Forex Swap Calculator

How to use the swap calculator

1. Currency pair and side (long or short).
2. Interest rates for the base and quote currency, in %. The central-bank or overnight rates listed below are a good starting point.
3. Lot size and days held. Days held is the number of rollovers: a trade held over a Wednesday usually counts three nights for that day, so a Monday-to-Monday trade is 7.
4. Account currency.

The result is the rate differential for your side, the swap per night in the quote currency, and the total in your account currency. Green means you earn it; red means you pay.

How swap is estimated

Swap (also called rollover) is the financing applied to a position held past the daily close. The textbook approximation:

swap_per_day = notional × (rate_long_ccy − rate_short_ccy) ÷ 360

Going long a pair, you earn interest on the base currency and pay on the quote; going short, the sign flips.

This is an estimate. Real broker swaps include a markup, broker-specific funding rates, and a triple charge on one day of the week (see below). Always check your broker's swap table before holding overnight.

Useful reference rates: USD ≈ Fed Funds, EUR ≈ ESTR, GBP ≈ SONIA, JPY ≈ TONA.

Worked examples

• Paying swap. Long 1 lot of EUR/USD at 1.1000, with the euro rate at 2.0% and the dollar rate at 4.0%. The notional is $110,000 and your side of the differential is −2.0%: $110,000 × 2.0% ÷ 360 = $6.11 paid per night. Short the same lot and, before markup, you earn $6.11.
• Earning swap, non-dollar quote. Long 0.50 lots of USD/JPY at 150.00, with the dollar at 4.0% and the yen at 0.5%. The notional is ¥7,500,000 and the differential +3.5%: ¥7,500,000 × 3.5% ÷ 360 ≈ ¥729 a night, which is about $4.86 in a dollar account.

Rates here are round examples, not current policy rates.

What swap adds up to over time

Long 1 lot of EUR/USD from the first example ($6.11 a night):

A 20-pip move on the same lot is $200, so a month of swap is about one ordinary day's range. On short-term trades swap barely registers; on trades held for weeks it belongs in the plan.

Why swap is tripled once a week

Spot FX settles two business days after the trade. A position rolled on Wednesday moves its settlement from Friday to Monday, across the weekend, so that rollover carries three days of interest. Most brokers apply it on Wednesday for currency pairs; some use Friday for metals and CFDs. Rollover happens at the daily close, around 17:00 New York time. The calculator doesn't add the triple day itself: count it in days held.

Reading your broker's swap

Brokers publish swap per pair, usually in the contract specification (in MT4/MT5: right-click the symbol, then Specification), with separate long and short values. They are often quoted in points, a tenth of a pip on five-digit quotes:

swap per night = swap in points × pip value per lot ÷ 10 × lots

A long swap of −6.5 points on EUR/USD, where one pip is $10 per lot, is −6.5 × $10 ÷ 10 = −$6.50 per lot per night. Some brokers quote swap as a percentage or directly in money instead; the specification states which.

The broker's figure is usually worse than this calculator's estimate because it includes a markup on both sides. On pairs with a small differential, that can make both the long and the short swap negative.

FAQ

What is a swap point?

The unit many brokers quote swap in: one point is a tenth of a pip on five-digit quotes. Multiply by the pip value per lot and divide by 10 to get money.

Can the swap rate change while my trade is open?

Yes. Brokers update swap rates when interest rates or their funding costs change, and the new rate applies from the next rollover.

Why are both the long and short swap negative?

The broker's markup. When the rate differential is small, the markup outweighs it on both sides.

What is a swap-free account?

An account with no overnight swap, often offered as an Islamic account. Brokers usually charge for holding positions another way, such as a fixed fee after a set number of nights or a wider spread.