firms' to supply these products, thus avoiding tax, but whilst actually having little or no real presence in Scotland. The UK Financial Conduct Authority has given numerous signals and issued a formal warning that such Binary Options broker firms must register with the Gambling Commission and cannot register as investment companies.

France has proposed a hard ban on binary options and Belgium has implemented a full ban.

So 'in short', the developer of the app neither wishes to contribute to, or encourage anyone into becoming involved with Binary Options. Nor does he wish to supply any app where the customer needs to then spend additional money to be able to use main app features, or just for the 'privilege' of being exposed to binary options.

Update Sept 2022: The developer of FairOption does not agree with the promotion, or 'pushing of' gambling in any form. The view has always been that it commonly profiteers from, and takes disproportionate advantage of the situation and hopes of the most disadvantaged, desperate and vulnerable individuals in our society. The developer has never approved of binary options and welcomes Apple's decision in 2017 (in section 3.2.2 of Apple’s guidelines for developers) to now ban apps which facilitate binary options from the Apple App Store.

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