Some brokers offer digital 100s or binary option bonuses, and some do not. Picking a broker solely because they promise a big welcome bonus is not something we recommend for a variety of reasons. With that said, if a broker is reputable and suitable for your trading strategy, trading bonuses can be the icing on the cake.
Below, we will take a look at various types of digital 100s or binary options bonuses and provide you with a few titbits of information that can be good to keep in mind when comparing different digital 100s brokers and their offers.
In some jurisdictions, brokers and trading platforms are not allowed to give out bonuses – or are specifically prohibited from offering and giving welcome bonuses, depending on the legislation. There are also brokers who decided on their own accord to stay away from bonuses, especially welcome bonuses. As binary options are frequently accused of being simply another type of gambling, some brokers have scrapped their bonus programs to avoid comparison with the online sports betting and casino industries where big welcome bonuses are de rigueur.
Always read the fine print
A broker does not want you to obtain a bonus, withdraw the bonus money and leave. Therefore, binary option bonuses tend to come with various conditions to prevent this. You may, for instance, need to make real-money trades up to a certain amount before you can withdraw the bonus. This is commonly known as “turning over” or a “turn-over requirement”.
Example: You accept a $10 bonus, but you need to do trades for a total of $100 before you can actually withdraw your money.
And no, with your typical broker, you will not be able to fulfil the turn-over requirement by seeking out the most low-risk trades possible because there will be some type of rule against it in the terms and conditions.
Sometimes, the terms and conditions attached to bonus offers are pretty fair and reasonable, and the average trader can fulfil them without much ado and without doing overly risky trades. In other cases, however, they are very difficult to fulfil without making comparatively big deposits and engaging in high-risk trading – sometimes within a very limited time frame.
The consequences of not fulfilling a bonus requirement will also vary and are something you need to keep your eyes out for. Sometimes, it simply means that you can not withdraw the bonus money, but some brokers will not allow any withdrawals from your trading account until the bonus requirement has been fulfilled.
Tip! If you are thinking about accepting a big bonus, check if you can fulfil the requirement in increments (and therefore make withdrawals in increments) or if it is an all-or-nothing deal. Also check the time frame for fulfilling the requirement.
As you can see, it is not really the exact size of a bonus that determines how good the offer is – it is the terms and conditions attached to it that you need to pay attention to. Sometimes, a fairly small bonus with excellent T&Cs is a much better deal for the binary options trader than a huge bonus with horrible strings attached.
Also, the true value of a bonus offer will depend on your bankroll and trading style. Can you comfortably clear the bonus requirement while sticking to your own trading plan? Or will it require you to buy binary options that you normally wouldn´t touch and risk your own money in ways that you would otherwise refrain from?
Welcome bonus
A welcome bonus is a bonus given to new clients and is typically designed to entice people to sign up and start trading. There are several different types of welcome bonus.
- The first deposit bonus. This is a very common type of bonus and it is often a match bonus, where the size of your first deposit determines the size of the bonus. Example: Make a first deposit and get a 100% welcome bonus, up to a maximum of $1,000.
- The no-deposit welcome bonus. You are given a bonus simply for opening an account and can use it for trading without making any deposit. These bonuses tend to be rather small. Also, fulfilling the bonus requirement can be really difficult without actually making a deposit first. In some cases, the fine print will even state you can not withdraw any money from your account even after fulfilling the bonus clearing requirement until you have made a first deposit of a certain size and jumped through a few more hoops.
Deposit bonus
A deposit bonus is a bonus that you get for making a deposit. It is common for welcome bonuses to be deposit bonuses, but some brokers also reward their existing customers by giving them deposit bonus offers. The size of a deposit bonus is often determined by the size of the deposit.
Example: Deposit today and get a 50% deposit bonus, up to a maximum of $200. You decide to make a $100 deposit and is given a $50 bonus; you now have a total of $150 to trade with.
No-deposit bonus
As mentioned above, a no-deposit bonus is a bonus that you get without having to do a corresponding deposit first. They are popular as sign-up bonus offers, but some brokers also give no-deposit bonuses to their existing traders.
Inactive trader bonus
If you have not been trading in your account for a while, you might receive a special bonus offer from the broker as they want you to come back and start trading again. It can be any kind of bonus.
Risk free trades
In recent years, quite a few brokers have scrapped their no-deposit bonus offers in favour of the so-called risk free trades.
You will get access to the real-money version of the platform and will be allowed to do one or more risk-free trades. If the trade yields a profit, your account is credited. If the trade turns out to be a losing trade, no worries, because the risked amount will not be taken out of your account balance.
Just as with the more traditional bonus offers, it is important to check the fine print for the risk free trades to find out if they are actually worth doing or not. You might for instance find that the profits credited to your account is actually just bonus money – and they come with bonus money requirements that must be fulfilled before you can make any withdrawal.
Even worse, you might also find that when you lose, your real money gets converted into bonus money with strings attached. So, even though the balance in your account looks the same, you actually lost something on the “risk free” trades, because they caused your real money to be converted into bonus money. Calling that a risk free trade is not really fair.
Negotiating a bonus
While welcome bonuses can be alluring, they are not always a good idea – for various reasons that we have covered above.
A method successfully utilized by some binary options traders is to decline any welcome bonus offers and only trade using their own deposited money on the platform for a little while. If they like the broker and platform and decide to stay – and maybe also make some more substantial deposits and trades – they contact the broker directly to negotiate a tailor made bonus package.
If the broker is eager to keep you as a customer, you may be able to reach an agreement that is considerably more suited to your particular trading style than any of the cookie-cutter bonus offers out there.
Other bonuses
In addition to the cash-based bonuses, some binary options traders give out other bonuses. You may for instance be given access to certain technical analysis tools, receive trade signals from a signal-service at no cost to you or attend seminars on binary options trading without paying for it.
There are also brokers who give out bonuses that are not really related to binary options trading at all and could more accurately be classified as welcome gifts, loyalty program rewards and similar. You may for instance receive merchandize and other physical gifts.
Cash rebate programs
The cash rebate program is typically not seen as a bonus program, but we will cover it here anyway as it is a form of incentive offered by the broker to the trader.
Cash rebate programs come in many shapes and forms, but in general, they will somehow give you a cash-back based on your trading activity.
Typically, cash rebate programs are only open to traders who fulfil certain requirements. You may for instance be required to have deposited enough into your account, continuously keep enough money in the account, and trade above a certain volume each month or 30 day period.
Many cash rebate program calculations are based on monthly turn over/volume, but – and this is important – quite a few of them will only count your losing trades, and any profitable trades will counteract the losing ones. With some brokers, this will put you in a precarious position. If you are a net winner this month, you get nothing from the program. If you are a net loser this month, you get some money from the rebate program put into your account, but there is often a special requirement involved that forces the net loser to make a new deposit into their account if they want to touch the money from the cash rebate program.
To make things even worse, some brokers will give you the cash rebate in the form of bonus money that come with bonus money turn-over requirements. In other words, even more hoops to jump through.
There are some digital 100s brokers that have good cash rebate programs, and your own trading style and bankroll will also impact how beneficial a rebate program can be for you. We are not saying that all cash rebate programs stink – just that you need to read the fine print and be aware of what you are getting into. Always evaluate how beneficial a rebate program would be for you and your trading style.