FOREX.com Bonus for new accounts ($$$ + Ipod Shuffle)

It seems that you have to trade in order to get the bonus though ... But if you were planning on doing forex anyway than this is a good deal!

Link!

"Open and fund a FOREX.com account before December 31, 2006 and we'll reward you with a cash bonus
of up to $1000. You'll see the cash appear in your account within 30 days of initial funding. "

Initial Deposit ---- Bonus
$1000-2500 ------ $50
$2500-5000 ------ $100
$5000-10000 ---- $175
$10000-25000 --- $250
$25000-50000 --- $500
$50000-100000 -- $1000

Also get a Ipod Shuffle for free with $2500+ initial deposit.

Fine print:

"To receive this bonus, qualified persons must open and fund a trading account with GAIN Capital or FOREX.com by December 31st, 2006. Limit one offer per client. Self-directed trading accounts only; IRA accounts are not eligible for this offer.

Bonus will be added as equity to your trading account within 30 days of initial account funding. Withdrawal of bonus funds is contingent upon the completion of round trip standard lots (or the mini equivalent) according to the following schedule: $50 equals 5 trades, $100 equals 10 trades, $175 equals 20 trades, $250 equals 30 trades, $500 equals 50 trades and $1000 equals 75 trades.

*The iPod® Shuffle promotion is good while supplies last. Person will be qualified to receive the iPod® Shuffle offer if the account is opened and funded with a minimum $2500 by December 31, 2006. Persons who reside outside of the United States will receive a credit to their account for the approximate retail value of an iPod® Shuffle ($79). iPod® Shuffle will normally ship within 3-4 weeks from the date of account funding. Apple is not a participant or sponsor of this promotion. "

Thanks OP!

Although, if you just want a shuffle (and aren't too interested in ForEX), check out the HedgeStreet deal http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=52&threadid=677386

Thanks OP, this sounds like a great deal!

I know nothing about trading/forex, so here is my first question: what is a "round trip standard lots (or the mini equivalent)?"

More info: "At FOREX.com you'll trade commission-free on our professional-grade platform." and "FOREX.com is compensated for its services through the bid/ask spread."

So, does this mean, that we can go back and forth between a non-volatile commodity to get the bonus. Dollar to Euro and back?

Also, there is no minimum trade amount mentioned. So, if you only trade with $10, it doesn't matter if you get bit by the bid/ask a few times?? right, wrong?

From the glossary:

Lot - A unit to measure the amount of the deal. The value of the deal always corresponds to an integer number of lots.
Round trip - Buying and selling of a specified amount of currency.

So, to me it seems like you can go back and forth from dollar to euro (or whatever has the lowest spread) 75 times to get the max bonus.

EDIT: more info:

Currency Pairs
24-hour trading is available in 16 currency pairs: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, USD/CAD, AUD/USD, EUR/JPY, EUR/GBP, EUR/CHF, GBP/JPY, AUD/JPY, CHF/JPY, EUR/AUD, GBP/CHF, NZD/USD, NZD/JPY.


Dealing Spread
Normal dealing spreads are 3-5 pips for the major currency pairs.

Trading Minimums
* Mini Accounts:
Minimum transaction size for mini accounts is 1/10th standard sized lot, or 10,000 of the base currency, with a minimum margin deposit of 0.5% (200:1 leverage). For example, a US$10,000 position would require an initial margin deposit of US$50.

* Standard Accounts:
Minimum transaction size for standard accounts is 1 lot, or 100,000 of the base currency, with a minimum margin deposit of 1% (100:1 leverage). For example, a US$100,000 position would require an initial margin deposit of US$1,000.

EDIT2: Slightly scary that you can lose all $50 in a mini position on one trade.

I looked at the deal and I can't say that I find it too attractive.

Deposit-Bonus%
$1,000 - 5%
$2,500 - 4% + shuffle
$5,000 - 3.5% + shuffle
$10,000 - 2.5% + shuffle
$25,000 - 2% + shuffle
$50,000 - 2% + shuffle

Deposit-Required trades
$1,000 - 5
$2,500 - 10
$5,000 - 20
$10,000 - 30
$25,000 - 50
$50,000 - 75

Round trip trade = buy & sell
1lot on mini account = 10,000 units for which you pay $100

So on a mini account - 5 trades equals buying 5x$100 (=10,000 worth) of currency + selling 5x$100 (10,000) worth of currency.

Spreads on EUR/USD are usually 3 pips that means that for every $100 you buy - you're immediately down $3.

So if in an ideal world you buy and sell immediately at the same price level, that means 5x$3 = $15 in loss due to the spread. You get $50 bonus, subtract $15 and you have $35 theoretical profit (if you don't lose or gain anything through those 5 trades).

Forex is too volatile to assume the theoretical profit. While you might gain a lot, you can also lose a lot. Often times in seconds.

Assuming mini accounts and $100 roundtrip trades with 3 pip spreads:
Deposit - required trades - loss due to spread - theoretical profit (bonus-spread loss) - profit%
$1,000 - 5 - $15 - $35 - 3.5%
$2,500 - 10 - $30 - $70 - 2.8% + shuffle
$5,000 - 20 - $60 - $115 - 2.3% + shuffle
$10,000 - 30 - $90 - $160 - 1.6% + shuffle
$25,000 - 50 - $150 - $350 - 1.4% + shuffle
$50,000 - 75 - $225 - $775 - 1.55% + shuffle

However, I'm not sure if forex.com would let you create a mini account for deposits larger than $2,500. For regular forex accounts a standard lot size is 100,000 units of currency, so your 1 round trip trade would involve investing $1,000 for one round trip and an immediate loss due to 3 pip spread would be $30. Using those numbers the profit would likely disappear fairly quickly.

In any case - I think this is a good promo for people who are already forex traders and would have traded anyway as it saves a bit of money lost due to the spread, but if you're a newbie to forex markets I'd say move along - nothing to see here.

EDIT: One can also limit his trades using limit orders. I'm not familiar with forex.com software - I only used fxcm and for their limit orders the stop has to be another 5 pips below the buying price. Again - if anybody has been using forex.com trading platform and can chyme in about the limit orders - that would be great.

Secondly - you can only fund your account through cc/wire or check --> no ACH! Withdrawal is also only through cc/wire or check. Calculate the time your money spends in transit and you're cutting into your bonus % again by losing some interest that you could have been making in your 5%+ accounts.

I could be misreading "Withdrawal of bonus funds is contingent upon the completion of round trip standard lots (or the mini equivalent)" but to me that means one round lot or 10 mini-lots not one round lot or one mini lot.