Is signup bonus just signup bogus?

So my newbie ass signed up for Full Tilt a couple of weeks ago. Good deal, since they give me a 100% signup bonus.

After a couple of days of entertaining my new hobby, my account is down from the initial $100 to about $85 (yes, I lost!). At this point I receive message that they have "released" $10 or $20 of my startup bonus. A week or two later, while being below the initial $100, I get a similar release.

For the past couple of weeks I have started winning quite a bit, and my account is now well above where it started. I have not seen a "bonus release" in a long time.

So here is the question(s):

1. Are the signup bonuses only released when a player is losing?

2. Why can't I find information about how the signup bonus worsk on the full tilt website?

3. Do other poker sites release the bonus in a similar bogus manner?

4. If the answer to 1 is 'yes, is there a trick I can use? Like transferring money to all my girlfriends so as to reduce my account triggering a release of bonus and have them pay me back later (yea, right)?

peace,
n

Google is you friend

Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker - 100% Deposit Bonus: deposit bonus details

Explains everything. They're not bogus.

If you click the "Bonus Account" button in the F.T.P cashier, it will tell you how much you have earned and how close you are to the next release.

when you sign up for a bonus you get a set amount of time to earn it. The reason you may not have earned any bonus money recently is that it could have expired.

When i first deposited $100 at Full Tilt I think i had 3 months to earn the bonus

Hey, thanks for your responses. I am a little embarrassed coz obviously this information was easily available. Anyway, I figured out that I needed to go back to cash games to release more bonus which I did and made money in those games + bonus. Super.