Purely out of interest:
A number of forex brokers offer bonuses for joining and making an initial deposit, but these bonuses are generally contingent upon whether one can trade a certain number of trades without closing out the account. Since many, if not all of you will consistently trade profitably, do you guys take advantage of these offers and cash in the bonuses?
No, keep away from bonuses and contests.
Regards.
I guess it depends on how you look at it, but initially you are set to trade with the money you have in hand, so its better not to focus too much on the bonuses, it might be a distraction. all the best
I am with ETX Capital in the UK, they were recommended to me and I have now been with them for two years and am very happy. I joined them, and stay with them, because of the quality of service. When I first opened my account, they added Ā£100 to it that I could trade as if it were my money. That was very nice of them, I lost it without feeling the pain of losing my own hundred (it covered my first few trades!) but it was entirely irrelevant to my opening an account with them. I was not tied to any number of trades, but I could not withdraw that Ā£100 from the account.
I view this as a career, I am here to make money, so special offers like that play no part in my decision on whether a broker or product is good or not. If they are going to offer me money for something I would have done anyway then great, but personally I would advise [I]never [/I]letting that influence the decision-making process. If this is to be a career, we have to treat it professionally, in my view.
ST
Thanks for the responses guys 
Iām only looking at whether or not you guys actually end up taking home those bonuses or not, because I imagine it would be like having free money thrown at you if you are a seriously successful trader.
If youāre a seriously successful trader then you donāt need the bonuses!
Haha true true 
But Iām just saying that it must be pretty cool to earn those bonuses with ease
Usually you pay for it in one way or another - either by committing you loads of trades or gaining the money back by slippage. So the money is never free. For instance, a company may give you $1000 for 100 lots traded - but at increase slippage by 1 pip per trade subtly. And guess what - 1 pip = $10. 100 lots x 1 pip = $1000. I found this when I switched to my current broker where the slippage is appalling with market orders taking 10-20 seconds to fill which gives me 3-5 pips slippage a market order, or 6-10 pips per market round trip. The only time the order fills quickly is if the price is moving against my trade very quickly where I lose 3 pips on slippage. For example if I trade 100 lots, that is worth $6000-10 000 to my broker so they can afford to give me a $1000 bonus, whereas they are actually stealing $5000-9000 off me.
Granted if you make limit orders this does not occur, but there will always be times where you want to close at market because of upcoming news, the end of the trading session etc. So even if you were to make 1 market order per 2 round trades they will usually make all the deposit money off slippage off you. And if stay with them longer, they will make more!
If you can afford it go for a decent broker - if you are in this long term, the execution will be far more important.
golden is right.
even considering going with a broker for reason of free money is the wrong thought process.
itās like picking out a really nice tuxedo for your weddingā¦when you donāt even have a fianceā
get the fiance firstā¦then the tux really wonāt matter.
Jay
These incentives in my view should not be seriously considered as a way of making money. In all cases they are capped at a maximum re your initial deposit and contingent on āxā mill of trades over a given period. With a futher stipulation normally of turning over the deposit as a whole (theirs and yours) by a factor of 3 or 4 before a withdraw of funds is possible. If they are a reputable broker thats bad enough but as has been stated the less than honest will claw back with slippage when it suits them. So all in all? Iād stay well clear!
I signed up because of a bonus awhile back, but that broker had a monthly inactivity fee. So they get it back somehowā¦like what most say above, concentrate on finding a reliable broker and trading well, not on the bonuses or contests.
Pureā¦not to pick on youā¦ but something tells me that the fact you are even really asking this question tells more bout your mentality towards tradingā¦ that you donāt actually in your heart see it as a business that needs to be confronted by developing a business plan, lots of experimentation using the scientific method, and basing your rules on empirical evidence.
Your thinking āfree money!ā This is just not the mentality taht will get you where you want.
Iām sure there are forums out there for coupon cutting, rebate getting, and ābonus incentive capturingā visitors.
But this is a trading forum, and you likely wonāt wint much of that around here. Iām not saying this to you to belittle you PMā¦quite the contrary. Iām saying this to push you to understand your motivations, and therefore make better decisions both for your trading future, and your life in general.
I may be wrong hereā¦but I get the feeling you havenāt ever stepped backā¦ and said āyou knowā¦ iām going to treat my trading like a business. I will set a goal of 3 - 5 years to be able to do this full time. I will write up a business plan, and write a half page or a full page analysis on every trade I take. I will then review every losing trade, to see any reasons possible for that trade to have lost. I will do this every dayā¦ etcā¦etc.ā
What you would find is that you would have probably 2-4 hours of work in front of you, every dayā¦ just to click ābuyā or āsellā.
You would know in your heart you are working hard todayā¦nowā¦to develop your business. you will also know that like most businesses, you can EXPECT to lose money until you build it big enoughā¦ (or in this caseā¦ have enough rules in your plan to guide your actions to constant success)
You seeā¦if you did it this way, with a written business plan for your trading business, the question of receiving a few free dollars from a trading broker would actually seemā¦ meaningless.
Of course, like any good businessman, you would take the money if it happened to be offered by the right broker, but in accordance to your business planā¦it would have to be a broker that offered you the lowest spread, had the best reputation for payouts, did not requote (or almost never), and one that would best suit your needs to grow your business now, and in the future.
You might also want to see if that broker holds any sort of bond or has any assurances that they wonāt go under or act in some unethical manner with your bankrollā¦as you will be in many waysā¦trusting them to hold your business capital on a day to day basis.
You would want a broker that paid out quick, and deposited quickā¦as the longer it takes deposits to process, the longer it will keep you from reaching your goals.
You knowā¦the goals in your plan that outline the ROI you expect each month in terms of both dollars and percentageā¦and the rules in your plan that when followed on a day to day basis, will put you on track to hit those goals every week.
ā¦
So you seeā¦ this is where you should be thinking. If you are not, feel free to deposit with whatever broker gives you the highest pay out.
That way, I can be sure to get a cut of their money as well as yours.
Jay
P.S. Ohā¦ and whats really cool is to āmake 6 - 7 figures a year tradingā, not āgetting free bonuses with easeāā¦ but there
you have itā¦ āpretty coolā¦ with easeā¦ā Thatās what you said. And thats why I will take your money. Trading is hard work, and you want āpretty coolā¦ with easeā.
Ouchā¦ I guess your not handing out lolly pops today? I save āthem therā one liners for trolls!
RCā¦ that WAS my lolly pop I handed him 
Jay
I agree that any bonuses canāt be totally free - in any case you will pay for them. For me initial deposit bonus - its a good way to save part of the spread in this way. i earn funds not on bonuses, but if it present - its a good addition to general income, besides you can add here IB rebates - totally you will have not bad āsalaryā )
Wow, a bit harsh with the reply there but nevertheless, point taken. To reiterate, I asked this question out of interest (as I very clearly pointed out before asking it), in absolutely no way referring to my own trading or to taking advantage of these bonuses myself. I merely wanted to know IF traders take advantage of these bonusesā¦
Anyway, forgive me for asking.
I guess to sum it up, the bunoses are there coz there are people that actually make use of it.
and yeah, there is nothing wrong with asking. and I did get some insight from this thread. good day guys.
I agree with the posts that say the brokers will reimburse themselves one way or another.
Chasing those incentives can actually get someone in trouble. Itās like āfree drinksā in a casino. They are usually in the $50 to $100 dollar range, and to be honest, thatās not even worth trying to play with.
If you do have a solid strategy, and can avoid falling into the āmake a million overnightā trap that most fall into, it does set up nicely as an added cushion for someone just starting out like Simon sezā¦ hehehehe Simon sez:D
And no need to be forgiven, youāve done nothing wrong. That was a valid question:)
while I agree with the validity of it, it does beg the question as to the mentality of the asker.
PMā¦ it came off strong intentionally. I wanted to make a point (and maybe didnāt) that you should not really even be thinking about bonuses until you are a profitable traderā¦
at which point, bonuses will likely not matter at all anyway.
Personally, I never even thought about bonusesā¦ how could I? I was thinking about how I was going to go from a losing trader to a winning trader for basically 3 straight years.
Itās a matter of prioritys. The man with a crushed limb in a car accident doesnāt generally care if the building across the street is painted an ugly shade of pea green.
And okā¦maybe i am being too self revealing here, but thats the way I saw itā¦and obviously on a core levelā¦still do.
but i donāt think iām wrong either. I can put this to a pollā¦how many of you who trade profitably for 1 year + ever considerd taking the time to learn about the bonuses given by the various brokers? or does it ammount to any substantial profits for any of you? even sayā¦5% per month of your monthly income?
I am actually very curious. maybe Iām dead wrong here. lets find out.
Jay
And I would be entirely the wrong person to ask about that.
Brokers are not charitable organizations;)
I saw one place that offered to PAY a person for demo trading.
How did it work? The demo trader put a fixed sum of money in an account. Then traded demo. If the trader made money, the demo broker would pay out the amount above that balance made in one month.
See the wording there? The amount ABOVEā¦ So say you put $100 in. And you made $78. You didnāt get $178 back, you got back $78.
Most of the sales gimmicks that prop up that initial balance are just like that.
They have a clause, or an out that has you match that deposit later, or you have to have a ton of trades, or [insert out clause here].
As for the initial post here, Iām sure it was an honest question.
I donāt think itās out of bounds to think that if a trader knows what heās doing, and can turn a steady profit, why he wouldnāt take advantage of those āfreebiesā. But would be like being Minnesota Fats, and entering a small town pool hall tournament. Youād clean up.
The only problem is, the amount they offer just isnāt worth the work to get it.