Trading Terms

What is rollover and what does it mean in trading?

Skilling Writers Team
2022-03-21
- Education
- Trading
- Technical Analysis

What is rollover?

Rollover – also known as 'swap' – is the interest you pay or earn when you hold a position overnight.

Put simply, if the interest rate on the currency you bought is higher than the interest rate of the currency you sold, you will get paid for the overnight position. If the interest rate on the currency you bought is lower than the interest rate on the currency you sold, then you will pay Rollover according to the swap table.

Here’s a quick example...

Let’s say you buy one standard lot of the GBP/USD currency pair at an exchange rate of 1.30. That means you need 100,000 GBP to receive 130,000 USD. So far, very straightforward. How though do we then find the rate of interest which is to be charged or received? Again, that is fairly straightforward - the rates are based on the current interest rate within that country. So, for the GBP that is obviously the Bank of England, and for the USD, that is the Federal Reserve. Therefore, in our hypothetical example, we might end up with a situation as below:

The interest rate on the GBP is 0.25% (current rate at the Bank of England)
The interest rate on the USD is 0.5% (current rate at the Federal Reserve)

As we can see, the difference between these two rates is 0.25% which becomes the basis of how much interest would be charged. As it is obviously relatively worse in this example to hold GBP than USD, if you did decide to buy GBP/USD you would own GBP and gain 0.25% but you would be short USD so debited 0.5% - leaving you with a net deficit of 0.25% (remember whenever you trade in currency pairs you are always long one currency and short another). This difference in interest rate is known as ‘interest rate differential’. And of course, if you were selling GBP/USD in the above example, it would be an opposite scenario, and you would earn 0.25%.

The above example is a very basic explanation and there are other factors to consider if you are holding trades open for a long period (weeks or months). For instance, the calculation will never be as simple as the one above, for various reasons, such as the fact that interest rates often change, the levels of interest that brokers charge vary to what central banks charge, and also rates must be calculated on a daily and not yearly basis.

However, what we have done is made our Rollovers charges as easy to find and transparent as possible. And don’t worry, the Skilling platform automatically works them out for you and updates your account at around 11pm CET every night! Please see here to view all our Rollovers/swap rates.

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Contract Rollovers

Simply put, a rollover is a strictly technical procedure that guarantees that the Contracts For Differences (CFDs) that you can trade on Skilling platforms always accurately represent market circumstances.

The last day you can trade a futures contract is that day's expiration date. A futures trader has three alternatives before expiration:

Settling the position or closing it
Settlement
Rollover

When a trader transfers their position from the front month contract to a contract further out into the future, this is known as a rollover. By keeping an eye on the volume of both the expiring contract and the contract for the next month, traders may gauge when they should switch to the new contract. When volume in the contract reaches a particular threshold, a trader who intends to roll their positions may decide to shift to the following month's contract.

How Come Rollover Sizes Vary?

Price variations for futures contracts for a particular asset are caused by a variety of variables, including interest rates, dividends, and storage costs. These discrepancies are typically moderate, although occasionally particular commodities markets may see significant differences.

What in forex trading is a rollover?

The interest gained or paid for holding a currency position overnight is known as a rollover in forex trading. Depending on how they see it, traders have the potential to make a profit or a loss. The example below demonstrates how traders profit from a rollover.

When Do FX Rollovers Go Into Effect?

When a position rolls over in forex, it indicates that it is extended at the close of the trading day without being settled. The majority of forex trades continue each day until they expire or settle. Depending on the rollover, either spot-next or tom-next transactions are used.

Since the trader maintained the position beyond 5:00 p.m. EST on Monday and closed it at 5:03 p.m. EST on the same day, the trade will still be regarded as an overnight position and be subject to rollover interest.

Not investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee or predict future performance.

Do not stop learning about the financial markets

We’ve got a whole host of resources that are ready and waiting to educate newcomers to trading CFDs online, including:

CFD trading account types: Choose the trading account that suits your trading best
CFD trading basics: Learn the core principles of trading the financial markets using CFDs.
CFD trading psychology: Discover the five rules of thumb to mentally master the stock markets.

What is forex trading?

Forex trading is the buying and selling of currencies on the foreign exchange market with the aim of making profit. Forex is the word's most-traded financial market, with transactions worth trillions of dollars taking place every day.

Learn more about Forex Trading