Forex Trading Hours

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Forex Market
Hours

One of the unique features of the foreign exchange market is that it is accessible 24 hours a day. What makes this possible is an overlap in the trading times of the major sessions. By the time one major market closes, another market opens. There are 4 major Forex trading sessions:

  • Sydney
    Session

    3pm–12am

    (EST)

  • TOKYO
    Session

    7pm–4am

    (EST)

  • LONDON
    Session

    3am–11am

    (EST)

  • NEW YORK
    Session

    8am–5pm

    (EST)

All time are listed in Eastern Standard Time (EST) as per New York time for uniformity. Traders should note that countries such as United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand all observe daylight saving time. Be sure to make note of the impact of such on the local time in your relevant time zone.

Forex Liquidity
and Volatility

This slight delay and small breaks in the day have been implemented to help prevent the widening of spreads during this times when liquidity providers go offline. The liquidity of particular currency pairs is also dependant on the time of the day. This is due to the fact that trading volume plays a pivotal role in the liquidity of currency markets.

For instance, the EUR/USD pair will experience high trading volume and liquidity during the confluence of the London and New York sessions, that is, when the two sessions overlap. This is the point in time when the highest number of traders in the United States and Europe are online.

Similarly, the ideal time to trade the New Zealand dollar against the Hong Kong dollar or Singapore dollar would be when the Tokyo and Sydney sessions and both open. Not only will New Zealand and Asian traders be most active during this period, it is also the time when critical economic data for these regions is released. As a result, this is the best time to conduct both fundamental and technical analysis to avoid high risk trading scenarios and identify trading opportunities.

The best time to trade the US dollar is when the North American session is busiest, the New Zealand dollar during the Sydney Session and so forth. Helix Access is a forex broker that caters for forex traders of all skill levels.