Forex Trading Hours is a more complex issue than one might imagine. Officially, the foreign exchange market is open
24 hours a day, 5 days a week. It's possible to trade "round the clock," non-stop, excluding weekends. However, those who practice Forex trading know that, in reality, there are more specific trading hours, and that, in fact, it's not advisable to trade during certain times: it's as if the market is closed or inactive.
What are the Forex Trading hours? They are highly variable and depend on the currency pair being traded. Generally, they follow the hours of the world's stock exchanges. When the "markets" are closed, liquidity dwindles, making it truly disadvantageous to trade. The reason? The flow of information and events that, in one way or another, affect the foreign exchange market and represent its raison d'être, diminishes.
The Forex Market Hours Clock
Not everyone can remember the opening and closing times of international markets by heart. For some, whether they remember them or not is irrelevant. This refers to those who travel often and, therefore, experience
time zone changes. It's obvious: when the time zone changes, the opening and closing times of each market also change.
Oanda, a well-known broker, has created a small software that can be used on a browser to address the need to know market hours in any part of the world. It's the
Forex Market Hours Clock. It appears as a small chart: the x-axis shows the time, while the y-axis positions the various markets. You enter the time zone, and the chart changes accordingly, visually illustrating when each market begins and ends. You can find the Forex Market Hours Clock at
this address.
Market Opening and Closing Times
Regardless of this useful software, it's good to know the market opening times based on your "default" time zone (your home time zone, so to speak). Here's a brief review, using the Italian time zone,
GMT + 01:00, as a reference.
Sydney. The Australian market is the smallest in terms of trading volume, but it's also the one that opens the day, at least from a European perspective. It opens at 11 PM and closes at 8 AM. Traders don't like to "enter" during this time slot as liquidity is scarce, and prices can therefore be quite variable.
Tokyo. It's the second "earliest" market. It opens at 1 AM and closes at 10 AM. It's a very important market, not only because it's fairly liquid but especially because it sets the tone for the day, offering a preview of the direction that London and New York will take. It's the first market, in fact, to discount the effects of the most important events, such as the American elections (the results of which are published overnight). Forex traders don't often enter during this time slot, but they occasionally use it to guide the following day's trades. It's a different story if the traded pairs include those containing the yen.
London. It's open from 9 AM to 6 PM. It's among the main markets, so trading really gets underway during its time slot. The trading volume has an initial peak coinciding with the closing of Tokyo, and a second peak in the middle, when New York opens.
New York. It's the most important market by far. It opens at 2 PM and closes at 11 PM. During this time slot, there is the maximum peak in trading, specifically in the half-hour preceding the opening of the Sydney stock exchange. Traders' activity becomes frantic; those who can close positions do so, if only to avoid the overnight.
