Forex Broker Bonuses: Reading Turnover Terms and When a Bonus Works Against You

A bonus looks like a gift but is economically a payment for your future turnover. The broker gives you money you cannot take out in exchange for a commitment to trade a certain volume.

The types

Deposit bonus. A percentage of your funding, credited to the account and counted toward margin.

Credit bonus. Increases margin capacity but not equity. It does not count toward profit and is written off first on losses.

Cashback / rebate. Part of the spread or commission returned per lot traded. The most honest form: the money is real and withdrawable without conditions.

No-deposit bonus. A small starting amount. Turnover terms are usually the harshest and withdrawals are capped.

Working out whether to take it

Find the required turnover in the terms and convert it into money: lots required × your round-turn cost.

Example: a $500 bonus at one lot per $5 means 100 lots. At $12 per round turn you will pay $1,200 in costs to unlock $500. That is not a gift, it is a loss.

A rebate at the same turnover returns $200–400 in real, unconditional money. The difference is structural.

When a bonus genuinely hurts

A credit bonus raises available margin, and with it the temptation to size up. In a drawdown it is written off first, so your margin level falls faster than expected. On accounts under $1,000 this is a common cause of an unexpected stop-out.

Read next

• Broker commission
• Margin and margin level
• Account types