Linking & References Policy
BinaryOptions.net follows a rigorous sourcing and citation standard. Our goal is simple: publish material that is accurate, current, and verifiable across all our binary options guides and reviews. We use a clear, tiered method for links and references so readers can check any claim quickly.
Accuracy comes first. We cite the most authoritative source available and make verification straightforward. Market-moving details, such as fees, margin, product access, regulatory actions, and economic releases, are confirmed against original or official records before publication and rechecked when content is updated.
Tiered Source Framework
We sort external sources into three tiers based on reliability, authority, and how directly they support a statement. When several sources exist, we choose the highest tier that directly backs the claim. If Tier 1 or Tier 2 is not available, Tier 3 can provide context, but never to contradict higher-tier material.
Tier 1: Primary Sources
Tier 1 covers original documents, data, and statements from the organization, brokers or venue being discussed. These are our first choice for figures, definitions, policies, and binding terms.
Examples include:
- Company filings (Form 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, prospectuses, annual report PDFs).
- Official press releases and investor relations pages.
- Exchange rulebooks, product specs, symbol directories, and fee schedules.
- Broker/platform documentation: order types, margin tables, product lists, API docs, and status pages.
- Direct interviews, official statements, earnings-call transcripts or recordings, and capital-markets day materials.
- Official datasets published by the company or exchange (downloadable tables, CSVs, API endpoints).
Tier 2: Regulatory, Governmental, and Scientific Sources
Tier 2 includes regulators, central banks, statistics offices, and formal research bodies. We use these for laws, rules, official guidance, methodologies, macroeconomic data, and peer-reviewed research.
Illustrative Tier 2 sources:
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
- Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
- Australian Securities and Investments Commission(ASIC)
- European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)
- Central banks and national statistics agencies (e.g., Federal Reserve, ECB, ONS, BLS, BEA)
- Peer-reviewed journals and working papers from recognized institutions
Tier 3: Trusted Media and Financial News Outlets
Tier 3 supplies context, timelines, interviews, and commentary. We rely only on established publishers with strong editorial standards. Tier 3 is used when Tier 1 or Tier 2 is unavailable, and it never overrides them. In analysis or opinion pieces, sources from different tiers may be cited together to show competing viewpoints – clearly marked as such.
We link to Tier 3 only when the specific article is accurate and high quality. That we use a tier 3 source as a reference does not imply that we endorse all their content. Only that we deem the exact article we have linked to be a good source of information on that particular topic. There are plenty of high quality finance websites that have both high and low quality content published on their website.
Examples of Tier 3 sources:
- Bloomberg
- Reuters
- Financial Times
- The Wall Street Journal
- Investopedia
- CNBC
- MarketWatch
Link Placement
We place links directly in the sentence that contains the claim or data point so readers can verify immediately. We do not rely on footnotes or separate reference lists for standard pages unless the format requires it. We have chosen this method to make it as easy as possible for our users to verify our claims.
Editorial practice:
- Put the link on the exact phrase that carries the verifiable claim (e.g., “2025 margin schedule,” “Form 10-K,” “Rule 606 report”).
- Use descriptive anchor text, not generic labels like “click here.”
- Link once per distinct claim within a section; avoid repeating links to the same document unless it improves clarity. We do not verify the same claim multiple times in one article unless additional citations offer clear value.
- When a statement applies to a particular jurisdiction, we note that in or near the anchor. Often near the beginning of a sentence or the statement that is being made.
- For frequently updated documents, we include “updated” or “effective” dates in the surrounding sentence when they matter to the reader.
- Citation links generally exclude affiliate parameters. Citations are informational and not monetized, except in broker reviews where links to the reviewed broker are affiliate links.
- We aim for globally accessible sources; however, some links may be geo-restricted and unavailable in certain countries.
Link Review and Maintenance
Our editors routinely check outbound links for accuracy, destination integrity, and relevance. Broken, outdated, or misleading links are corrected or removed during scheduled maintenance. We use an automated system to identify and remedy broker links or redirected links as quickly as possible. Broken links will usually be replaced quickly, before the regular maintenance.
Maintenance standards:
- Frequency: High-traffic pages, broker reviews, and regulatory articles are reviewed more often; other content is checked on a rolling basis.
- Redirects: Replace temporary or chained redirects with the current canonical URL.
- Moved or archived content: If an official page is relocated or retired, we link to the new official location or a recognized archive. When the original site no longer hosts the document, we may reference the Internet Archive (web.archive.org) copy of the page.
- Conflicts: If two credible sources disagree, we prioritize the higher tier. Where the disputed point is important to readers, we highlight the discrepancy, link both sources, and state which is higher tier/more authoritative.
- Removals: If a source materially changes or loses provenance, we replace it with a stable alternative. If a fact has become common knowledge and no longer requires a citation for clarity, the reference may be removed without substitution.