Is a 100% rebate real? Taking the claim apart

“Up to 100% back” appears in the advertising of almost every rebate service. The claim can be
technically true and still completely misleading,
depending on what follows the word “of”.

100% of what?

That is the whole question. There are three readings, and they are very far apart:

• 100% of the trading costs you pay — which would mean free trading. This
  does not exist, because the broker has to keep its own share.
• 100% of the spread — also non-existent, for the same reason.
• 100% of the partner commission — this is real, and it is the meaning used in
  the advertising.

Partner commission is only part of what you pay. Getting 100% of it is not getting 100%
of your costs.

What a trading cost is actually made of

When you close a trade, the cost you paid is divided up:

• The broker’s own share, for running the business and making a profit.
• The share paid to the liquidity provider.
• The share paid to the introducing broker
  — the source of every rebate.

That third part is usually a set proportion of the spread or commission, depending on the broker’s
policy and the account type. Returning 100%
of it is the genuine ceiling.

What the real numbers look like

Take something checkable: one lot of gold on a
Standard account carries a spread of roughly 15–35 cents, which is $15–35. Published rebates on that
instrument at the major brokers run $10–18 a lot.

So you recover a substantial share of the cost — not all of it, and the
proportion moves with the instrument and the account type.

Why an absolute figure beats a percentage

“Up to 90% back” tells you nothing without knowing 90% of what. “$10.41 per lot of XAU/USD on a
Standard account” is checkable: multiply by your lots, compare against what actually arrived, and you
know immediately whether it is true.

When comparing rebate services, ask for dollars per lot by instrument and by account type. A
percentage alone is not enough information to compare on.

Four questions that take any claim apart

• 100% of which amount — trading costs, spread, or partner commission?
• On which account type — the headline rate usually applies to exactly one.
• On which instruments — many schemes exclude gold, indices or exotic pairs.
• Is there a minimum volume — “up to 100%” is sometimes reachable only at the top
  volume tier.

Worth saying plainly

No rebate service makes your trading free, and anyone implying otherwise is selling a story. What
a rebate does is pull your net cost down by a
measurable amount — and for a steady trader that compounds into a meaningful figure over a year.
That is the whole of the value, and it is enough to be worth doing without being inflated.

This article is for information only and is not investment advice. Conditions and fee levels are published by the brokers and can change at any time — check with the broker you actually use. Leveraged forex and CFD trading carries a high level of risk and can cost you your entire deposit.