Markets Trading Hours

One of the advantages of forex trading is the ability to trade 24 hours a day, five days a week. That’s because the markets open on Monday Sydney time and close on Friday New York time.

Daylight Savings Time (DST) is generally applicable in autumn and spring, however it is not equally applicable to all instruments. There will be instruments that apply DST to USA times, with the EU or APAC times, while others may not apply DST at all.

• Forex
• Commodity
• Indices
• Shares

Trading Opportunity

Other forex trading hours to watch out for are the release times of government reports and official economic news. Governments issue timetables for when exactly these news releases take place, but they do not coordinate releases between the different countries.

It is thus worth finding out about the economic indicators published in the different major countries, as these coincide with the most active moments of forex trading. Such increased activity means bigger opportunities in currency prices, and sometimes orders are executed at prices that differ from those you expected.

As trader, you have two main options: either include the news periods in your forex trading hours, or decide to deliberately suspend trading during these periods.

Trading Sessions

For day traders the most productive hours are between the opening of the London markets at 08:00 GMT and the closing of the US markets at 22:00 GMT.The peak time for trading is when the US and London markets overlap between 1 pm GMT – 4 pm GMT.

The main sessions of the day are the London, US and Asian markets.

Holiday and Weekend Execution

Shortly prior to the open, the Trading Desk refreshes rates to reflect current market pricing in preparation for the open. At this time, trades and orders held over the weekend are subject to execution. Quotes during this time are not executable for new market orders. After the open, traders may place new trades, and cancel or modify existing orders.

Please be aware that during the first few hours after trading open, the market tends to be thinner than usual until the Tokyo and London market sessions begin. These thinner markets may result in wider spreads and may increase the likelihood of orders being filled at a different price than the requested price, as there are fewer buyers and sellers. This is largely due to the fact that for the first few hours after the open, it is still the weekend in most of the world.

Trades and orders held over the weekend are subject to execution at the next available market price based on available liquidity. After the open, traders may place new trades, and cancel or modify existing orders.