When Can You Trade Forex: Forex Trading Sessions
Now that you know what forex
is, why you should trade it, and who makes
up the forex market, it’s about time you learned when you
can trade.
It’s time to learn about the different forex trading sessions.
Yes, it is true that the forex market is open 24 hours a day,
but that doesn’t mean it’s always active the whole day.
You can make money trading when the market moves up, and you can
even make money when the market moves down.
BUT you will have a
very difficult time trying to make money when the market doesn’t move at all.
And believe us, there will be times when the market is as still
as the victims of Medusa. This lesson will help determine when the best times
of the day are to trade.
Forex Market Hours
Before looking at the best times to trade, we must look at what
a 24-hour day in the forex world looks like.
The forex market can be broken up into four major trading
sessions: the Sydney session, the Tokyo session, the London session, and
Pipcrawler’s favorite time to trade, the New York session. Below are tables of
the open and close times for each session:
Summer (approx. April – October)
|
Time Zone
|
EDT
|
GMT
|
|
Sydney Open
Sydney Close
|
6:00 PM
3:00 AM
|
10:00 PM
7:00 AM
|
|
Tokyo Open
Tokyo Close
|
7:00 PM
4:00 AM
|
11:00 PM
8:00 AM
|
|
London Open
London Close
|
3:00 AM
12:00 PM
|
7:00 AM
4:00 PM
|
|
New York Open
New York Close
|
8:00 AM
5:00 PM
|
12:00 PM
9:00 PM
|
Winter (approx. October – April)
|
Time Zone
|
EST
|
GMT
|
|
Sydney Open
Sydney Close
|
4:00 PM
1:00 AM
|
9:00 PM
6:00 AM
|
|
Tokyo Open
Tokyo Close
|
6:00 PM
3:00 AM
|
11:00 PM
8:00 AM
|
|
London Open
London Close
|
3:00 AM
12:00 PM
|
8:00 AM
5:00 PM
|
|
New York Open
New York Close
|
8:00 AM
5:00 PM
|
1:00 PM
10:00 PM
|
Actual open and close times are based on local business hours.
This varies during the months of October and April as some countries shift
to/from daylight savings time (DST). The day within each month that a country
may shift to/from DST also varies.
You can see that in between each forex trading session, there is
a period of time where two sessions are open at the same time. During the
summer, from 3:00-4:00 am EDT, the Tokyo
session and London
session overlap, and during both summer and winter from 8:00
am-12:00 pm ET, the London session and the New
York session session overlap.
Naturally, these are the busiest times during the trading day
because there is more volume when two markets are open at the same time. This
makes sense because during those times, all the market participants are
wheelin’ and dealin’, which means that more money is transferring hands.
Now, you’re probably looking at the Sydney open and thinking why
it shifts two hours. You’d think that Sydney’s open would only move one hour
when the U.S. adjusts for standard time, but remember that when the U.S. shifts
one hour back, Sydney actually moves forward by one hour (seasons are opposite
in Australia). You should always remember this if you ever
plan to trade during that time period.
Let’s take a look at the average pip movement of the major
currency pairs during each forex trading session.
|
Pair
|
Tokyo
|
London
|
New York
|
|
EUR/USD
|
76
|
114
|
92
|
|
GBP/USD
|
92
|
127
|
99
|
|
USD/JPY
|
51
|
66
|
59
|
|
AUD/USD
|
77
|
83
|
81
|
|
NZD/USD
|
62
|
72
|
70
|
|
USD/CAD
|
57
|
96
|
96
|
|
USD/CHF
|
67
|
102
|
83
|
|
EUR/JPY
|
102
|
129
|
107
|
|
GBP/JPY
|
118
|
151
|
132
|
|
AUD/JPY
|
98
|
107
|
103
|
|
EUR/GBP
|
78
|
61
|
47
|
|
EUR/CHF
|
79
|
109
|
84
|
From the table, you will see that the European session normally
provides the most movement.
Let’s take a more in-depth look at each of the session, as well
as those periods when the sessions overlap.
#Forextrading #Forex #Tradewithus
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