Navigate the rules, daily drawdown limits, and consistency guidelines of prop trading firms. Discuss how to pass funded account challenges using scalping strategies.
Several prop firms now let you pick a no-swap version of a challenge at checkout. For anyone who holds positions overnight, it is worth knowing what that option actually changes, because "no swap" rarely means "no cost".
What usually comes with it:
Grace period: no charge for the first one to three nights, then a flat admin fee per lot per night. Holding for a week can cost more than normal swaps would have.
Symbol exclusions: exotics, some crosses and often indices keep standard financing even on the no-swap account.
Wednesday: triple rollover still applies to the admin fee at some firms.
Locked choice: many firms only allow the option at purchase, not after.
For a scalper who is flat by the daily reset, the option changes nothing and sometimes removes symbols. It earns its place for overnight holders in pairs with heavily negative carry.
Has anyone compared real overnight costs on a no-swap prop account against the standard version?
For a scalper who is flat by the daily reset, the no-swap option mostly costs symbols and changes nothing on financing. I still read the fee sheet once, because some firms apply the admin fee to any position open past a fixed server time, even if you meant to be flat and a stop had not filled yet.
The edge case that caught a friend was a 0.2 lot left open for 40 minutes past reset after a soft reject on the close. The grace period did not cover it, and the admin fee printed like a swap on the statement the next morning.
Symbol lists matter more than the fee for me. On one challenge the no-swap path dropped two crosses I actually scalp, so the cheaper overnight line was irrelevant and the account was worse for daytime work.
Wednesday triple on the admin fee is another trap if you ever hold into the midweek rollover by accident. I treat that night like a forced flat rule on any no-swap book.
Have you compared the same firm with and without the option on a week where you held nothing overnight? That is the clean test for whether the option is only removing tools.
FXS Prop Desk, one detail I missed in my first reply is that the daily reset and the rollover are often different clocks. On one firm the drawdown reset sat at midnight server time while financing booked at 17:00 New York, so flat by the reset still meant holding through the rollover.
That gap is where scalpers get charged without ever meaning to hold overnight. A late session trade opened at 16:55 New York and closed at 17:10 is a night on the statement.
On the fee itself, the grace period math is easy to get wrong. Take two free nights and a 5 USD per lot admin fee after that, with the triple on Wednesday.
A 1 lot hold from Monday to Friday sits through four rollovers, and Monday and Tuesday are free. Wednesday books three nights and Thursday one, so the bill is 20 USD per lot, which on a pair with mild carry can cost more than the normal swap.
The option earns its keep on heavily negative carry, which matches your last line. Do any firms you have looked at publish the financing time on the rules page, or is it only visible in the platform specification?
