Spot Date

The spot date on currency exchange markets is two working days after the actual deal. It takes two days to process all necessary documents and carry out all transactions, keeping in mind that usually the countries whose currencies take part in the deal belong to different time zones and payments need to be synchronized. The spot date cannot be Saturday, Sunday or an official holiday for any of the two countries. In such cases, the spot date is the next working day.
There is an option for the deal to be negotiated with a value date prior to the spot date, for example the same day as the date of the deal or the next day. In the first case, the value date is today’s date and in the second it is tomorrow’s date. In these two cases, the exchange rate is different from the exchange rate on the spot date. The difference arises because of the interest rate differential.