XM is an online broker that specializes in Forex while also allowing its clients to trade in CFDs on stocks, stock indices, oil, and gold. Simple as that.

XM started back in 2009 and now has over 3 million clients originating from some 200 different countries around the world. They are fully regulated locally and are authorized by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa to operate as a Financial Service Provider (FSP).

That’s all good and well, but are they regulated in the rest of the world? The answer is, yes. XM is internationally regulated through the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and the Financial Services Commission of Belize (FSC), making them one of the top online brokers to get started with.

So, if you’ve been spending loads of time shopping around for a broker to start trading with online, but haven’t been able to find the right one, then XM might be the perfect choice for you when it comes to security, reliability, and heck, they even give you some free money to start trading with.

Now that we know who they are, let’s take a look at this “no-deposit bonus” thing that they are offering and see what that is all about.

Simply put, a no-deposit bonus is a few dollars that some brokerages give away for free in order to draw in new clients.

The reason these bonuses are called a “no-deposit bonus” is that you do not need to make any deposit into the account that you open with them in order to gain access to these funds. There are brokers out there that will give you a few dollars for signing up, but they require you to put at least some of your own money into the account before they pay you the bonus.

With XM you just go to their website, follow the steps, and without ever needing to open your wallet you will have $30 in your account and be able to start trading right away.

So now that you know what no-deposit bonuses are and that XM is a well-regulated broker that offers these bonuses, we will take a look at exactly how you can open one of these accounts and get your bonus today.

First things first. We need to head over to the XM website. This is the South African division of XM and will be the place where we start out.

Step 1 - Click to get started

Click here to open up the XM bonus registration page. You will be greeted by one of those prompts that asks you to accept cookies. Just click “ACCEPT ALL”. 

You will then be on the main page of XM which should look something like this:

Go ahead and click on the green button that should be around the center of the screen and reads “START WITH $30 FREE”.

Step 2 - You start the registration process.

Once you have clicked on the “START WITH $30 FREE” button, you will be taken to the first page of the registration process. Here you will be required to fill in some basic information.

After filling in the section labeled “Personal Details” there is a part asking for “Trading Account Details”. Here it first asks you to choose your trading platform type. There are two options, MT4 or MT5. Both are perfectly fine, but as MT5 is a more updated version of MT4 that also offers a few more trading options, we would recommend choosing MT5.

Just below that they require you to choose an account type. There are a few to choose from here depending on your level of experience and the amount of money you want to trade with. If you plan to start trading with just the $30 that they give you then we recommend going for the Micro account as it will allow you to trade smaller lot sizes.

Once all your details are filled in and your account has been chosen, click on the “PROCEED TO STEP 2” button.

Step 3 - Complete the registration

On this page, you will be asked to provide a few more details. These include some personal details, your address, creating a password, and trading account details.

Most of it is fairly self-explanatory, but when you get to the section about trading account details there are a few things to take note of.

As you can see in the above image, we have selected ZAR as our base currency, and the amount of leverage you can just leave at whatever default level they provide.

The main thing to take note of here is under “Account Bonus”. Make sure you set this field to “Yes, I wish to receive the bonus.” otherwise you won’t get a cent.

After completing the form and checking the boxes, you can click on “OPEN A REAL ACCOUNT” to proceed.

Step 4 - Confirm email and identity

So you have filled out the form correctly, and chosen all the right options. The next steps look as follows:

First, you will need to head over to your inbox in order to verify your email. Once that is done you will receive an email with your MT5 ID and a link to log in to your account.

Once logged in to your account you can scroll down the page to find the following:

Click on “VERIFY YOUR ACCOUNT HERE”.

This is the final stage in the process. All that is left to be done is for you to upload a picture of an identity document and proof of residence.

For the identity document, you can either use your passport, driver's license, or South African ID card.

For the proof of residency document, upload a copy of a recent utility bill that shows your name and address printed on it or a recent bank statement displaying the same information.

Once these documents are uploaded you can click on “START VERIFICATION” and within 24 hours your account will be credited with $30.

So what did we learn from this article?

• XM is a well-respected and regulated online broker that has been around since 2009 and offers its services to clients around the world
• No-deposit bonuses are a form of incentive to draw in new clients and in order to get one of these bonuses you do not need to deposit anything into your account
• XM gives you a $30 bonus for signing up with them for a real trading account

Click here to get your XM no deposit bonus