The position of the fixed-rate receiver (who is also the floating-rate payer) on an interest rate swap. In a plain vanilla swap, the short side trades a series of floating interest payments for a series of fixed interest payments. The size of the payments is determined by the underlying interest rate times a notional principal amount

The net amount of the positive and negative cash flows is the amount that changes hands in each resetting period. Therefore, if the fixed rate is lower than the floating rate in a given period, the short side makes a payment to the long side.