Rebates quietly train bad habits
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2026 8:30 am
Rebate programmes sell themselves as a discount, and for a profitable scalper they are exactly that. The trouble is what they do to behaviour when the edge is thin or missing.
Picture a trade that costs $8 per lot and a rebate of $2 per lot. Net cost is $6. If the strategy loses $3 per lot on average before costs, that is still a loss of $9 per lot after the rebate. The rebate reduced the bleeding by 22 percent. It did not turn the bleed into profit. Yet the monthly rebate payment arrives as a visible positive number, which feels like income.
The behaviour risk is volume. Rebates pay per lot, so a trader slightly down on the month can talk themselves into more trades, bigger size or marginal setups to climb a tier. More volume only helps when the per-lot expectancy is positive.
Practical checks:
- Compute performance gross of rebate. If the strategy only works with the rebate included, that is a thin margin and it can vanish when the programme changes.
- Check whether payment depends on minimum trade duration or tiers that reset monthly.
- Check whether the rebate comes from a third party and whether payout is guaranteed.
Treat the rebate as a bonus, never as part of the edge.
Does the system still show a profit in your records with the rebate stripped out?
Picture a trade that costs $8 per lot and a rebate of $2 per lot. Net cost is $6. If the strategy loses $3 per lot on average before costs, that is still a loss of $9 per lot after the rebate. The rebate reduced the bleeding by 22 percent. It did not turn the bleed into profit. Yet the monthly rebate payment arrives as a visible positive number, which feels like income.
The behaviour risk is volume. Rebates pay per lot, so a trader slightly down on the month can talk themselves into more trades, bigger size or marginal setups to climb a tier. More volume only helps when the per-lot expectancy is positive.
Practical checks:
- Compute performance gross of rebate. If the strategy only works with the rebate included, that is a thin margin and it can vanish when the programme changes.
- Check whether payment depends on minimum trade duration or tiers that reset monthly.
- Check whether the rebate comes from a third party and whether payout is guaranteed.
Treat the rebate as a bonus, never as part of the edge.
Does the system still show a profit in your records with the rebate stripped out?