Swap rates, explained.
Swap is the overnight financing applied to positions held past the daily rollover at 5pm New York time. It comes from interest-rate differentials, funding costs, and storage — different for each asset class. Live per-symbol values are in MT5’s Symbol Specification dialog.
What are Swaps?
Our CFDs aim to replicate underlying assets as closely as possible. To that end, any costs of funding a trade that would exist in the underlying market are passed on.
For FX symbols, this is typically determined by the interest rate differential between the two currencies being traded.
For many products such as Indices, the cost of financing a long position is typically related to the cost of borrowing funds in that market. Conversely, a short position might earn that same interest rate, as you are in effect shorting the asset and holding the currency.
Commodities can have quite varied swaps. This is because there are other factors involved, such as the cost or availability of storage in the market for that commodity. For example, it could be costly or difficult to store an asset such as Natural Gas — or storage might be full, creating changes in the cost to carry a position, such as those seen in the Oil market in recent years.
In general, there is also a market spread between the rate earned compared to the rate paid on any asset. This applies to all symbols traded with us. Swaps are charged during Rollover each day, at 5pm New York time.
How are Swaps Calculated?
The swap rate that applies to your position is likely to change day to day, because markets are never static and interest rates or storage fundamentals are constantly changing. The swap you incur on a given day depends on four factors.
What you’re trading
Different symbols use different swap calculations and are impacted by the fundamentals and interest rates of the underlying assets.
The size of your trade
Swap amounts are usually applied in proportion to the size of your position — bigger positions, bigger absolute swap.
Long or short
Your direction determines which currency or asset in the pair you’re buying and which you’re selling — and therefore which rate you earn versus pay.
Your account type
Swap-free accounts may not incur swap at all but can have other fees attached. All other Clarity account types use the standard swap structure.
Two ways swap is quoted.
Depending on the symbol, swap rates are quoted either in points charged per day or as an annual interest rate. Each method uses a slightly different calculation.
Points per day
Common on FX pairs — quoted in pip-equivalent points and applied to your position size each rollover.
- Position
- 1 standard lot EURUSD long
- Swap (long) rate
- −0.7 pips per night
- Pip value (USD account)
- $10 per pip
Annual interest rate
Common on indices, shares, and crypto CFDs — annualised rate divided down to a daily charge.
- Position
- 1 contract US500 long
- Position notional
- ≈ $5,500
- Swap (long) annual rate
- −4.0%
Use our free calculator to estimate any expected swaps in detail before you open a position.
Why Wednesday is 3×
Spot FX and spot metals (XAU, XAG) settle on a T+2 cycle — a trade opened Wednesday wouldn’t actually settle until Friday. Holding past Wednesday’s rollover means you’re also financing the trade across Saturday and Sunday, when the inter-bank market is closed. To compress those three days of funding into the only weekday rollover available, brokers (including Clarity) apply a 3× multiplier on Wednesday for FX and metals. Holding through any other weeknight rollover applies the standard 1× rate.
Mon–Fri: standard daily swap. Wed: 3× to bridge the weekend. Sat/Sun: no rollover — markets are closed.
Rollover at a glance
5pm New York time, every day.
Wed swap is tripled to bridge weekend settlement.
Charged as a daily % of position value.
Available on religious grounds only — contact support.
Live rates in MT5
In MetaTrader 5, right-click any symbol in Market Watch → Specification. The dialog lists Swap Long, Swap Short, the swap type (points or percent), and the 3-day rollover weekday.
Rates can change with central-bank policy, funding stress, or weekend roll. Always confirm before opening a position you intend to hold overnight.