This is the October 2026 edition of our forex bonus changelog. It is a narrative summary of every meaningful change our team logged in the Broker & Bonus Matrix since the September edition. It covers FreshForex’s September 30 end-date check and a full re-verification pass on October 19, 2026, which re-read 31 active offers against each broker’s own pages. This month’s biggest changes are about who can claim a bonus, not how much it pays. XM’s $50 no deposit bonus still runs on unchanged terms, but XM’s own promotions page now shows it only to visitors from the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Singapore. Vantage’s 150% + 25% deposit bonus is reserved by Vantage’s own eligibility checker for Europe, the UK and New Zealand. Nigerian and South African clients are routed to a 50% + 10% bonus and a time-limited Turbo Deposit instead. Headway’s $111 no deposit bonus has ended, replaced by a $150 offer with a $100 profit cap. LiteFinance extended its Trade Smart registration twice, FreshForex rolled four end dates forward, and HFM, Tickmill, Traders Trust, AvaTrade and FP Markets all published new terms. Every entry links to the underlying broker page, and the raw field-by-field feed lives on our bonus change tracker.
Disclosure: forex-bonus.com may earn a commission when you sign up through our links. This never influences our ratings or reviews. Trading forex carries significant risk — most retail traders lose money. See our full affiliate disclosure and risk warning. Bonuses are banned for retail clients in the EU, UK, Australia, and US; offers discussed here apply only to eligible regions.
Summary of Changes
| Broker | Offer | What Changed | Date Logged |
|---|---|---|---|
| XM | $50 no deposit bonus | Terms unchanged; XM’s site now shows it only to visitors from the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Singapore | October 19, 2026 |
| XM | Deposit bonus | Excluded accounts are Ultra Low, Swap-Free and Shares (XM Global lists no Zero account); XM’s page shows different structures by country | October 19, 2026 |
| Vantage | 150% + 25% deposit bonus | Terms confirmed, but Vantage routes it only to Europe, the UK and New Zealand | October 19, 2026 |
| Vantage | 50% + 10% deposit bonus | New record: Vantage’s default offer for Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, the Gulf and parts of Latin America | October 19, 2026 |
| Vantage | Turbo Deposit Promotion | New record: 150% + 50%, up to $3,000 total credit, Nigeria and South Africa, ends November 30 | October 19, 2026 |
| Vantage | USDT 10% rebate · V-Points | Rebate limited to Middle East and North Africa residents; V-Points terms verified (all products, STP/ECN only) | October 19, 2026 |
| Headway | $111 no deposit bonus | Ended; replaced by a $150 no deposit bonus (informational only — Headway failed our vetting) | October 19, 2026 |
| LiteFinance | Trade Smart Challenge | Registration extended to October 16 (on September 30), then to November 5 (on October 19) | September 30 / October 19, 2026 |
| FreshForex | 300%, Stop Out Insurance, 101%, 15% | End dates rolled forward: 300% and Stop Out Insurance to December 28; 101% and 15% to November 30 | September 30, 2026 |
| Tickmill | $30 Welcome Account | Official 89-country exclusion list now published; Kenya excluded via the registration form | October 19, 2026 |
| Traders Trust | Refer a friend · cashback | Referral now needs 5 lots within 30 days of the friend’s first trade; hedging ban; new excluded countries | October 19, 2026 |
| HFM | Shield 500, ROFM, Loyalty, Demo Contest | New T&C versions: Shield 500 news-time leverage now 1:300; ROFM daily activity rules; loyalty points convertible to cash | October 19, 2026 |
| FXGT | Milestone + Loyalty | Volume now counted in “Reward GTLots”; FXGT’s own page conflicts on the Milestone figure (30%/$600 vs 50%/$700) | October 19, 2026 |
| AvaTrade | Refer a friend | New terms: up to $250 per referral on a $200-$2,500 deposit, lot-based within 90 days | October 19, 2026 |
| FP Markets | Refer a friend · free VPS | Referral bonus now credited after a 45-day review; VPS terms confirmed | October 19, 2026 |
| OctaFX | 50% deposit bonus | Withdrawal rule corrected (cancellation, not proportional removal); Octa’s site lists India, Pakistan and the Philippines as not served | October 19, 2026 |
| InstaForex | StartUp, 30%, 100% | StartUp amount differs across InstaForex’s own pages; 30% bonus “no time limit stated”; 100% bonus forex-only | October 19, 2026 |
| FBS | 100% deposit bonus | Terms re-confirmed; Indonesia and Thailand eligibility still unsettled | October 19, 2026 |
XM: The $50 No Deposit Bonus Is Real — But XM Only Shows It in Six Markets
Start with the change that touches the most readers. The terms of XM’s $50 no deposit bonus have not moved since our August check. To withdraw profits you need 10 micro lots (0.1 standard lots) across at least 5 round-turn trades. There is no claim window or expiry in the current terms and no profit cap, and you complete SMS or voice verification to activate it. What changed is where XM actually offers it.
XM’s promotions page builds its list of offer cards from the visitor’s country. On October 19 we checked that list country by country, then re-ran it independently. The $50 no deposit card appeared only for the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Singapore. Visitors from Nigeria, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, Thailand, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Brazil saw no no deposit bonus at all. They saw only the deposit bonus, cashback, refer-a-friend, the XM Traders Club and competitions. Several Latin American countries see a different $30 card whose terms XM does not publish.
XM’s own terms explain why that matters: the bonus “may be offered by the Company, from time to time,” and it is claimed through a dedicated option in the Members Area. Availability is XM’s call, country by country. Our previous country list for this bonus never had an official source, and we flagged it as such. Now XM’s own data answers the question, so we have narrowed the Matrix record to the six markets where the card appears and corrected the pages on this site that said otherwise. If you are in one of the other markets, check your Members Area before counting on the $50. If XM switches the card back on for your country, we will log that too.
On XM’s deposit bonus, the official PDF still says 50% up to $500, then 20% up to $4,500, for a $5,000 total. Its excluded accounts are Ultra Low, Swap-Free and Shares. XM Global no longer lists a Zero account, so the old “Zero and Ultra Low excluded” wording is gone from our pages. XM’s promotions page now advertises different structures by country. Examples include a permanent 100%-50%-20% ladder in Singapore and the Gulf, and a seasonal “limited time” 100% up to $100 in Nigeria, South Africa and the Philippines. XM publishes no terms for these, so we treat the PDF as the verified baseline.
Vantage: The 150% Bonus Isn’t for Our Markets — Here Is What Is
We re-read Vantage’s 150% + 25% deposit bonus terms in full on October 19. They hold: 150% of your first deposit up to $1,500 in credit, 25% of later deposits, total credit capped at $50,000, a $50 minimum, opt-in plus a face check, and a promotion period running to December 31, 2026. Two details are new in the terms themselves. Swap Free accounts now qualify, and Neteller and Skrill deposits do not.
The bigger finding is who gets it. Vantage’s site runs an eligibility checker that sends each country to its own deposit-bonus page. That checker sends the 150% + 25% only to residents of Europe, the UK, Switzerland, a handful of Balkan states, New Zealand and the Pacific islands. None of the emerging markets this site covers is on that list. Our record had wrongly listed Nigeria, South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and we have corrected it. Here is where Vantage sends our readers instead:
- Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia: the 50% + 10% deposit bonus. You get 50% of your first deposit up to $500 in credit, then 10% of later deposits, with total credit capped at $20,000. The minimum deposit is $50, it runs on STP, ECN or Copy Trading accounts, and you must opt in. E-wallet and crypto deposits (USDT, Neteller, Skrill) do not qualify. It has run since May 2021 with no end date.
- Nigeria and South Africa, additionally: the Turbo Deposit Promotion. It pays 150% of your first deposit up to $1,000 in credit, then 50% of later deposits up to $2,000, for a maximum of $3,000 in total credit. It runs August 14 to November 30, 2026. The minimum is $50; proof of address and leverage of 2,000:1 or lower are required, and e-wallet and crypto deposits don’t qualify. For readers in those two countries, this is now Vantage’s largest match.
- Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Morocco: other deposit-bonus variants whose terms we have not verified yet.
- Pakistan, Bangladesh and India: the checker returns an error page, so Vantage offers no deposit bonus there. Vantage does not serve India or Singapore residents at all.
Two smaller Vantage records changed too. The 10% USDT rebate keeps its terms (10% of your first USDT deposit after opting in, capped at $10,000, until a $500,000 pool runs out). But Vantage offers it only to Middle East and North Africa residents; in our markets that means the Gulf states, Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. And Vantage Rewards is now fully verified. V-Points are earned on every product, not just forex, at 100 to 250 points per $1 million traded by tier. The program applies to STP and ECN accounts only. Points last a year and are extended by each new trade, and you need 10 closed trades every 90 days to keep your tier. Reward caps are modest: $30 for a Profit Booster or Loss Protection voucher, a 5% deposit rebate capped at $50, and $20 lucky-draw prizes.
Headway: The $111 Bonus Has Ended — the $150 Replaced It
Headway’s own promotion page now reads “Bonus $111 has ended” and points to a $150 no deposit bonus. Archived copies show the $150 listed since mid-May 2026. Our August pass read a stale mirror domain and missed it; we have corrected our Headway review. The $150 is not paid upfront. A 7-day promo account starts with $15 and earns $15 a day for meeting a daily activity condition, up to $105. Booster credits of $15 and $30 come from your first real-account trading. Full verification comes first, the stop-out is 20%, and withdrawable profit is capped at $100. Headway’s 75% deposit bonus now applies only if you deposit within 72 hours of registering. Headway failed our vetting standard, so we describe its offers for information only and do not link to them.
LiteFinance: Trade Smart Registration Extended — Twice
On September 30, the official LiteFinance Trade Smart Challenge page moved the registration close from September 26 to October 16. On October 19, it moved again, to November 5, 2026. The live ranking showed new participants starting on October 17 and 19, so the extension is real, not a stale page. The challenge itself is unchanged. It gives a 30-day run from your deposit, a reward of 50% of your total investment if you hit the trading goals, and a maximum of $50,000 per client. We will check the page again on November 6. Anyone who registers by the close still gets their full 30-day run, so final runs end in early December.
FreshForex: Four End Dates Rolled Forward
We checked FreshForex on September 30, the day two of its promotions were due to end. Both had already been extended. The 300% deposit bonus and Stop Out Insurance now run to December 28, 2026, with terms unchanged. The 101% deposit bonus and the 15% first-deposit bonus now state November 30, 2026. In September we recorded no stated end date for these two. We can’t tell whether FreshForex added the dates after September 1 or whether they sat unseen in a collapsed terms panel, so we log them as found. The cashback program did not roll with the others; its recorded end date is October 30. This is the fourth documented FreshForex end-date rollover, and the first one we caught before the old date passed. FreshForex’s forbidden-countries list is unchanged, with India and Indonesia still on it.
Tickmill, Traders Trust and HFM: New Fine Print
Tickmill’s $30 Welcome Account now publishes its full exclusion list in the terms, with 89 countries. It confirms almost all of our previous codes and adds 32 more, mostly in Latin America and Africa. Two countries are also blocked at registration: Pakistan and Singapore can’t be selected on the official sign-up form, and neither can Kenya. We have corrected the pages that listed Kenya as eligible. Per the form, the countries that can register include Malaysia, the Philippines and the six Gulf states. Details are on our Tickmill bonus page.
Traders Trust’s refer-a-friend now requires your friend to trade 5 lots on FX or metals (Classic account) within 30 days of their first trade. It was previously 3 lots within 30 days of account opening. The terms also add a hedging ban across accounts, and both the referral and cashback programs gained a country exclusion list (including New Zealand and Canada). One warning: the cashback page’s intro says “up to $15 per lot”, but its own tier table tops out around $2 per lot. We follow the table. See the Traders Trust review.
HFM published new versions of four documents (see the HFM bonus page):
- Shield 500 (v2026/05): leverage during news releases is now 1:300 (was 1:500), and gold’s 24-hour symbol has its own dynamic leverage.
- Return on Free Margin (v2026/04): you need over $1,000 of free margin and trading activity on each accrual day, and only fully approved clients qualify. HFM can now suspend the program for any client, or claw back paid interest after a breach. The prize pool is $1,000,000; no official source calls it monthly.
- Loyalty (v2026/07): points can now be converted to cash rewards, and the Pro Plus account earns at a 0.4 ratio.
- Demo contest (v2026/02): fully approved and verified clients only.
The 20% Top-Up bonus is unchanged.
FXGT, AvaTrade, FP Markets, Octa and the Rest
FXGT’s Milestone and Loyalty bonuses now count volume in “Reward GTLots”: raw lots multiplied by a credit ratio and an asset multiplier, counting only trades placed after your first deposit. FXGT’s own page also contradicts itself. The headline and worked examples say the Milestone bonus is 30% up to $600, while the FAQ on the same page says 50% up to $700. We publish the headline figure and flag the conflict. See our FXGT bonus page.
AvaTrade’s refer-a-friend program has new terms on its live page and help centre. You can earn up to $250 per referral. Your friend deposits between $200 and $2,500 and trades the minimum volume: 1 lot per $200 deposited, earning $20 per lot, within 90 days. The reward is credited as cash within 7 days of qualifying and can be withdrawn at any time. The older document’s $20-$500 range and 5-trade rule no longer apply. See AvaTrade.
FP Markets’ referral tiers are unchanged ($50 to $200 depending on your friend’s deposit and lots). But the bonus is now credited only after a 45-day eligibility review from your friend’s account opening. The terms no longer say whether the reward can be withdrawn. The free VPS offer was re-confirmed as is. See FP Markets.
Octa’s 50% bonus on every deposit is unchanged: bonus ÷ 2 standard lots to withdraw it, and no time limit. We corrected one rule. There is no proportional removal: the bonus is cancelled if your equity falls below the bonus amount, or if your own funds fall below it after a withdrawal or transfer. Octa’s own website also lists India, Pakistan and the Philippines among the countries whose residents it does not serve. We could not confirm that any Octa entity still onboards those countries for the bonus, so our pages for them now carry that caveat. See OctaFX.
InstaForex’s StartUp no deposit bonus has no amount in its binding agreement, and InstaForex’s own pages disagree. One page says up to $3,500; two others still say $5,000. We keep the lower figure. Its 30% deposit bonus states no time limit, though InstaForex may cancel it without notice, and the 100% bonus is aimed at forex trading. See InstaForex. FBS’s 100% deposit bonus terms re-confirmed word for word; whether Indonesia and Thailand qualify is still unsettled, because no official FBS source lists countries. RoboForex’s cashback now covers Prime accounts as well as ECN, and its account interest accrues every day, weekends included (a correction to our earlier note).
What We Changed on This Site
The XM, Vantage and Octa country findings affected well over a hundred pages: country hubs, country guides, broker reviews and bonus roundups. We rewrote each statement that told a reader in a given country they could claim an offer the broker doesn’t show there. Where a page still describes the offer, it now says plainly who it is for and what readers in that market get instead. We also added correction notes to the August and September editions, which listed these offers without the country limits.
Dates to Watch in November
- October 30: FreshForex cashback end date (FreshForex has rolled dates forward before).
- November 5: LiteFinance Trade Smart registration closes, unless extended again.
- November 30: Vantage Turbo Deposit ends (Nigeria and South Africa); FreshForex 101% and 15% end dates.
- December 28: FreshForex 300% and Stop Out Insurance end dates.
- December 31: Vantage 150% + 25% promotion period ends (Europe, UK and New Zealand only).
Frequently Asked Questions
Is XM’s $50 no deposit bonus available in Nigeria?
Not as of October 19, 2026. XM’s own promotions page showed the $50 no deposit bonus only to visitors from the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Singapore. Nigerian visitors saw XM’s deposit bonus, cashback, refer-a-friend and XM Traders Club cards, but no no deposit bonus. The bonus terms themselves are unchanged ($50; 10 micro lots across 5 round-turn trades to withdraw profits). XM offers it at its discretion, so check your Members Area.
What deposit bonus does Vantage offer in Nigeria and South Africa?
Vantage’s eligibility checker routes both countries to its 50% + 10% deposit bonus. That is 50% of your first deposit up to $500 in credit, then 10% of later deposits, with total credit capped at $20,000. Until November 30, 2026, both countries also get the Turbo Deposit Promotion: 150% of your first deposit up to $1,000 in credit plus 50% of later deposits up to $2,000, for a maximum of $3,000. The 150% + 25% bonus advertised elsewhere is reserved for Europe, the UK and New Zealand.
Did Headway’s $111 no deposit bonus end?
Yes. Headway’s promotion page now reads “Bonus $111 has ended” and points to a $150 no deposit bonus. That bonus builds up over 7 days ($15 to start, $15 a day for daily activity, plus boosters) and caps withdrawable profit at $100. Headway failed our vetting standard, so we cover it for information only.
When does LiteFinance Trade Smart Challenge registration close?
November 5, 2026, after two extensions: from September 26 to October 16, then to November 5. Each run lasts 30 days from your deposit, so participants who register by the close finish in early December.
How much is AvaTrade’s refer-a-friend reward now?
Up to $250 per referral. Your friend deposits between $200 and $2,500 and trades the minimum volume. AvaTrade’s help centre sets that at 1 lot per $200 deposited, worth $20 per lot, within 90 days. The reward is credited as cash within 7 days of qualifying and can be withdrawn at any time.
How do you verify these bonus changes?
Every figure comes from our Broker & Bonus Matrix, the dataset our team maintains by reviewing broker promotion pages, terms documents and official announcements. This month that meant reading each broker’s live terms in a real browser where bot protection blocked automated checks, and checking country-specific offer lists the way each broker serves them. Each change is logged with the date, the old value, the new value and the source. Offers we cannot verify are marked unverified rather than published as fact. The full feed is on our bonus change tracker, and past editions are on the changelog.
⚠️ Risk Warning: Forex and CFD trading carries significant risk. Most retail traders lose money. Promotional offers do not reduce the risk of leveraged trading. Never trade with funds you cannot afford to lose.
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Written by Tim Morris · Forex industry analyst · About Tim