On a WhitePips CFD account you can hold a position over the weekend if the account has the Weekend Holding add-on. Without it, anything still open at 4:45 PM New York time on Friday is closed by the system. The first time that happens it is a warning, 1 of 2. The second time it closes the account.
Swaps are a separate matter. Any position held through 5 PM New York on a weekday pays the symbol's normal swap, and on Wednesday it is charged three times to cover the weekend. The Swap-Free add-on removes that charge. It does not permit weekend holding, and Weekend Holding does not remove swaps; they are two different add-ons bought for two different reasons.
Futures accounts are simpler and stricter. Every open futures position is flattened at 3:55 PM Chicago time every day, so there is no overnight and no weekend on futures plans, with or without an add-on. The rest of this post is about the CFD side: what the Friday close does, what the add-ons cost, how swaps are charged and what a weekend gap can do to a loss limit.
The Friday 4:45 PM New York close
The forex market closes for the weekend at 5 PM New York on Friday. Fifteen minutes before that, at 4:45 PM, the system goes through every CFD account without the Weekend Holding add-on and closes whatever is still open: forex, metals, indices, energies and crypto alike. The trades are closed at the market price of the moment, and their result is booked like any other closed trade.
That close is not silent. It counts as a warning on the account, and the rule allows two. The first forced close is warning 1 of 2 and the account carries on. A second forced close, on any later Friday, closes the account. Nothing else is taken from you on the first occasion, but the warning is on the account's record from then on.
In practice the people caught by this are not deliberate weekend holders. They are traders who opened a late New York session trade, stepped away, and did not think about the clock. The daily loss limit post makes the same point about timezone arithmetic: convert the firm's time to your own clock once and write it down. Friday 4:45 PM New York is 9:45 PM in London for most of the year.
What the Weekend Holding add-on costs
The add-on is chosen when you buy the account and costs 20% of the account fee. It applies to every CFD plan, through the evaluation and once funded. Some examples, using the current plan prices:
- Edge 1 Step $10K, fee $114: add-on $22.80.
- Edge 1 Step $25K, fee $248: add-on $49.60.
- Edge 1 Step $100K, fee $646: add-on $129.20.
- Edge 2 Step $100K, fee $597: add-on $119.40.
- Edge 2 Step $200K, fee $990: add-on $198.
With the add-on, the Friday close simply does not happen. Your positions stay open through the weekend and are yours to manage when the market reopens on Sunday evening New York time. Whether that is worth a fifth of the fee depends entirely on how you trade. A day trader who is flat by the London close every day gets nothing from it. A swing trader holding positions for a week or more gets the whole point of their method back.
The add-on is priced off the account fee, which is refunded only on Prime, once the account is funded and in profit after 30 days. The post on what the evaluation fee is actually buying covers how to read that cost honestly.
Swaps: 5 PM New York and the triple Wednesday
A swap is the overnight interest on a leveraged position. It reflects the difference between the interest rates of the two sides of the trade, plus the broker's own charge, and it is applied once a day at the daily rollover, which on our accounts is 5 PM New York time. Close the position at 4:59 PM and no swap is charged; hold it through 5 PM and it is.
Spot forex settles two business days after the trade. A position held through Wednesday's rollover settles on Friday, and rolling it forward one day lands on Monday, which is three calendar days later. So Wednesday's swap is charged three times to cover Saturday and Sunday. That is the triple swap, and it is charged on Wednesday whether or not you intend to hold through the weekend. A trade opened on Wednesday afternoon and closed on Thursday morning pays three days of swap for one night.
Swaps can be positive as well as negative, depending on the direction of the trade and the two interest rates, but on most pairs and on gold the swap on at least one side is a cost. It is taken from the account like any other cost, and a position that is only slightly profitable can be made a loser by a week of swaps.
The Swap-Free add-on and its prices
The Swap-Free add-on removes swaps entirely. It is a fixed price per account size, not a percentage of the fee, and it is the same on every CFD plan:
- $2.5K: $9
- $5K: $21
- $10K: $45
- $25K: $47
- $50K: $95
- $100K: $121
- $200K: $146
With it, positions held past 5 PM New York pay nothing on any night, Wednesday included. Without it, they pay the symbol's normal swap. There is no rule attached: holding overnight without the add-on is allowed on every CFD plan, and the only consequence is the swap itself.
The two add-ons combine. A $100K Edge 1 Step with both is $646 plus $129.20 plus $121, which is $896.20. A trader who holds over the weekend but trades pairs with small swaps might take Weekend Holding alone. A trader who holds through the week but is always flat on Friday might take Swap-Free alone. There is no reason to buy either by default.
Gap risk: what the Sunday open does to a loss limit
Holding over the weekend is permitted with the add-on, but the market does not pause its risk because a rule allows it. Between Friday 5 PM and Sunday 5 PM New York, news accumulates and the price reopens wherever the first buyers and sellers agree, which can be well away from Friday's close. A stop loss placed at Friday's level is filled at the first available price on Sunday, not at the stop.
That gap counts against your limits the moment the market reopens. If a gap puts a position $3,000 underwater and the account's Daily Loss Limit is $4,000, most of Sunday's and Monday's allowance is spent before you have placed a trade. If the gap is larger than the Maximum Loss Limit, which is hard and static on CFD plans, the account is closed, and the add-on that allowed the hold does not change that.
This is the sizing question again, with a different stop. For a weekend hold, the distance to use in the position-size arithmetic is not the technical stop but the gap you could plausibly face. On a major pair that might be 50 to 100 pips after a quiet weekend and far more after an election or a central bank surprise; on gold or an index it can be a few per cent. Size so that a bad gap costs a bad day, not the account.
The add-on changes what the rules do on Friday afternoon. It changes nothing about what the market does on Sunday night.
Futures: flat at 3:55 PM Chicago every day
None of the above applies to futures accounts. On Volumetrica, every open position is closed by the system at 3:55 PM Chicago time, five minutes before the daily close, every session and before the weekend. There is no overnight holding, no weekend holding and no add-on to buy. Positions are opened and closed inside the day, and swaps do not exist on futures in any case; the cost of carry is built into the contract price.
That is one of the clearest differences between the two sides of the business, and CFDs and futures are not the same game covers the others. A trader whose method depends on multi-day holds belongs on a CFD plan with the Weekend Holding add-on. A trader who is always flat by the close loses nothing on futures and has no Friday alarm to set.
Questions traders ask
Can I hold trades over the weekend on a prop firm account? On our CFD plans, yes, with the Weekend Holding add-on, bought with the account for 20% of the fee. Without it, open positions are closed at 4:45 PM New York on Friday: a warning the first time, account closed the second. On futures, no; everything is flattened at 3:55 PM Chicago daily.
Does the Swap-Free add-on let me hold over the weekend? No. It removes the overnight swap charged at 5 PM New York, including the triple swap on Wednesday, and nothing else. Weekend Holding is a separate add-on, and the two can be bought together.
What happens if the market gaps against me on Sunday? The loss is on the account as soon as the market reopens, and it counts against the Daily Loss Limit and the Maximum Loss Limit like any other loss. Size weekend positions against the gap you could face, not against a Friday stop that may not be filled where it was placed. The exact rules are in the trading rules.