What is weekend holding?
Weekend holding means keeping a position open through the weekly market close. Allowed by most forex firms, it is very often forbidden on the futures segment.
It is the constraint most likely to rule out a swing trading approach, and it is usually discovered too late.
The rule by segment
On forex, most firms allow it, sometimes through dedicated swing programmes with reduced leverage in exchange.
On futures, the ban is the norm: every position must be closed before the weekly close, on pain of automatic liquidation or a penalty.
Why firms restrict it
The reason is gap risk. Between Friday’s close and Sunday evening’s reopening, information keeps circulating — political decisions, geopolitical events, corporate results.
At the reopening the price can sit far from the last quote, with no trade having occurred in between. No stop-loss protects against that: it becomes a market order filled at the first available price.
For a firm hedging its traders’ positions, that risk is directly its own.
What it means for you
If weekend holding is allowed, size your positions accordingly: they must absorb an adverse opening gap without breaching your drawdown floor. The size that felt right on Thursday is rarely the size to carry into Monday.
If it is forbidden, check how the rule is enforced. Some firms simply close the positions for you; others treat the oversight as a rule violation, with the corresponding consequences for the account or for a pending payout.
Either way, an alarm on Friday afternoon costs less than a lost account.
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Related terms
- Breach A breach is the violation of a risk rule that triggers a sanction on the account. Depending on the firm and the rule involved, it suspends the trading day, cancels a payout, or closes the account for good.
- Overnight position An overnight position is held beyond the session close. Allowed by most forex firms, it is frequently prohibited on the futures segment, where intraday trading is the norm.
- Slippage Slippage is the gap between the price requested and the price actually obtained on execution. On a prop firm account it depends on the company's infrastructure, and can trigger a drawdown breach.
- Swing trading Swing trading holds positions for several days or weeks. On a prop firm account it requires overnight and weekend holding to be allowed, and it sits badly with an intraday trailing drawdown.