Expiry Time
Also known as: expiration, expiry
What is it?
Expiry time is the exact moment a binary option settles, when the asset's price is compared with your entry price to decide whether the trade won or lost. Binary options are all-or-nothing: if the price is on the right side of your entry at the instant of expiry, you win a fixed payout; if it is not, you lose your entire stake. Nothing that happens before or after that single moment counts.
A Call with a 60-second expiry, for example, wins only if the price is above the entry exactly 60 seconds after you opened it, no matter how the price wandered in between. This makes the expiry one of the most important choices in the whole trade. Too short and random noise dominates, so the result can feel almost like a coin flip; too long and the original setup may fade before settlement.
A signal is built and measured for one specific expiry, and its historical accuracy only describes how it did at that expiry. Trade the same direction on a different expiry and you can get completely different, unrelated results, and past performance is never a guarantee of future outcomes. Because the product is all-or-nothing and high-risk, matching the expiry to the signal exactly, rather than guessing, is essential, and your capital is at risk on every single trade.
Why it matters: The expiry defines the whole trade - too short and noise dominates, too long and the setup may fade; matching it to the signal is essential.
Expiry choice fundamentally changes the trade; a mismatch makes the signal's stats meaningless.
Real-world example
A Call with a 60-second expiry wins only if price is above the entry exactly at the 60-second mark, regardless of the path.
How SignalBots handles it
SignalBots binary signals carry their intended expiry so the extension sets it correctly rather than leaving it to guesswork. See /risk-warning.
Pro tip
Use the expiry the signal was designed for; a strategy validated on 5-minute expiries can fail on 60-second ones.
Common pitfalls
Trading a signal on a different expiry than it was built for and getting unrelated results.
Frequently asked questions
What is the expiry time on a binary option?
It is the exact moment the trade settles. At that instant the price is compared to your entry, and you either win a fixed payout or lose your full stake. Only that one moment decides the result.
Does the expiry time change a signal's outcome?
Heavily. The same direction can win on one expiry and lose on another, so always trade the expiry the signal was designed and measured for.
Are very short expiries riskier?
Short expiries are dominated by random noise, which makes outcomes harder to predict and closer to chance. They are high-risk, and a quick string of losses can cost real money fast.
Can I pick any expiry I want for a signal?
You can, but you should not. A signal's historical accuracy only applies to the expiry it was built for. Changing it gives unrelated results that the stats no longer describe.
What happens to my stake exactly at expiry?
If the price is on the winning side of your entry, you receive the payout; if not, your whole stake is lost. There is no partial outcome, which is why it is called all-or-nothing.
Trading involves substantial risk of loss. Historical and backtested results do not guarantee future performance. Read the full risk warning.