Key takeaways
- Swap rates change with interest rates and liquidity costs, so update them on a schedule.
- Confirm the triple-swap day for each symbol type.
- Check a sample of positions after every update.
What swaps are
A swap is the financing charged or credited when a position is held overnight. In MetaTrader, swap settings are part of each symbol’s specification and can be expressed in points, currency or percentage depending on configuration.
Where the rates come from
Brokers usually base swaps on their liquidity provider’s rates plus a markup defined by company policy. Keep a record of the source and policy for each update.
A safe update process
- Collect new rates and apply your markup policy.
- Prepare changes in a spreadsheet and have them reviewed.
- Apply the changes before the daily rollover.
- Confirm the triple-swap day (commonly Wednesday for FX, often Friday for some CFDs).
- After rollover, check swaps on a sample of open positions.
- Log the change with date, source and reviewer.
Common mistakes
- Updating after rollover, so clients are charged old rates.
- Sign errors (long vs short).
- Forgetting symbols added since the last update.