Every forex position held past midnight incurs a swap charge (or earns a credit). Know the exact rand cost before you decide to hold overnight.
A swap (also called a rollover) is the interest differential between the two currencies in a pair, applied each night a position remains open past the daily cutoff (usually 22:00 GMT on the MT4 server).
On USD/ZAR, South Africa's high interest rates relative to the US typically mean long positions pay a significant swap. Short positions may earn a small credit. The differential can erode a winning trade over several days.
Wednesday overnight is charged at triple rate to account for the weekend when markets are closed but interest still accrues. Always factor this into your holding-period calculations.
A position left open from Monday to Friday is charged on 7 nights, not five: the Wednesday rollover carries the weekend. Set the nightly rate from your own instrument and the strip shows where the money goes.
Negative is a charge, positive is a credit. The calculator above fills this in per instrument; typical gold and EM pairs are charges, carry pairs can be credits.
Swap is applied by your broker at its own rollover time and the rate changes with interest rates, so treat any figure here as the shape of the cost rather than a quote. Check the current number in MT4 under Market Watch → Symbols → Properties.
Every tool runs in rand and recalculates as you type. Pick one to jump straight to it.
Size every position to a fixed % risk and stop-loss in pips.
Open →See the margin a trade locks up at 1:50 to 1:500 leverage.
Open →Model entry, exit and direction to project the rand outcome.
Open →Project account growth from a monthly return over time.
Open →Calculate the overnight fee cost for holding a position past midnight.
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