Posted: 19 Jul 2010 12:55 AM PDT

This week consists of quite a few market moving events that could provide opportunities for binary options trading. Here are 6 events with potential market reactions and binary options setups.

Binary options can be used as an alternative to the traditional stop loss, as a tool for protecting against false breakouts and lots more. One-hour binary options can be used for trading on news events.

You can trade binary options at StartOptions, a respected binary options provider.

I’ve selected the events and the setups based on study already done for the forex weekly outlooks, and the potential reactions to surprises. Some events collide with each other and could offset each other. These events weren’t selected.

Quick explanation:

CALL options – if the price closes above the price you purchased at expiry, you earn 75%. If it closes below, you’re left with 10%.
PUT options – if the price closes below the price you purchased at expiry, you earn 75%. If it closes above, you’re left with 10%.

OK, let’s review the events:

US Building Permits: Tuesday, 12:30 GMT. Market expectations currently stand on 570K. 620K or higher – PUT option on EUR/USD. 520K or lower, CALL option on EUR/USD.
Canadian rate decision: Tuesday, 13:00 GMT. Market expects a raise to 0.75%. 1% or higher – PUT option on USD/CAD. Unchanged at 0.5% – CALL on USD/CAD.
British Retail Sales: Thursday, 8:30 GMT. Market expects +0.5%. 1% or higher – CALL option on GBP/USD, negative outcome – PUT option on GBP/USD.
US Unemployment Claims: Thursday 12:30 GMT. Market expects 453K. 480K or higher – CALL option on EUR/USD. Below 430K – PUT option on EUR/USD.
German Ifo Business Climate: Friday, 8:00 GMT. Market expects 101.5 points. Below 100 – PUT option on EUR/USD. Above 103 – CALL option on EUR/USD.
British GDP (first release): Friday 8:30 GMT: Market expects +0.6%. 0.8% or higher – CALL option on GBP/USD. 0.3% or lower – PUT option on GBP/USD.

These expected market reactions and setups are general market commentary. This is by no means investment advice.

If you're interested in binary options, you're welcome to go to StartOptions. They're a leading binary options provider. This is how it looks on their screens:

Full Disclosure: I'm affiliated withStartOptions.

Serious Regulation Will Make Forex More Mainstream

Posted: 18 Jul 2010 05:35 PM PDT

While regulators are maturing with the industry, some of them are still incompetent and traders aren’t always aware of regulation in forex. Better regulation is essential in making forex more mainstream.

Part of the blame for the financial crisis was on big financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers and AIG, and the lack of proper regulation. The reform presented in the US comes to prevent future cases of misconduct and also to avoid having institutions that are too big to fail.

The forex industry enjoyed the financial crisis – when stocks fell, currencies rocked and became attractive. Forex brokers bloomed while the banking sector was struggling. But popularity doesn’t mean that the situation is good.

As we all know, there are lots of forex scams, and forex brokers that trade against their clients. And what do regulators do? With chasing and stopping forex scams, they’re not perfect, but it seems that the nasty ones are eventually caught.

Duties of website owners and of traders

As a website owner in this industry, it’s also my duty to try to catch such scams, as I reported with the case of Crown. All in all, many eyes are open for catching scams.

But what about general malpractice? Trading against the clients and playing with slippage and execution isn’t a rate practice among market-making brokers. And here, the regulators all over the world don’t seem to have good answers.

Traders need to check out which brokers are regulated and which aren’t. It’s also important to see that the regulating body is a serious and well known one. And even the well known ones such as the CFTC are sometimes busy with proposing a tight leverage of 10:1. Will this stop brokers’ malpractice? I don’t think so.

For the industry to really mature and attract more mainstream traders and investors, we need to know that the regulators are examining the behavior of brokers and ranking them according to their fairness.

Serious regulation will send away the risky image and will make currency trading a possible path of investment for solid traders.

This is the fourth article in a series about the road of forex to the mainstream. Previous articles:

Want to see what other traders are doing in real accounts? Check out Currensee. It's free..

Forex Daily Outlook – July 19 2010

Posted: 18 Jul 2010 02:00 PM PDT

We start the week with interesting news in Australia – Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes and RBA Governor Glenn Stevens speech, German PPI is dropping and more news. let’s see what awaits us toddy.

In the US, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Governor Elizabeth delivers opening remarks at a hearing on the Community Reinvestment Act, in Virginia.

Later in the US, National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Housing Market Index droops down again from by 1 point.

In Canada, Foreign Securities Purchases decrease from 12.3 Billion to 8.05 Billion and e and affects the nation’s securities.

For more on USD/CAD, read the Canadian dollar forecast.

In Europe, Current Account rise up from -5.18 points to -3.08 a monthly report that measures the difference in value between imported and exported goods and It’s directly linked to currency demand – a rising surplus indicates that foreigners are buying more of the domestic currency to execute transactions in the country.

Later in Europ, German PPI decrease by 0.1%, a monthly report that measures the change in the price of goods sold by manufacturers; and affects the consumer inflation.

For more on the Euro, read the EUR/USD forecast and Casey Stubbs' latest analysis.

In Great Britain, Rightmove HPI More in Great Britain, has stabilized on 0.3% on the last 2 months, it’s a leading indicator that measures the change in the asking price of homes for sale. And affects the housing industry’s health.

Read more about the Pound in the GBP/USD forecast.

In Switzerland, Trade Balance has rise up from 0.82 billion to 1.05 Billion monthly report that measures the difference in value between imported and exported goods and Export demand and directly linked to the currency demand.

Moving on to Australia, Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes It’s a detailed record of the RBA Reserve Bank Board’s most recent meeting, providing in-depth insights

Later on Australia, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Glenn Stevens deliver a speech titled “Some Long-Run Effects of the Financial Crisis” at the Anika Foundation Luncheon, in Sydney; and as head of the central bank, has influence over the nation’s currency.

For more on the Aussie, read the AUD/USD forecast.

That’s it for today. Happy forex trading!

Want to see what other traders are doing in real accounts? Check out Currensee. It's free.