If you hold a spot commodity or VIX position overnight, you may see a Premium Adjustment line on your account report. This page explains what it is, why it exists, and why it does not change the value of your account.
In short: the Daily Premium Adjustment is not a fee or a charge – it’s a neutral adjustment. Each trading day, our price moves slightly because of how we build it from futures contracts, and the DPA cancels out that move with an equal cash entry.
Why is this adjustment needed?
Spot commodities such as oil and natural gas don't have one central, continuously traded spot price of their own. In financial markets, they trade mainly through futures contracts, each with an expiry date.
We build our spot price from the two nearest futures contracts. This gives you a price that never expires, so you can hold a position as long as you like without an expiry date closing it. The VIX index is priced the same way.
How our spot price works
- The purple and pink lines are the market prices of the underlying futures. Purple is the contract expiring sooner (A). Pink is the next contract (B). Both move with the market every day.
- The green line is our spot price, a mix of A and B.
- The mix shifts a little each day. It starts at 100% A, then uses a bit less A and a bit more B each day until, when A expires, it is 100% B. The grey line shows how much A is left in the mix.
- The green line therefore starts on the purple line and finishes on the pink line.
- Then the cycle repeats. B becomes the new A, and the next month becomes the new B. For example, if A = March and B = April, once March expires, A = April and B = May.
Because of this, our spot price moves slightly each day for a reason unrelated to market trading. The DPA cancels out that movement.
How the DPA keeps your account neutral
The DPA neutralises this artificial price movement so it has no net impact on your trading result.
Each trading day at market close, two things happen at once:
- Price adjustment: our price shifts closer to the next futures contract, changing your open position's unrealised P&L.
- Balance offset: we apply an equal and opposite cash adjustment to your account balance.
| When the adjustment moves the price | If you are long (buy) | If you are short (sell) |
|---|---|---|
| Up (usually when B is higher than A) | Your position gains, so we debit the DPA | Your position loses, so we credit the DPA |
| Down (usually when B is lower than A) | Your position loses, so we credit the DPA | Your position gains, so we debit the DPA |
So you may pay or receive the DPA, depending on your trade’s direction and that day’s futures settlement prices. Apart from trading costs, such as the spread and the overnight fee, only genuine market movement affects your result.
Example: Crude Oil Spot, 10 September 2026
At the daily adjustment on 10 September 2026, the Crude Oil Spot price moved down by 0.778 because of the adjustment, not because of market trading.
| Position (10 contracts) | Price effect of the adjustment | DPA on your account | Net effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long | −7.78 USD | +7.78 USD (credit) | 0 |
| Short | +7.78 USD | −7.78 USD (debit) | 0 |
If your account is not in USD, we convert the DPA to your account currency. If the market then moves against your position, that is a normal trading loss, not a result of the DPA.
Why we can't tell you the exact adjustment in advance
The adjustment depends on the official settlement prices of the two futures contracts at the end of the trading day. We only receive these once the market settles, so we don’t know the exact figure until there are the settlement prices.
When the adjustment happens
- The DPA is applied once each trading day, at a time that varies by instrument. You can find it in ’Market info’ for each instrument.
- The roll window counts calendar days, including weekends. As there is no adjustment on Saturday or Sunday, Friday's adjustment covers three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday).
- The adjustment’s size changes daily. It depends on the gap between A and B, and how the two futures prices move with the market. The bigger the gap between A and B, the bigger the daily adjustment.
Other costs of holding a position overnight
The DPA is separate from the overnight fee, which applies to both long and short positions. They appear as separate lines on your account report.
You can check each instrument’s overnight fee in ‘Market Info’. The fee is set per instrument and does not depend on the DPA.
Important: stop-loss and take-profit orders are not adjusted
We do not move stop-loss and take-profit levels for the daily adjustment. If the adjustment moves the price to your order level, the order will be triggered. If you use tight stop-loss or take-profit levels, please take this into account around the time of the daily adjustment.
Prefer to trade without the daily adjustment?
We also offer commodity futures and forwards, which have no daily premium adjustment. Instead, they have a fixed expiry date, clearly shown on the platform.
VIX index
The VIX measures expected volatility in the S&P 500 over the next 30 days. It is calculated from S&P 500 options prices, so it cannot be traded directly. We price it using the same futures-based method as spot commodities:
- It uses the two nearest VIX futures contracts.
- The price moves gradually from one to the other as expiry approaches.
- The same holding costs apply: the overnight fee and the DPA.
Spot commodities without a separate DPA
These spot commodities use a different pricing method and do not show a separate Premium Adjustment line:
- Precious metals: Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium
- LME metals: Aluminium Spot, Copper UK, Lead, Nickel, Zinc
- Iron Ore Spot
For those who want the maths
Each trading day we calculate a premium: the part of our spot price that comes from the roll.
Premium = (B − A) × (days elapsed in the roll window ÷ total days in the window)
Daily Premium Adjustment = today's premium − previous premium
DPA on your account = Daily Premium Adjustment × your position size
(long positions receive the opposite sign; short positions receive the same sign)
Example using Crude Oil Spot, 10 September 2026:
Premium (10 Sep) = (98.40 − 102.48) × (25/33) = −3.09091
Premium (09 Sep) = (92.87 − 96.05) × (24/33) = −2.31273
Daily Premium Adjustment = −3.09091 − (−2.31273) = −0.778182