Bonus terms that quietly ban scalping

[Shadow Trader]

A deposit bonus looks like free margin until the terms get read line by line. These are the clauses that tend to get overlooked:

- Minimum holding period. Trades closed within a set number of seconds or minutes may not count toward volume requirements, or may be voided altogether.
- Lot volume requirements. Releasing the bonus often requires trading a certain number of lots, which pushes a scalper into more trades at exactly the spreads the bonus was supposed to offset.
- Profit removal. Some terms let the broker remove profits made on bonus funds if the activity is labelled abusive, and the definition of abusive is usually broad.
- Clawback on withdrawal. Taking out any amount can cancel the bonus proportionally or entirely, and in some cases that drops the balance below what open trades need for margin.
- Restricted instruments and sessions. Certain pairs, news windows or low-liquidity hours are sometimes excluded from counting.
- Account type exclusions. Raw-spread or commission accounts are frequently left out of promotions, so the bonus applies only to wider-spread accounts, which is where scalping costs more.

The language matters too. Phrases like latency arbitrage, tick scalping, exploiting the platform and a pattern of trading inconsistent with normal activity are catch-alls. They are rarely defined in numbers, so the decision on whether a trade complies sits with the broker after the fact.

A useful test before accepting any bonus is to ask support in writing whether trades under one minute count, whether profits are kept if the bonus is removed, and what happens on withdrawal. A vague answer is itself an answer. Screenshots of that chat are worth saving.

Sometimes the cleanest option is declining the bonus completely. Free margin that comes with a rulebook on how to trade can cost more than a slightly higher spread on a clean account.

Has a bonus ever turned out to be worth it for a scalping style, or did the terms always end up costing more than the credit was worth?