RISK Time Risk · April 2026 · ~4 min
Overnight risk: you sleep, the market doesn't
You close the laptop and sleep; on the far side of the planet the market clocks in. Holding overnight means entrusting your account to the eight hours you cannot see — often uneventful, occasionally everything-changing.
Three overnight risks
- Gaps: stocks and futures close; overnight news settles all at once as a gap — and a stop order can fill far worse than where you set it;
- Swap: FX and CFD positions pay (or earn) overnight interest; over weeks it visibly eats returns;
- Liquidity faults: in Asia's thin dawn, one headline moves price further than it ever would at noon.
Three checks before keeping it
- Any high-tier data or events between tonight and tomorrow morning (US data, central bank speeches, earnings)?
- Stress-test the position at 2–3× the stop distance as a gap — still survivable?
- Is the stop actually resting on the server, not just "in your head"?
Further: crypto has no gaps but has thin weekends — see crypto 7×24; for the longer faults holidays create, see holiday and DST traps.