What Is a Swap in Forex?

Short answer: A swap (also called rollover) is an amount your broker adds to or takes from your account when you hold a position past the daily cut-off time. It can be a charge or a credit. Brokers publish a swap table per instrument. A trade opened and closed the same day normally pays no swap.

Swap in brief. Cut-off and Wednesday examples taken from our AvaTrade review, October 2026.

Why does a swap exist?

A forex position is a bet on one currency against another. Each currency has its own interest rate. Holding a position overnight effectively means borrowing one currency and lending the other, and the swap reflects the gap between those rates plus the broker’s markup. That is why swaps differ by pair and by direction. Buying a pair can be a charge while selling it is a credit, or both can be a charge once the markup is added.

When is a swap applied?

At a fixed daily time set by the broker, known as rollover. Our AvaTrade review reports that AvaTrade charges swaps on positions open at 22:00 GMT, with a triple charge on Wednesdays. The triple charge covers the weekend: spot forex settles two business days later, so Wednesday’s rollover carries Saturday and Sunday. Other brokers can pick a different cut-off or day, so check the specification of your own platform.

A simple example

Take a swap of -$6.00 per lot per night for a long position, an illustrative number only. Holding 0.5 lot over five weeknights, with Wednesday counted triple, would be 7 charges:

0.5 lot × $6.00 × 7 = $21.00

A small account can feel that, and a position held for weeks adds up. The real swap rate for your instrument sits in the platform’s contract specification, which can change from day to day.

Swap-free (Islamic) accounts

Some brokers offer accounts without swaps, mainly for clients whose religion forbids interest. They are not free of cost in every case:

• Our Vantage review reports that Vantage swap-free accounts pay a variable administration fee instead of swaps, with a minimum deposit of 50 units of account currency.
• Our VT Markets account types guide reports that swap-free accounts there also use an administration fee, that zero-fee versions exist only in some countries, and that the Client Agreement lets VT Markets revoke swap-free status.
• Our AvaTrade review reports that its Islamic account has no swaps for up to 5 days, and swaps are charged after that.

Read the terms of the exact account before opening it.

How to keep swap costs in check

• Look up the swap values for your pair and direction before opening a trade you plan to hold.
• Remember the Wednesday rule, since a position held through it costs three nights, not one.
• Treat swap as part of the cost next to spread and commission. See what a spread is.
• Do not hold a losing trade just to collect a positive swap. The price move is usually much larger than the credit.

Swap on forex, metals, indices and crypto

Swaps are not only a forex matter. Brokers apply overnight financing to CFDs on metals, indices and other instruments too, and the method differs by instrument. Our reviews do not list a full swap table for any broker, and we could not confirm one for this article, so treat the explanation here as general. The contract specification in your platform is the only reliable list of rates, and brokers can change them.

Swap is a cost on top of spread and commission

A trade you hold has three possible costs: the spread when you open, a commission on some accounts, and the swap for every night it stays open. Day traders mostly feel the first two. Swing traders, who hold positions for days or weeks, feel the third. A position with a small spread but a large negative swap can cost more to hold than a position with a wider spread and no overnight charge.

Look at the whole holding period before you decide. A trade planned for ten nights at -$6.00 per lot per night, with two Wednesday triple charges, would pay 14 charges, or $84.00 per lot. If the profit target is 30 pips on one lot (about $300), that is a large slice. The numbers here are illustrative. Your own rate will differ.

How to find the swap for your trade

• Open the contract specification of the instrument in the trading platform. It lists long and short swap values and the day the triple charge is applied.
• Check the units. Some brokers quote swap in points, some in money per lot, some as a percentage. Convert before comparing.
• Look again before holding through a rate decision, since changes in interest rates can change swaps.
• If the broker’s help centre lists a cut-off time, note the time zone. AvaTrade, according to our review, uses 22:00 GMT, which moves relative to local clocks when daylight saving changes.

Common mistakes

1. Assuming a positive swap means free money. The price move on the trade is far larger.
2. Forgetting the triple-charge day and being surprised by a bigger debit.
3. Choosing a swap-free account without reading the replacement fee. See the account terms in our Vantage review.
4. Ignoring swaps on very long-held positions with small stop losses.
5. Comparing swap values between brokers without matching units.

Bottom line

A swap is an overnight charge or credit that depends on the pair, the direction and the broker’s markup. Check the swap table before you hold a trade past the cut-off, remember the triple charge day, and read the fee terms before choosing a swap-free account. Only deposit money you can afford to lose. CFDs are complex, high-risk instruments.