William contributes to several investment websites, leveraging his experience as a consultant for IPOs in the Nordic market and background providing localization for forex trading software. William has worked as a writer and fact-checker for a long row of financial publications.
Tobias is a partner at DayTrading.com, director of a UK limited company and active trader.
He has over 25 years of experience in the financial industry and contributed via CySec to the regulatory response to digital options and CFD trading in Europe. Toby’s expertise and dedication to financial education make him a trusted voice in the industry, including a BBC investigation into digital options.
InstaForex is running a 100% deposit bonus. Traders can double their first deposit and use promotional funds to speculate on the broker’s 100+ currency pairs. Read on for joining instructions, plus bonus terms and conditions.
AAAFX is running a 100% deposit bonus for global clients. Promotional funds are added to client accounts as additional margin. Find out how to claim the welcome bonus and boost your trading funds.
Award-winning forex and crypto broker, AAAFx, is offering a free VPS for traders that deposit $5,000. The virtual private server ensures uninterrupted trading operations, lending it to automated investing strategies and trading signals. Read on for the details.
Not Available
What is a Trading Bonus?
If you want to use a broker bonus offer or other promotion, it’s important to understand the different varieties out there. From no deposit bonus schemes to explaining why free bonuses are usually not free at all, we will explore the bonus and promotion offers at a range of brokers. We detail the types of bonus available, why forex trading bonuses might differ and which strategy can maximise bonus returns. We also reveal why the key to bonuses is always to read the terms and conditions.
A bonus provides you with potentially free money for trading and is normally offered by a broker as an incentive to attract new clients who can then try trading with little or no risk.
There are different types of trading bonus offers and requirements for getting the bonus paid out to your account. We detail these below.
No Deposit Bonus
The no deposit bonus is the most lenient of bonuses, as it does not require you to deposit any funds at all before you get the bonus. Normally a broker wants you to at least deposit some funds with them before you can get your bonus, but with a “no deposit” bonus they allow anyone to get the bonus after creating a new account.
Note that there might still be requirements to fulfil before you can get your trading profits paid out, and those requirements might be stricter for this kind of bonus than for others. Normally you have to trade a certain total volume before you can withdraw the profits derived from the bonus money.
Considering how generous it is to hand out free money to new traders, that makes a lot of sense. Make sure you are ok with those requirements before you sign up.
Welcome Bonus
A “welcome bonus” is a way to reward new traders who sign up for an account, to make them feel welcome and to make it easier for new clients to start trading right away. A welcome bonus might require you to make a deposit, so make sure you agree with the bonus requirements before you sign up.
Deposit Match Bonus
The “deposit match bonus” will match a percentage of your deposit, up to a certain maximum amount.
For example, if the bonus is a 30% match up to $5,000, and you deposit $1,000, you will get an additional $300 from the broker ($1,000 * 30%). With this example offer the most you can get is $5000, which you would get when depositing at least $16,667 ($16,667 * 30% = $5,000). Even if you deposit more than that, you will still only get the maximum $5,000.
Note – we have seen alternate definitions of the maximum amount, where 30% match up to $5,000 would rather mean that even if you deposit more that $5,000, you will only get the 30% paid out on $5,000. In other words, the maximum amount pertains to the maximum deposit on which you will get the 30% bonus, and NOT how much bonus you can maximally get.
OBS! For a serious trader the distinction between the two maximum amount definitions can make a big difference, so make sure you understand the requirements before signing up and depositing.
Considerations
Most bonus types have requirements regarding how much you have to trade before you can withdraw profits. For some traders this is ok, while to others it becomes a source of frustration.
Due to bonus abuse by many unscrupulous traders, the requirements have by necessity become so strict that you might be better off without one. However, it’s impossible to give individual advice, as it comes down to how much money you want to trade with and how long you can wait before you make a withdrawal.
In the long run a trading bonus will not make a huge difference to many traders, and might make things feel more complicated and thus spoil the joy of trading. Only use a bonus if you feel it makes sense to you personally.
FAQ
Do I have to accept a broker's trading bonus?
Normally you don’t have to accept a bonus deal just because a broker is offering one. You might have to explicitly opt out of a bonus however, so make sure to check the terms and conditions when signing up.
Is a bonus basically free money?
While a bonus offer can sometimes sound like free cash with no requirements involved, there are always terms and conditions attached. If this wasn’t the case, what would stop dishonest traders from just withdrawing the funds without trading?
Which Brokers Have Bonus Offers?
Due to regulation in many countries, it can be hard to find brokers with a bonus. However, we have collated all available bonuses here and also list other kinds of ongoing trading promotions and incentives.
Note that using a broker’s bonus offer is not necessarily best for all traders. Always read the terms and conditions, especially what’s required to “clear” the bonus (i.e., what you have to do to receive the full amount).