Overnight fees called swap

A swap, also called an overnight fee or rollover fee, is applied to any position still open at the end of the trading day, at 00:00 server time. Close before then and you are never charged one.

Where the fee comes from

When you trade with leverage you are effectively using borrowed capital, and the swap represents the interest difference between the assets in your trade. On a currency pair it is the difference between the interest rate of the currency you bought and the one you sold. Every asset has its own underlying rate, set by central banks or financing cost policies. On commodities, indices and shares it is a financing fee for holding the position overnight.

The triple swap night

Three days of swap are applied on one night each week, to cover the weekend when markets are closed. Which night depends on what you trade.

If your normal daily swap is 5 US dollars, on the designated night 15 US dollars is charged instead. This catches people out.

Does it matter to you

If you open and close within the same day, swaps never affect you. If you hold for days, weeks or months, these small daily charges accumulate and directly affect your result. If you would rather not pay or receive interest at all, use a Swap Free account.

Check the rate before you hold

1. Open Market Watch and find the symbol.
2. Right click it and select Specification.
3. Read Swap Long, which applies if you buy and hold overnight, and Swap Short, which applies if you sell and hold overnight.

Those are the live figures for your account.