Forex Market Daily Interest Rollover

In the spot fx market, trades settle in two business days and open trading positions held at time of rollover are automatically rolled over by the forex broker to the next settlement date, the open trade position is swapped for a new position expiring the following settlement date at 5pm EST rollover. This is also known as "tomorrow, next day" or simply "tom next."

For example, if you buy 200,000 Euros on Monday, you must deliver 200,000 Euros on Wednesday. On Wednesdays, the amount added or subtracted to an account as a result of rolling over a position tends to be around three times the usual amount. This "3-Day" rollover accounts for settlement of trades through the weekend period.

Forex Trading Account

If you are long the currency bearing the higher interest rate then you should earn interest, automatically credited to your trading account. Conversely, if you are short the currency bearing the higher interest rate then you should experience a small debit to your account.


Be aware that most forex brokers require a 2% margin set for your account in order to receive interest. If not, you will have to pay for the rollover, it doesn't matter whether you are long or short the currency bearing the higher interest rate

Day Traders

For day traders, who almost never hold any overnight positions, the rollover is not applicable because there are no positions to roll, and therefore no interest is earned or paid.

Swing Traders

If you are a swing, position or long term trader, the rollover will affect your account since you'll earn or pay interest on a daily basis. Therefore, it is recommend to set your account at 2% margin and only try to long the currency bearing the higher interest rate.

A strategy for the longer term trader is the carry trade, which relies on a big interest rate differential between the two traded currencies.
For example the NZD/JPY currency cross pair.

Currently, traders earn a $13 daily rollover interest, credited to their accounts at 5PM EST while holding a long position in this pair for each standard lot(1 standard lot equals 100,000 units) traded; BUT, if you are short NDZ/JPY, your account will be debited $14/day for each standard lot traded! Interesting fact to know, isn't it?

Rollover example

If you are long 300,000 EUR/USD at rollover (5PM est) and EUR/USD at rollover is trading at 1.3200, the EUR short-term interest rate is 3.50% and the USD short-term interest rate is 5.25%

Currency Trading vs. Casino Gambling

The first aspect of our leverage myth refers to the belief that a high leverage can work in favor of the trader, and even comhpensate for losses in periods when trading does not give te expected results. A trader that is aware of what leverage can do for him may tend to increase the size of his trades as losses accumulate, hoping for a recovery in the very last moment. This approach can only work against the trader, and usually leads to margin calls and huge losses in trading accounts.

Whenever a trader tries to apply a casino player mentality to trading (on purpose or not), the probability of his success is in fact much lower than if he were gambling in a casino with a 50%/50% chance. The explanations are complex, and we cannot go into details here (our money management courses explain this thoroughly). Still, something is certain: the higher we set the leverage, the more our trading resembles casino betting. And I doubt any serious forex trader would like his results to be a matter of sheer luck…

Benfits Of Trading

People sometimes experiment with the idea to trade with other people. It might work, but for me, it did not. I trade alone. The advantages of trading alone are:

You are free to make your own decisions without having to find a way to explain the rationale of your decisions to anybody else. Your time and effort can be focused on what the market is doing and how you react to it, instead of worrying about the psychological and emotional dynamics of a trading group.

You are free to experiment; based on the knowledge you gain from your experiences and your self-education, without having to asking others to allocate a certain portion of the trading funds to let you conduct your experiments.

No one can blame you for their failures. No time is wasted on justifying your actions or feeling guilty about the impact of your trading blunders on someone Else's financial situation.

You alone are responsible and accountable for your own success or failure. You cannot shift the blame to anybody else. It could be disappointing to some knowing that they cannot blame anyone else if they fail. For others, it is very empowering to know that they and they alone, are in charge of their own destiny.