Options Rider Review: Managed binary options investment?


Apr.16, 2015 in MLM Reviews, Options Rider
There is no information on the Options Rider website indicating who owns or runs the business.
The Options Rider website domain ("optionsrider.com") was registered on the 31st of January 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.
On the Options Rider website, the company claims to be based out of Auckland, New Zealand.
The address provided in the FAQ however belongs to Regus, who sell virtual office space. As such, it would appear Options Rider exists in New Zealand in name only.
Further research reveals Bob Roberts and Thomas Carter identified as co-owners on Options Rider affiliate calls.
Why this information is not presented on the Options Rider website is unclear.
Bob Roberts appears to be tied directly to BancdeOptions. A press-release issued in September of 2014 states
Sydney, Australia, November 24, 2014 — It’s official, BancdeOptions CEO is announcing the opening of its second representative office since the beginning of the year in Singapore, the first being in Hong Kong for the Asian market.
Sam Perkins, BancdeOptions VP for Business Development who is just returning from Hong Kong is explaining the company success:
"In Asia, we just partnered with major Chinese financial investors from Hong Kong and Beijing.
The Chinese market is ready to move ahead in the financial trading online solution. They see it as a natural evolution from Forex to the Binary Option platforms."
Bob Roberts is listed as the contact for the release, with a link to the BancdeOptions website. Robert’s position within BancdeOptions is not clarified.
The press-release indicates Roberts might be based out Australia. Meanwhile a Hong Kong address currently features on the BancdeOptions website.
As with the New Zealand address, this is once again owned by Regus and is nothing more than a virtual mailing address.
BancdeOptions no more exists in Hong Kong than Options Rider does in New Zealand.
Similarities between BancdeOptions and Options Rider are readily observable, with both opportunities soliciting managed investments of up to $500,000 USD.
BancdeOptions appears to target Europeans whereas Options Rider investors in the US.
Of note is that the "payment details" page of both sites is identical, strongly suggesting the two companies are owned by the same people (Bob Roberts).
I wasn’t able to find anything concrete on Thomas Carter, save that appears to be based out of the US.
On a recent Options Rider affiliate call, Carter claimed to be travelling in the US state of Florida. Bob Thomas was also on the call, with Carter claiming he was calling in from Shanghai, China.
On the call, Roberts claims to own the company Binary Options Concierge. An Australian freecall number features on the company’s website.
Read on for a full review of the Options Rider MLM business opportunity.

The Options Rider Product Line

Options Rider has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market affiliate membership to the company itself.
Once signed up, Options Rider affiliates are then able to make investments of up to $500,000 USD with the company.

The Options Rider Compensation Plan

The Options Rider compensation plan sees affiliates invest between $500 to $500,000 with the company. They are also paid to recruit new affiliates who do the same.

ROIs

Options Rider claim to run management investment accounts, which is purportedly sourced from trading 5% of the funds an affiliate invests daily.
Options Rider claim they have some proprietary software that generates an average 88% win trade ratio each month, delivering an average 75% ROI per trade.
The more funds invested, the more amount of trades each day:
  • $500 to $5999 invested – 3 trades a day (5% traded)
  • $6000 to $9999 invested – 4 trades a day (4% traded)
  • $10,000 to $19,999 invested – 5 trades a day (3% traded)
  • $20,000 or more invested – 6 trades a day (3% traded)
  • $50,000 or more – custom daily trade and percentages available
Note that Options Rider claim only to trade four days a week.
The basic advertised math is up to 5% of the funds invested, traded x amount of times daily and delivering a 75% ROI, 88% of the time.
Sounds complicated but if you calculate a 75% ROI per the amount of trades daily (remembering that only 5% of the funds invested is used to trade), it’s much easier to subtract 12% of lose trades from the total amount.
Ie. You invest $500 which sees three trades conducted daily.
That’s $25 traded three times a day. At 75% ROI per trade, that’s $43.75 (175%) per trade or $131.25 daily.
Each trade delivers a net ROI of $18.75. An 88% win ratio means 42 of the 48 trades each month will be successful (0.88 * 48), which results in a $787.50 payout (42 * 18.75).
Six trades were losses so $150 must be subtracted from this amount ($25 * 6).
Thus the monthly ROI paid out with $500 invested in Options Rider is $637.50.
Or in other words, an affiliate invested $500 and at the end of month was paid a $1137.50 ROI.
This basic math with $500 invested is scaled up depending on how much an Options Rider affiliate invests (the only variables are the 5% used to trade and how many ROIs are generated each day).

ROI Fees

Serving as a deterrent to trap funds in the system, Options Rider charge sliding-scale withdrawal fees.
The longer an affiliate leaves their funds invested with the company, the lower the withdrawal fee charged:
  • withdrawal request within 30 days = 20% fee
  • withdrawal request within 60 days = 15% fee
  • withdrawal request within 90 days = 10% fee
  • withdrawal request within 120 days = 5% fee
  • withdrawal request after 120 days = no fee

Referral Commissions

Referral commissions are paid out in Options Rider using a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any of these level 1 affiliates go on to recruit new affiliates of their own, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
Theoretically a unilevel team can expand down infinite depth, however Options Rider cap payable unilevel levels at two.
A 20% referral commission is paid on investments made by personally recruited affiliates (level 1). 10% is paid on investments made by any affiliates they recruit (level 2).

Joining Options Rider

Affiliate membership with Options Rider is free, however affiliates must invest at least $500 in order to participate in the income opportunity.
As such the defacto minimum cost of Options Rider affiliate membership is $500.
Note that the company accepts investments of up to $500,000 USD.

Conclusion

Once you get your head around the maths of the whole binary options trading ruse, Options Rider presents itself as a pretty straight-forward Ponzi scheme.
Affiliates invest sums of up to $500,000, with larger amounts attracting a higher ROI.
Your first red flag is that Options Rider only accept deposit by bank wire, with research revealing the following account details being currently used:
Beneficiary Name: FUND OPTIONS AUSTRALIA PTY LIMITED
Auckland Chancery Plaza Level 39, Shortland Street,
Auckland 8061, New Zealand
Beneficiary Bank Name: Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Beneficiary Account Number: 10606266
Beneficiary Bank SWIFT Code: CTBAAU2S
BSB number (Bank Code) is 062-468
Bank Address: NRI Banking.
International Financial Services Level 10.
101 George Street, Parramatta.
NSW 2150, Australia.
More pseudo-compliance than anything, on their website Options Rider claim to be authorized by the NZ Securities and Exchange commission.
The Company is authorized and regulated by the New Zealand Securities and Exchange Commission to offer certain Investment and Ancillary Services and Activities under the Provision of Investment Services, the Exercise of Investment Activities, the Operation of Regulated Markets and Other Related Matters Law of 2007, Law 144(I)/2007, as subsequently amended or replaced from time to time ("the Law"), with FSP license number 207/13.
How this would be possible when Options Rider only exist in New Zealand out of a rented virtual address escapes me.
It should be noted that the only other tie to Australia that Options Rider has is the location given on their Singapore office press-release. Bob Robert’s location is unknown, but I’d say he’s probably based out of Australia.
So you have a company with rented mailbox addresses in Singapore and Hong Kong and New Zealand, only accepting bank wires to an account in Australia.
If you’re wondering why this is, I’ll let one Options Rider investor attempt to explain;
The managed fund is in Australia. WHY because Australia is the 2nd best and safest banking system in the world…the U.S. is 13th!
Did you know that China owns half of America already? Did you know that 80% of Bank of America’s funding is in China?
While all of that may or may not be true, the actual reason Options Rider are avoiding the US is because they’re quite obviously running a Ponzi scheme.
And not only are Options Rider purposefully avoiding banking in the US, they’re also hoping to fly under the regulatory radar.
Here’s what prospective Options Rider affiliates were told on a recent conference call:
What we don’t want you to do in Options Rider, and this is very important… you’re not allowed to blast links out on Facebook.
You’re not allowed to post stuff all over Twitter about Options Rider.
This is designed not really for internet marketing, but for you to talk to your friends and family, people that you love and trust.
We don’t want to turn it into a circus where you turn on Facebook and you see five thousand people promote some crazy company with all these links going everywhere…
That’s not what we’re trying to achieve at all.
Why a Options Rider would fear public promotion, going so far as to ban their investors from publicly promoting the company altogether, should be obvious.
In no way shape or form do tradings averages synch up with guaranteed ROIs offered each month through Options Rider. Throw in referral commissions further draining the system and it’s pretty clear what’s going on here.
You deposit funds into Bob Robert’s bank account, and he pays you with subsequently invested funds. The whole trading ruse is just complicated maths they use to pay you out with.
Oh and dare to withdraw your funds immediately, and you’ll be slugged with some hefty penalty fees.
If any significant amount of trades were actually happening, the withdrawal fee structure of Options Rider makes no sense.
And that brings us to the binary options ruse in general.
Think about it. If Bob Roberts was able to generate monthly winning binary options trades of around 88%, what on Earth does he need your money for?
Go to a bank, take out a loan, run their super secret algorithm software and within a few years Bob Roberts will have more money than is currently available on planet Earth.
The reality is Roberts and Options Rider need your funds because without them, they can’t pay off their existing investors.
As with all Ponzi schemes, once new affiliate investments dries up, Options Rider will be unable to meet it’s monthly ROI obligations and collapse.
If I had to guess, what with BancdeOptions launched a few months ago and Options Rider just last month, I’d suggest the former has already began to collapse.
Those investing in Options Rider are likely going to be funding ROIs promised through BancdeOptions, meaning there’ll be even less funds to pay out when Options Rider investors make their withdrawal requests in a few months.
What happens then?
Kaboom.