Swap is an overnight commission deducted or added to a trader's equity at 21:00 GMT+0 in summer and 22:00 GMT+0 in winter. Depending on the day and trading instrument, swap can be applied as standard, triple, or not applied at all. There might be additional changes in the swap schedule due to public/bank holidays.

We calculate swap rates in pips, while MetaTrader platforms calculate them in points. You can use our trading calculator to calculate swap easily. To know about swap-free status, refer to the linked article.

Swap summary

When swap is calculated for a pair in which the quote currency does not match the account currency, the quote currency will be converted to your account currency automatically on the trading calculator. Read more about how currency conversion works on the example of calculating profit/loss.

Factors that impact swap

The factors that impact swap for an instrument include:

• Interest rates of central banks
• Currency pair exchange rate (when applicable)
• Order type (short for sell or long for buy)
• Broker's commission

Broker's commission is subject to change based on market conditions and the risk management policy for particular trading instruments.

Swap schedule by instrument group

Quick reference: standard timing, which day carries triple swap, and swap-free caveats by instrument group.

Full day-by-day schedules for each instrument group:

Triple swap

In plain terms: since most trading instruments settle up to 2 business days after a position closes, a position held overnight going into the weekend actually accrues 3 days' worth of overnight cost at once. That's why one weekday per instrument group carries triple swap instead of standard swap - it's covering the Saturday and Sunday that would otherwise have no swap applied.

Triple swap is applied when the settlement date of the instrument lags behind the closing of the order. For example, since most forex trading instruments take up to 2 working days to settle, any order closed after Wednesday at 10 pm (GMT+0) will only settle the following Monday. Therefore, a triple swap is applied to the account for the three days the order must be maintained overnight.

For energies (under commodities), there is no triple swap. There is a single overnight charge for each day of the week, and may include additional changes in the swap schedule due to public/bank holidays.

Swap-free

Swap-free is an account status, not a per-instrument rule - when enabled, no overnight swap is charged or credited on open positions, regardless of the day or instrument group. See the swap-free status article for eligibility and how to enable it.

Calculating swap

In plain terms: swap is the standard/triple swap rate multiplied by how many overnight days the position was held, multiplied by the value of one pip for that position size. A negative result is a charge deducted from equity; a positive result is a credit added to equity.

Swap = Swap long/short × number of days × pip value
Pip value = number of lots x contract size x pip size

Example

You opened a buy (long) order of 1 lot EURUSDm with a Standard account on Tuesday at 15:00, then closed that order on Thursday (of the same week) at 23:00.

Here are the specifics:

• Lots = 1
• Contract size = 100,000 EUR
• Pip size = 0.0001 (for majority of the forex instruments)
• Pip value = 1 x 100 000 x 0.0001 = 10
• Swap rate = -0.86852 pips (for demonstration purposes)
• Number of days = 5 (1+3+1)

So swap = -0.86852 x 5 x 10 = -43.43 USD