Perpetual CFDs explained: how they work around events

Perpetual CFDs are contracts for difference with no expiry date. You can trade them 24/7, hold them as long as your margin supports, and you pay a daily funding rate set one week in advance, rather than a rollover rate.

Keep reading to find out how perpetual CFDs work around a dated event, such as the US midterms, find out more about how funding is calculated, and learn about the risks to weigh up first. For more on the vote, visit our US midterms 2026 hub.

A perpetual CFD tracks the price of a perpetual futures market, which is a contract built to run indefinitely, with no settlement date. As with any CFD, you can go long or short with leverage, and you don’t own the underlying asset. However, unlike traditional CFDs, you can trade them 24/7 – weekends and public holidays included. If you’d like to find out more, our perpetual CFD basics guide covers the background in more depth.

How do perpetual CFDs work?

Pepperstone perpetual CFDs have three defining features. Firstly – there’s no expiry date, so there’s nothing to roll. Secondly, they’re priced 24/7 – including weekends and public holidays. And finally – instead of an overnight swap, you pay or receive funding: set weekly in advance and applied as daily entries at 5pm New York time.

Do perpetual CFDs have an expiry date?

Perpetual CFDs stays open until you close them or your margin can no longer support them. Therefore, they have no expiry date. This matters most around dated events, because many products traders use for index exposure do expire.

A futures contract, or a CFD based on one, has a fixed end date. The December quarterly contracts on major US index futures expire on 18 December 2026. To keep your exposure, you’d close the expiring contract and open the next one – a roll. Each roll means paying a spread or commission again, and the next contract is priced differently, mainly because of interest rates and expected dividends.

Timing matters too. When an event and an expiry fall close together, you may face a roll decision while prices are still reacting. A perpetual CFD takes the contract date out of that decision. Standard cash CFDs don’t expire either; the differences there are trading hours and how holding costs work.

How does funding work on perpetual CFDs?

Funding keeps a perpetual’s price in line with the market it references. Perpetual futures venues usually charge it several times a day. Pepperstone converts it into one weekly rate, published in advance and applied as daily entries. When funding is positive, longs pay and shorts receive; when it’s negative, that reverses. There’s no broker mark-up on the rate.

Worked example: one week of funding (hypothetical figures)

Say you hold a long perpetual CFD on a US index, with a position value of $35,000, through election week. These figures are for illustration only.

If next week’s rate is 0.06%, your daily entry falls to $3 ($21 for the week), assuming an unchanged position value. A short position of the same size would receive these amounts. Funding is separate from the spread, any commission and your profit or loss on price movements.

Is it cheaper to hold a perpetual CFD or roll a futures contract?

There’s no single answer: it depends on the market, your direction, how long you hold and conditions at the time. With futures, the cost of carry sits in the price gap between contracts, driven mainly by interest rates and expected dividends, plus the spread or commission on each roll. With a perpetual CFD, the main driver is funding, which can be positive or negative and changes weekly. Comparing the published funding rate with roll costs over your expected holding period gives a like-for-like view.

Which markets are available as perpetual CFDs?

Pepperstone’s perpetual CFD range covers US indices (the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500), commodities (gold, silver, WTI and Brent crude oil) and individual shares including SpaceX, Nvidia and Tesla. It also includes synthetic markets that track the valuation of private companies, which give you no claim on any equity. You’ll find the full, current list on our perpetual CFDs page.

Perpetual CFDs are available on MT5, TradingView, cTrader and the Pepperstone platform. Symbols end in ‘-PERP’ on MT5, cTrader and the Pepperstone platform, and ‘.P’ on TradingView. The range, leverage and availability vary by region and Pepperstone entity.

Find out more

Scheduled events share a pattern: the timing is known, the outcome isn’t – and prices can move sharply as information arrives. Three features of the midterms calendar show how perpetual CFDs fit in. For the market backdrop, read our [companion midterms article].

1. Results arrive after the US cash close

On 3 November, the US stock market closes at 4pm Eastern Time (ET), or 9pm UK time. The first polls close at 6pm ET, and the largest wave at 8pm ET – 1am UK time on Wednesday.¹ So most early results land while US cash markets are shut. Many index CFDs keep trading overnight on futures hours, but liquidity is usually thinner. Perpetual CFDs are priced throughout.

2. 24/7 pricing and weekend gaps

Some races can take days to call, particularly where large numbers of mailed ballots are counted. So news can land on Saturday 7 or Sunday 8 November, when most markets are closed. A perpetual CFD is priced through the weekend, so its price can respond as news arrives.

But a 24/7 price doesn’t prevent gaps. Weekend liquidity is often thin, spreads can widen and prices can jump past your stop-loss. When the underlying market reopens on Monday, a perpetual CFD and a standard CFD on the same market can be priced differently.

3. Funding is published weekly in advance

Pepperstone publishes each perpetual CFD’s funding rate at the start of the week and applies it as seven daily entries, at 5pm New York time. So if you hold through election week, you’ll know that week’s rate before it starts. However, it can change the following week, as it’s derived from funding on the underlying perpetual market.

Perpetual CFDs change how a contract handles time, not the price risk of a scheduled event. Before you hold a position around one, weigh up:

• Gaps through stops: a 24/7 price doesn’t prevent gaps, and a stop-loss can be filled at a worse price than the one you set.
• Thin weekend liquidity: fewer participants trade at weekends, so spreads can widen and prices can move further on less activity.
• Leverage: it magnifies losses as well as gains, and losses can build quickly when prices move sharply.
• Margin close-out: if your margin falls below the required level, positions can be closed automatically – including overnight or at the weekend.
• Weekly funding changes: the rate is fixed one week at a time, not for as long as you hold, and funding adds up on longer holds.
• No ownership: you don’t own the underlying asset, and a perpetual CFD’s price can differ from the underlying market, particularly when that market is closed.

Perpetual CFDs remain complex, high-risk leveraged products and may not be suitable for all clients.

On 29 May 2026, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved a bitcoin perpetual futures contract on a US-regulated exchange – widely reported as the first of its kind.² Alongside it, the CFTC published a policy statement on how it will review perpetual contracts for other asset classes, case by case.

It’s a sign that perpetual structures are moving from crypto venues into regulated markets. It doesn’t change how Pepperstone perpetual CFDs work, and Pepperstone perpetual CFDs aren’t available to US residents.

What is the difference between tradfi perpetuals and CFDs? Tradfi perpetuals are perpetual futures on traditional assets such as gold, indices or shares, traded directly on an exchange, often with funding several times a day. A CFD is a contract with your provider. A perpetual CFD tracks a perpetual market but keeps the account, margin and platforms of any other CFD.

The main difference between a perpetual CFD and a standard CFD is what each tracks and how holding costs work. A standard CFD follows a spot or cash market during its hours, with an overnight swap based on interest rates. A perpetual CFD follows a perpetual market around the clock and uses funding. Unlike many native perpetual venues, there’s no auto-deleveraging – standard margin-call and stop-out rules apply.