Update 5/7/25: Deal is back, tiers are different this time.
Update 10/8/24: Deal is back and valid until 10/31
Update 11/4/23: Bonus up to $10,000 is back. (ht Docfan) For the $500 tier, they increased the deposit requirement to $1,500 and the trade volume requirement to $100,000. Important note: stop-loss method is no longer allowed, per the terms.
Update 1/26/23: There is now a new bonus that is up to $10,000. The only version worth doing is the $250 bonus that requires $25,000 in trading volume. Hat tip to reader Lefty
Contents
The Offer
- Forex trading platform Oanda is offering a bonus of up to $5,000.
Our Verdict
$500 bonus is the only one worth considering, this requires a $500 deposit and $50,000 in Minimum Notional Trade Volume Requirements. Shawntheshawn explains how to do this in some detail here. Similar to the IG trading bonus.
by my math “wash trading” EUR/USD 1MM in volume will cost you around $100, leaving $900 profit. You can even sign up for a demo account, which uses live currency quotes, and practice the trade. I stumbled around a bit to figure out how to close my account, so I ended up losing $115 in my demo trade.
I just (re-)read the bonus requirements. This is too risky for me, at least in this category of my “investing.” I gamble on sports on a daily basis and this is approaching/resembles betting on a heavy favorite late in the game with a win likely in hand…but not yet fully secured. It’s a lots of moving parts with enough risk to outweigh the comparatively modest upside.
I’d almost rather take the money and bet on an NCAA #2 seed to beat a #15 seed after the #2 seed is up a few points early. But I only do that with my “play” money…not my family’s long-term savings.
Good luck to all who are braver than myself!
I am not a gambler, and to each their own, but:
The sportsbook analogy breaks down pretty quickly. In FX, the “bets” can be better managed, on your own terms vs. terms dictated by the house. For example, you can easily limit the duration of your risk by opening and closing positions within minutes of each other. Yes, you’re likely going to lose some money on the spread, but that’s OK, imho. Looking back at my own transaction history, the most I ever lost on a trade was about $4, that was on $20k notional at 50:1. Most trades I did were of similar size & pairs, averaging around $1 loss on each.
I am definitely not brave, actually a bit of a coward. But I would bet you’ll make money on this deal if you play your cards right.
Well-reasoned response. Respect! -KM
I’ve done them previously but these don’t seem worth it to me except for maybe the $100 one
Guess we can forget about churning this?
What’s the best method to earn the $10k bonus here at minimum risk and cost?
Paging shawntheshawn. Spoon feed us, baby! 🙂
You gotta @
ShawntheShawn!
Wondering same here. Following for updates.
Notional Trade Volume = $50m. Does shawntheshawn have that much?
Really this involves speculating on currency movements – making a whole chitload of relatively small in-and-out trades to make that $50m nut. However, are you willing to do this when a single fart from Dear Leader can crash you out (or enrich you)?
Another thought: can you speed-trade to drive up your Trade Volume – not leaving the market much time to move the currency one way or the other?
No, I do not have $50m, but that’s trade volume, and you can achieve $50m trade volume with far less money in your account.
But going for the $10K bonus tier is going to require a lot more effort and attention, and of course significantly higher risk…It is not going to be easy. I quit, lol.
tuphat 
Jack 
Rob
I am reading your earlier instructions. Thanks for that effort!
May you hit $50m, someday.
Cheers to StS hitting 50MM!
Ha-ha, thanks 😀
Why stop at 50m? How about 100m!?
ShawntheShawn remains the Shawniest Shawn across the multiverse.
Just for fun, can you check my math?
$1,000 cash can support $50k notional. One round trip generates $100k notional. So $50m notional could be done with 500 such round trips, spread across the 90d promo period?
I didn’t do the math, but that would be some serious churning dedication.
you need 50k initial deposit. Other than that keep in mind a buy/sell, even with no movement in the market, will instantly lose you some money because of the spread. See my other comment: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/oanda-forex-trading-platform-up-to-5000-bonus/#comment-2057497
Yes, $50k deposit, but you can trade $1k at a time, leaving the other $49k in cash.
BUT:
3.4 OANDA expects that all entrants will participate in its bonuses and promotional offerings fairly so that our other customers may also enjoy OANDA’s services. Therefore, this Promotion is subject to a fair use policy and consequently OANDA has the right to withhold the benefits of the Promotion if it has reasonable belief that there has been unfair or abusive conduct in breach of the Promotion Terms. Examples of conduct that will be considered unfair or abusive include, without limitation:
a) co-operation, collusion or organization of trades from the same source; b) using minimal stop-loss or take-profit levels for the sole purpose of meeting the Minimum Notional Trade Volume Requirements or the Crypto Trade Volume Requirement set forth in paragraphs 3.2(a) and (b) respectively;
Without using minimal stop-loss to restrict your loss, you could lose a lot of money (in addition to the spread fees) unless you are really good at forex trading. For such a big bonus, I assume Oanda will take a closer look at your account.
tuphat
As you likely know, they had similar language in previous offers. Personally, I didn’t use stop-loss orders, I just closed the position after 1 minute or so.
Yes, I noticed they added similar language after the first round of promotion, and some folks received the bonus fine with minimal stop-loss used for the $500 bonus.
However, this time you are aiming for a $10K bonus. Will you bet on that Oanda won’t look at your account and enforce the rule? It is too much risk to take IMO, as Oanda would have a legitimate reason to deny your bonus and you could end up losing a lot from your pocket. Without using the minimal stop-loss, you could still lose a significant portion of your position even within 1 minute. It is not that the $10K is not doable, but it is going to require a lot of effort and attention with a cool head to minimize the cost if you are not experienced in forex trading.
Everything you say is true. However: I think the $1000 bonus tier ($1m notional trade value) may be the sweet spot now. If we assume “best case” loss of $20 per $100k position (by almost immediate closeout), then 5 roundtrips would get you to the required trading level, to net $900, without a huge amount of effort or risk. Just my musings.
(In this scenario, the bet would essentially be $100 that they will come through with the bonus.)
I agree that the $1K bonus tier is much more doable than the $10K bonus tier for most people.
Somehow I never received the email notification for your tagging.
Not sure whether you will get caught, but…
Understanding NFA Compliance Rule 2-43bRule 2-43b was implemented by the U.S. forex (FX) industry’s self-regulatory organization, the National Futures Association (NFA). It’s known as the “FIFO rule” and, essentially, eliminates hedging. Hedging in forex trading is where a trader will have both a long and a short position in a single currency pair at the same time, offsetting each other.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/nfa-compliance-rule-2-43b.asp
buy/immediately sell the least volatile, low spread currency pairs. Assuming between your buy and sell, the price does not change, and the spread is 2 pips, and the lot is worth 100k, you’d have to “wash trade” 250 times. And each of those round trips would cost you 2pips * 100k * 250 = $5000 cost to make these trades (might be off by a factor of 2 here, someone please let me know if my math is wrong). You can view historical spread data for currency pairs by googling “oanda historical spreads”. It is usually under 2 for that pair. If I had 50k, I would look for a lower spread currency pair than USD/EUR, but that’s very very likely one of the lowest already.
All this assuming the pair doesn’t move while you trade and assuming the spread doesn’t widen.
I think we are on pretty much the same page, and maybe identifying the sweet spot (relatively speaking) of this offer. If we assume “best case” loss of $20 per $100k position, then 5 roundtrips would get you to the $1m notional trade volume tier and a $1000 bonus, less $100 of incurred losses, to net $900. All without a huge amount of effort.
There’s a new version for 2025:
page: https://www.oanda.com/us-en/
terms: https://www.oanda.com/assets/documents/1913/OC__OCAN_Welcome_Bonus_Promotion_TCs_-_2025.pdf
Now $100-$10,000, with higher trade volume requirements.
William Charles
Sketchy to deal with – would stay away.
YMMV but I have done previous promos and never had problem getting paid out. You gotta understand, however, that you’re almost certain to lose a little on the vig, regardless of how careful you are.
Anyone got 1099 from Oanda for the $500 bonus in 2024?
Received my $500 bonus today. Didn’t file a FINRA complaint yet.
Dear X X,
Thank you for reaching out to our customer support team regarding the welcome bonus promotion. Upon review, it appears that the promotion wasn’t signed up for during the registration process, which is why the bonus wasn’t applied.
These people are crooks.
File a FINRA complaint. That’s what I’m doing.
Haha Finra Said they dont have jurisdiction and forwarded it to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). No hopes to get anything but will see