Binary options, which CySEC had not as of last week considered as financial instruments, will now be categorized as such under the organization’s rubric. To be precise, CySEC has now included binary options in the category of financial instruments which are covered by the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law of 2007-2009. This lays the ground for introducing binary options regulation in the near future.

This announcement has the potential to shake up and recast the entire binary options trading market and change the way it works and the rules it follows. Financial companies providing binary option trading services will now have to obtain a license and traders themselves will most likely seek to ensure that their broker is properly licensed.

Previous Stance

Binary options are new instruments that bring a novel approach to trading instruments like forex, stocks, commodities, futures and other instruments. As these instruments were quite different from existing financial instruments, they weren’t regulated by any central organization.

However, the increased popularity of binary options caught the attention of CySEC and after several months of deliberation, they have finally decided that binary options can be classified as financial instruments under existing laws. This obliges financial companies to obtain licenses to continue providing regulated binary trading services.

What This Means

Financial companies offering binary option trading services and traders are the two parties most affected by this decision. This change in CySEC’s stance means that companies or persons who want to continue offering binary trading will have to become regulated binary brokers by obtaining a CIF (Cyprus Investment Firm) license from CySEC if they don’t already hold one. For companies or persons who hold the CIF license and provide binary option trading services under the category of ‘other business’ will have to get their licenses amended accordingly. These firms will have to further indicate whether the traded instrument should be categorized as per paragraph 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 of Part III, Appendix 3 of the above mentioned law.

The companies or persons who don’t currently hold a CIF license but are providing binary option trading services will have up to 15 days from the date of this announcement to notify CySEC of their intension to submit an application for the license. They also have a maximum of six months from the date of this announcement to actually submit the application required to obtain a CIF license.

Entities who aren’t interested in offering services for regulated binary trading as regulated binary brokers and entities who don’t notify CySEC of their intention to submit the above mentioned application for a CIF license are obliged to stop providing trading services for binary options within a maximum of 30 days from the announcement date. Non compliance of these requirements would result in a breach of section 4 of the concerned law.

CySEC has made it abundantly clear that companies can continue offering regulated binary trading services only after they obtain the CIF license. Pursuant to these requirements, CySEC has asked all investors and traders to be cautious about whom they trade with and ensure that they trade only with entities holding a valid CIF license for binary options trading.

Future of Binary Options

Given that Cyprus has a lot of investment companies and trading startups due to low tax rates and a favorable investment climate, it is likely that trading companies will start bracing and preparing themselves for increased binary options regulation. As CySEC has been a pioneer in trading regulation and that other regulators around the world tend to follow suit, there is growing speculation that CySEC’s UK counterpart, the FSA is likely to take similar steps to start regulating binary option trading.

The current rules of the FSA don’t classify binary options as financial instruments and treat binary options trading as a gaming activity similar to betting, even though CySEC’s Australian counterpart ASIC has made the decision to regulate binaries and is currently the regulator for IG Markets’ binary trading services. It is important to note, however, that even CySEC had been denying the likelihood of regulating binary option trading until it surprised everyone with the announcement. It seems it’s only a matter of time now before regulators over the world start classifying binary options as financial instruments as start regulating them.

Apart from the changes this will bring in the options trading market, it is likely to help traders as more regulation generally means better safety for the traders’ money. Once the dust settles down, binary options might become just another financial instrument which would be traded like the other instruments.

CitiTrader and BetOnMarkets are hosting two free webinars in the next two weeks that you should definitely check out.

CitiTrader

On Thursday, May 10th 2012 at 5:30 PM EST (GMT -4), CitiTrader.com will be hosting its biggest free webinar so far which will be targeted towards new binary options traders. The webinar will be hosted by CitiTrader’s new president, Benjamin Truman, and will cover an introduction to binary options trading and strategy.

Those interested can register for a free CitiTrader account by clicking here and then contact customer support via live chat or email (support@cititrader.com) in order to register for the webinar.

CitiTrader is powered by the well-known SpotOption trading platform and offers one of the highest first depost bonuses in the binary options industry (up to 150%) and a wide range of assets to trade on, with payouts up to 81%.

BetOnMarkets

On Thursday, May 17th 2012 at 18:00 GMT, BetOnMarkets.com will be teaming up with professional traders Phil Carr and Nik Kalsi, to bring you an exclusive webinar that will show you how you can trade headline news to profit from commodities such as Gold, Silver and Oil. Whether you’re new to financial trading or looking to expand your existing knowledge, this free online webinar can guide you from the very first steps through to formulating trading strategies.

Those interested can register for a free BetOnMarkets account by clicking here and then contact customer support via live chat or email (support@betonmarkets.com) in order to register for the free webinar.

BetOnMarkets is a market leader in fixed odds trading (sometimes referred to as binary betting) and has been around since 1999. The company is based in London and is licensed in the Isle of Man and by the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority.

The free offer enables new traders who are not familiar with CitiTrader, or perhaps even with binary options in general, to test out the Cititrader trading interface to see if it can help them accomplish their trading goals.

The offer is given to all new clients that sign up to CitiTrader.com and request the bonus via email (support@cititrader.com) or live chat by clicking the “Live Support” button on the website. The $100 bonus is added to new trading accounts instantaneously. Keep in mind that, as with all trading bonuses, the bonus cannot be withdrawn until certain trading conditions have been met. Be sure to read the bonus terms and conditions.

CitiTrader offers the full SpotOption suite of trading platforms including standard Up/Down binaires with payouts ranging from 71-81% (73% on EUR/USD) and 5 minute lockouts; One Touch options with payouts up to 500%; 60 second options; Option Builder for about 20 assets; and the CitiMeta trading interface.

Get a free $100 bonus at CitiTrader

These event binary options had enabled people to specualte on the outcome of the 2012 US presidential race, for example, by investing in who the winner would be.

Here is a link to an article we had written about these exotic instruments back in January that details how these binary options functioned.

In its statement, the CFTC stated that “the contracts involve gaming and are contrary to the public interest, and cannot be listed or made available for clearing or trading.”

In response, Nadex issued a statement saying that “While we will review the CFTC’s decision, we felt strongly that these products met all legal and regulatory criteria for listing, and that the public would benefit from having these products traded on a well-regulated exchange…”

The US binary exchange still offers all-or-nothing options on the outcomes of economic events such as the level of the monthly Non-Farm Payrolls Report and the weekly Jobless Claims released by the Department of Labor and the Federal Reserve Funds Rate.

Nadex is located in Chicago, Illinois and is regulated by the CFTC and thus must submit to its directives. Traders and investors can invest on pricing changes in the currency, commodity and equity markets via Nadex listed binary options contracts online via its website. New clients can take advantage of a free $25,000 demo account.

The promotion allows new traders to sign up and trade on the ZoneOptions platform completely risk-free since they are offering to refund a trader’s first trade if it is unsuccessful. The offer is valid for one trade of up to $/€/£ 50.

Once an unsuccessful trade is made, a client must simply contact ZoneOptions customer service via live chat, phone or email, provide them with the ID number of the unsucessful trade and request that their account be credited with the sum of the trade.

In addition, ZoneOptions is also offering deposit bonuses of up to 40% for those who decide to deposit and trade larger amounts, alongside other promotions as well.

ZoneOptions is owned and operated by the same company that runs 24Option.com, one of the largest and most successful binary brokers. The platforms used by the two websites are identical so those familiar with 24Option’s platform will feel at home at ZoneOptions. The broker offers 6 different binary options types: Above/Below, Up/Down, One Touch, High Yield One Touch, Boundary and High Yield Boundary. Each has it own set of payout rules and its own risk calculations so be sure to be familiar with the type of option you select before executing a trade.

Click here to go to ZoneOptions.com

Click here to read our full review of ZoneOptions.com

Those looking for other free offers should also check out William Hill Day Trader’s $/€/£ 25 free promotion as well.

Binary Options Trading Signals

Investors interested in binary options have several different trading signals service providers to choose from in this new, but rapidly growing market. The majority of the service providers are traders or teams of traders who employ their own trading systems to enter into profitable trades in the forex, stocks and commodities markets. Typically, the vast majority of binary options signals providers issue trading signals for forex binary options although many also trade the stocks and indices markets.

Many binary options trading signals providers charge a monthly or bi-weekly subscription fee and issue trading signals a few times times a day or a few times per week, depending on how the underlying asset markets are trading.

The signals are typically delivered via email, SMS or chat (Skype, MSN, yahoo messenger, etc.) via an automated system once certain market conditions are met for the underlying asset in question. Once issued, the signals are typically valid for a certain period of time while the markets conditions are still being met.

The most important factor for determining the worth of a binary options signals service is the success rate of the signals they issue. The success rate in this case refers to how often the signals they issue result in a profitable trade. The easiest way to determine a signals service’s success rate is to view their previous performance over months prior and calculate how often their signals result in trades in the green.

Typically, a success rate above 70% is excellent; anything above 75% is exceptional and very rare so make sure you check the rate a few times to verify its accuracy. Try to make sure that the signals provider is able to supply evidence that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that they are able to maintain the success rates that they claim, including screenshots of trading accounts with the profitable trades in the trading history. A success rate below 60% may not be worth paying a monthly or bi-weekly subscription for since a rate that low will not give you much an edge in your trading.

Below you will find a brief review of some of the binary options trading signals services available on the Internet:

BinaryOptionTradingSignals.com

This website allows subscribers to watch high quality live stream of professional traders on a daily basis and learn from them by watching them trade. They also allow you to watch live trading from your phone. You can observe one session every trading day from 10:00 AM through 2:00 PM EST, with a break during the lunch. They typically trade forex binary options – specifically EUR/USD – and claim up to a 80% winning rate certain months, which is quite high. They offer multiple signals every day, so you can have a few opportunities to increase your account balance. The subscription fee is $97 for every 2 weeks, so those interested should calculate that they need to make at least that much every two weeks in order to cover the costs of the service. Click here to visit BinaryOptionsTradingSignals.com

BinaryOptionsProSignals.com

This is one of the first binary options signals service on the Internet and claims around a 72.5% accuracy rate with its signals. They typically trade forex binary options as well, although they vary the currency pairs they trade and don’t just stick with EUR/USD. The signals are delivered via email the second they are triggered. The thing that’s great about BinaryOptionsProSignals is that they offer a super low initial price: $7 for 7 days AND they offer a 60-day money back guaranteed offer. Click here to visit BinaryOptionsProSignals.com

Conclusion

Remember that trading according to signals does not guarantee success, it only helps augment your successful trade ratio. It’s still crucial to know how to manage your money, how to select and implement a trading strategy and stick with it and when to take your profits and when to stop your losses. Good luck!

$100 No Deposit Binary Option Bonus

GTOptions is the only binary options trading service provider that offers $100 no deposit bonus for all of its new clients. That means as soon as you sign up with GTOptions you will have $100 bonus money deposited right into your account. This bonus money can be really useful to start the trading, so that you can get a glimpse of the potential earning that you can have in the future.

How Can You Get The Binary Option Bonus?

Getting the no deposit bonus is fairly easy. All you have to do is follow the three steps:

Step 1: You have to go to the website of GTOptions and click open an account tab (click here to go there).

Step 2: Then you need to click on “Get $100 Free Now”.

Step 3: Finally, you just need to wait a few moments until the bonus amount is deposited into your account.

Other Special Offers, Benefits and Binary Bonuses

When you deposit money in your account, GTOptions will match your first real money deposit by a certain amount of bonus money in addition to your first deposit.

For example if GTOptions offers you a 50% deposit match of up to $10,000; it means that if you open a new real trading account and make a first deposit of say $4,000, GTOptions will instantly increase your account with an additional $2000 that will go straight to your trading balance allowing you to trade with $6000 instead of the $4000 that you initially deposited.

You can get trading bonuses not only on your first deposit but also when you redeposit. The sign up bonus is given as an extra boost to your trading balance so that you can open your first positions using the bonus money that GTOptions would give you. There are several other types of trading bonuses offered by GTOptions which you can find by visiting their website. Keep in mind that most bonuses come with terms and conditions so be sure to read them thoroughly.

Why Would You Choose GTOptions?

You can easily join the GTOptions community and start earning money. The platform is really simple for anyone to join. GTOptions can offer traders very high payouts that would range from 70% to 600%. GTOptions also gives you the chance to invest in diverse markets to maximize your earnings and minimize your risks.

You can easily take the help of the multilingual customer service team through phone, email or live chat. They also provide numerous educational tools to help you in your binary options trading experience with the webinars, one-one training, seminars, and E-book.

In a nutshell it can be said that, with these bonuses and extra features, GTOptions offers better binary options trading service than similar companies. Many expect GTOptions to emerge as one of the bigger players in the still nascent binary trading industry.

Click here to receive $100 Free from GTOptions

And, William Hill is offering a limited time $/£/€ 25 risk-free bet to encourage new traders and bettors alike to give their platform a shot.

Some of the various tools that you are encouraged to use to help turn a profit from the markets’ ups and downs are: Live news updates and information from the Dow Jones about the latest happenings in the financial sector, financial graphs, most popular bets graphs, and much more.

For the novice, the $/£/€ 25 risk-free promotion is a huge perk. The promotion basically means that William Hill will refund your first bet up to to $/£/€ 25 if it’s unsuccessful. The ability to trade risk-free helps one get a good feel of what the services of this financial betting company are like before committing too much.

The following are the some of the terms that you need to adhere to in order to qualify for the free bet offer: It must be your first day of trading, you must be a new trader and have just established an account with the company. Additionally, the account holder incurs any amount lost above $/£/€ 25. The cash will be credited to your account 48 hours after you have made your first bet.

William Hill is a giant in the world of sports betting but has only recently entered into the financial betting arena. However, given their spotless record and strong reputation in customer service, one expects the Day Trader service will continue on in that legacy.

For a full list of the conditions, click here to visit the Day Trader website.

Click here for a full review of William Hill Day Trader‘s services.

With the new Hall of Fame on EmpireOption, traders can post their trades for other traders to see, admire, and copy. You get a live feed to what trades are winning as they are happening. Not only can you feature your winning trades; you can spy on other’s trades and try to come up with strategies based around them. They are one of the only binary brokers today that offer this to their traders.

But the Hall of Fame isn’t the only thing attracting traders to EmpireOption. They are currently offering a 75 percent bonus to all new traders so if you deposit $300, you are able to trade with $525. Binary options bonuses are one way that you can really leverage your money into more winning trades or give yourself some padding if you initially lose. Just make sure to read the terms and conditions on the bonus first.

EmpireOption also offers a secure, easy to understand, web-based platform for traders and personal assistance through their team of analysts and economists to help you trade better. With most binary brokers, this level of assistance is reserved only for accounts with huge initial deposits. EmpireOption also gives traders the ability to make even more money through double-ups, rollovers, and customizable options.

Customizable options, in addition to the Hall of Fame, are one of the most unique features that EmpireOption offers. You can select any asset offered for binary trading, pick your expiry time, and the amount of money you wish to invest and then you simply wait to collect your winnings. It’s simple, easy, and lets you invest the way that you want to invest, without having to choose from ready-made options.

Double-ups can also be a profitable trading tool with EmpireOption. With double-ups, you can take a trade near the expiration time and double it up for another contract lasting roughly the same amount of time. This takes away one of the biggest disadvantages of trading binary options. Namely that you can’t ride your winners the same way that you can in forex trading.

Double-ups are good if you’re winning, but what if the market is moving against you? Then EmpireOption offers you the ability to rollover your trade. Rollovers are done when the trade is near the expiration time but it isn’t yet in the money. It allows you to postpone the expiration time until later, giving you more time to hit your target prices. It is an easy, effective way to help stop your losses.

EmpireOption offers its traders many features that you can’t find on other platforms. From binary options bonuses, to the Hall of Fame, to personalized assistances from professionals, the broker certainly packs a lot of value into its offering. Check them out today to see if they fit into your trading style. Click here to read our full EmpireOption review.

The binaries pay out up to 300% for in-the-money investments and will be settled at the end of the first trading day when Facebook launches its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange very soon.

The AnyOption trading platform now has an additional tab at the top entitled “facebook Options” that traders can click on to display the various Facebook binary options that are being offered.

There are at least ten different Above/Below binary options being offered on the future value of Facebook.com once it starts being publicly traded with returns on investment ranging from 70% to 300%.

Investors can choose from binaries that predict that Facebook will be worth less than than $70 billion to contracts that will pay out if the social media behemoth is worth more than $133 billion at the end of the first trading day.

In order to invest, traders must select the option contract or contracts they want to invest in based on how much they think Facebook will be worth once it goes public and then choose how much they want to invest. The Facebook binary contracts at AnyOption are issued in units that are equal to $25 per unit. The minimum amount that can be traded per contract is 1 unit ($25) and the maximum is 40 units ($1000).

Once one has chosen the contract and the amount to invest, simply click on “Buy” and the trade will be placed. According to the official AnyOption terms and conditions regarding the Facebook options on their website, the trade will be settled the day of the Facebook IPO and will be determined by the company’s “closing level.”

The T&C’s define the “closing level” as “the market value (and not the share price!) of facebook [as quoted by Reuters] at the end of its first day of trading after the IPO.”

The terms go on to read that “in the event that facebook’s IPO does not take place by the end of 2012 (31/12/2012 24:00), options purchased on this asset will be canceled and the investment amount will be returned to customers’ balance free of any commission.”

The options will be available for purchase around the clock, 24/7, until the day of the Facebook IPO at which point they will be closed for trading.

This innovative way to trade binaries is only being offered at AnyOption.com so those not lucky enough to get their hands on actual Facebook shares should flock towards AnyOption’s binaries as a worthy alternative.

For a full review of AnyOption’s binary options trading services, click here.