A bonus headline is a number. The terms around it decide whether that number ever becomes usable money. Deposit minimums, volume requirements, withdrawal conditions and market eligibility are the parts that change the answer — and they are the parts most often left vague.
The short version
Before a bonus matters, four questions need answers: how much must you deposit, what trading volume must you complete, within what window, and can the bonus or profit be withdrawn when the conditions are met? If a page cannot answer those four questions with current provider terms, the bonus is not yet usable information.
Deposit minimums are not the headline
The advertised percentage applies only when a qualifying deposit is made in an eligible account, and “qualifying” can include verification, funding method and account type. A 20% claim on a small deposit is a small number. Always compare the minimum required to the benefit actually triggered.
Volume windows decide the real cost
Most deposit bonuses do not pay out on deposit. They credit a bonus balance that becomes withdrawable only after a trading volume target is met inside a set window. AvaTrade's help centre, for example, describes a required volume window around its welcome bonus and a funded, fully verified account as preconditions. The volume requirement is where a “generous” percentage can become expensive in spread costs and time.
Withdrawal conditions change everything
Read what happens to the bonus and any profit before the volume target is reached. Some arrangements forfeit the bonus, some claw back profit, and some restrict which withdrawal method can be used. The XM bonus page states its own non-withdrawable bonus treatment, which is why Broker.codes records XM's QK44F without inventing a benefit: region and terms vary, and an exact benefit was not found in current public terms.
Eligibility is a market question first
A bonus can be legal in one country and unavailable in another for reasons that have nothing to do with the code. Local rules restrict incentive-led retail CFD promotion — for example the FCA's COBS 22.5 in the UK and ASIC's CFD intervention order in Australia — and providers list their own restricted regions, such as TABTrade's Australia, New Zealand and United States blocks. Broker.codes encodes these as separate offer-level market states rather than blanket brand bans.
How the launch board shows the difference
Each offer page separates the supplied claim from the provider-published position:
- AvaTrade 128979: a supplied 20% welcome-bonus claim with general bonus mechanics documented, but the exact code-specific rate and market list not confirmed in current public terms.
- TABTrade TABFDB2k: a representative-supplied 15% claim held open against a separate public 10% campaign, with the discrepancy shown rather than blended.
- XM QK44F: the code is visible, the benefit is explicitly unknown until code-specific terms exist.
That layout is deliberate: the number and the terms are kept as separate facts so neither can silently upgrade the other.
What to check before funding
- What is the minimum deposit and is my funding method eligible?
- What volume must be completed, in what window, and at what spread cost?
- Can the bonus or its profit be withdrawn, and what happens if the target is missed?
- Which operating entity serves my country and does the bonus exist for that route?
- Is the end date verified, or is “ongoing” being used as a placeholder?
- Does any page claim the bonus reduces risk? That claim is false by construction.