A Guide to the cTrader Partner Program
Obviously, every trader’s primary interest is to make money. But trading is not the only way to turn a profit from the forex market. While there are other opportunities such as becoming a money manager or a strategy provider, they both come with risk, responsibility and restrictions. Whereas becoming an Introducing Broker for a forex broker is essentially risk-free. These revenues could compliment your earning from trading, supplement your losses as you get started out or even be your primary income. This is your essential guide to the cTrader Partner Program where we explain how to get set up and start profiting by referring new traders to use cTrader.
What is an Introducing Broker?
An Introducing Broker, often abbreviated to IB is a person or company which refers traders to brokers, or rather introduces them to a broker. Hence the term Introducing Broker. IBs are paid a portion of the revenue that the broker generates from the traders that the IB brought in. So IBs only get paid if traders actually trade. The more traders and the more those traders trade, the more the IB will earn.
You may be wondering who can become an IB? While this answer depends on your broker, usually anyone can become an IB. Now you may be wondering, how to become an Introducing Broker and how does it all work? Well, that’s what this guide is all about!
What is the cTrader Partner Program?
The cTrader Partner Program is a feature that was first released in March 2016. Initially, it was only available in the desktop version of cTrader. Now it’s available in the web and mobile versions of the platform. The Partner Program is a complex under-the-hood logic that works inside the cTrader server as well as a section inside of the cTrader applications that allows you to manage your Introducing Broker account.
The primary aspects of the program that we will explore in this guide are;
- The referral link and attribution
- The multi-level concept of the cTrader Partner Program
- The revenue sharing concept of the cTrader Partner Program
- The ranks and rewards concept
- How payouts are calculated and processed
- Reporting tools to monitor your referrals and revenues
- Incentives at your disposal
cTrader Partner Program Referral Link
Referral Link and Attribution
Before you can start earning from referring clients to your broker(s) you will need to create a live account with them. Once this is done, you will be able to generate your tracking link from the cTrader Partner Center. This link allows those clients you introduce to be attributed to you. If you have multiple cTrader IB accounts with the same broker which could be used for different channels (such as events, campaigns or websites), you can use a specific referral link that will attribute clients to a specific account. This enables you to review the performance of each individual channel and optimize accordingly.
Multi-Level Commissions
The multi-level nature of the cTrader Partner program allows you to maximize your earnings. If you introduce one trader, who later learns of the advantages of being an IB themselves, then you can also earn a percentage from their profits. But it doesn’t just stop there. If that trader, turned IB, recruits more IBs, you continue to earn as revenues are passed upstream. While other similar programs have this concept, they impose a cap on the number of levels. Typically this cap is to prevent the overuse of system resources. But as we have established, cTrader is smart and powerful. This means cTrader has no limit on the number of IB tiers that you can profit from.
cTrader Partner Program: Multi-Level Diagram
Revenue Sharing
Most IB programs offered by non-cTrader brokers payout a fixed amount. For example $1 per Lot. The problem is, a Lot has a different meaning depending on the product that is being traded. 1 Lot of USD vs. JPY is worth $100,000 whereas 1 Lot of DAX is worth around €11,000, 1 Lot of XAU vs. USD (Gold) is worth $125,000, 1 Lot of WTI vs. USD is worth around $50,000. Market rates increase and decrease all the time. Brokers paying their IBs fixed amounts are inconsistent with market conditions and are not representative of what the trader really invests. Revenue sharing always reflects the differences between asset classes and payouts are always relative to what the broker earns. This is the most transparent way for brokers to pay their partners.
Ranks and Rewards
Another advanced feature of the cTrader Partner program is that brokers can design an incentive scheme which should stimulate volume growth. This is achieved by rewarding IBs with a higher percentage of revenue if they meet the criteria of a rank. Ranks only last for one month, so you will need to keep achieving to maintain your rank and you need to achieve new volume to take advantage of the higher rank which you achieved.
cTrader Partner Program Rank Progress Bar
How Payouts are Calculated and Processed
In the reporting dashboard that is available inside of cTrader (and is explained in the next paragraph), you can see the details of every single deal created by your introduced accounts. One of the parameters shown is exactly how much you have earned from that deal. One by one, these are shown in real time. At the end of each day, at midnight server time, all outstanding amounts that were earned during the course of the day are paid and deposited into the trading account. cTrader has done its job and calculated what you are due.
Next, you need to make a withdrawal request with your broker. This part is outside of the scope of the responsibilities of cTrader. Any questions about payout schedule should be clarified with your broker. We suggest doing this to avoid disappointment. They may not want to process small payments every day and prefer to group them into weekly payments for example. This is because brokers have to pay processing fees to send the money to you. If they can avoid unnecessary costs, they will.
Reporting Tools
So far we have mostly explained theoretical features, such as how things work and how they are calculated. The cTrader Partner Center is your reporting interface. From this window, you can see everything about your performance and earnings. All of the screenshots above are from the cTrader Partner Center. Everything inside of this reporting tool can be refreshed at any time to show up to date info.
cTrader Partner Program: Reporting Tools
The Partner Center is made up of three reporting tabs. Partner Accounts, Partner History and Partner Transactions.
Partner Accounts Tab
In this tab, you can see all of the traders that you introduced to your broker, their current balance, the volume they have generated for the current period, when they created their account and when they last logged into cTrader. You can also see if those traders became IBs themselves.
Partner History Tab
This tab shows a list of each and every deal that was made by your introduced traders. The details in this table highlight exactly how much you have earned from these deals.
Partner Transactions Tab
This tab shows you all of the balance adjustments to your partner account. This includes deposits from the traders you have introduced, withdrawals for any rebates you pay back to them, the shared revenue from the other IBs you have introduced and what you share with your parent IB.
Incentives at Your Disposal
As a Partner Manager, you are able to give rebates from your own earnings back to the clients you introduce. This is a great incentive for getting traders to sign up with you as this is a reward or discount that they would not ordinarily get directly from the broker. You just choose the accounts you want to apply the rebate too and you decide how much to pay back.
Are you ready to become a cTrader IB? Check out our list of cTrader brokers or watch the video below to get started.
