Forex Trading Hours – The 24/5 Market
The Foreign Exchange (Forex) trading hours kick off Monday morning in Australia, Sydney, to Friday afternoon in the Big Apple, New York. From Sydney open to New York close, markets open and close at all hours of the day and night around the globe. Commonly referred to as the 24/7 market, which is not complete accurate as it does close down on weekends. It should rather be referred to as the 24/5 market. A lot of new traders struggle to calculate exact market open and close hours due to the time zone difference. There is a simple yet effective way to keep track of these times without getting confused.
Forex Times In GMT
To simplify thing we will be using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). Formerly know as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). In Greenwich London, this is standard ‘winter’ time, which is the point of zero longitude on the globe. The normal Forex market trading hours are from 21:00 Sunday (GMT +0) to 21:00 Friday (GMT +0). This is 9 pm during winter times in the United Kingdom. So now its fairly simple to calculate these times according to your time zone. If you happen to be in Athens/ Europe, which is GMT +3, you simple add 3 hours to 21:00. This means the markets open Sunday night at 00:00 and closes 00:00 Friday night. Fairly simple right?
Taking Daylight Savings In Consideration
When taking summer daylight savings into account things get a little more complicated. This makes for a 1 hour difference in countries that fall under DST. Daylight savings time operate differently in the Southern hemisphere countries such as Australia, which have summer from October – April instead of March – October. Here is a summary to save you the time and effort of calculating between different daylight saving times.
Market Open Times London DST
Sydney: 10 pm to 6 am
Tokyo: 12 midnight to 8 am
London: 8 am to 4 pm
New York: 1 pm to 9 pm
Market Open Times New York DST
Sydney: 5 pm to 1 am
Tokyo: 7 pm to 3 am
London: 3 am to 11 am
New York: 8 am to 4 pm
As you can see there is always a market open 24 hours a day.
Should You Trade 24 Hours A Day
Just because the markets are available for trading 24 hours a day, it does not mean the market will be favorable all the time. If you are planning on making Forex trading your business, trading 24 hours a day will burn you out and cause you to lose interest sooner than you know it. Just after the 4 major markets open, price tends to be volatile and unpredictable for the average uneducated trader. Many traders will sit the first 1 -2 hours out until markets calm down. They will repeat this step for each individual market open. Big newbie mistake in my opinion!
The first 1 – 2 hours can be a great time to be on the lookout for possible Stop Hunts and reversal trades. This allows you to enter valid A + setups within the first 2 hours of a market open, allowing you some free time the rest of the day. Something every trader needs! The majority of traders around the globe trade the UK and NY markets. Asia is what we like to call the consolidation period, and a great marker to use for determining direction for the rest of the day.
The USD is by far the most trader currency pair, involved in 2.5 times as many trades as its closest rival, the euro. Events in the US have a much greater impact on financial markets compared to events in the rest of the world.
The Final Word
In theory one can trade the Forex market 24 hours a day from Sunday to Friday. This is not recommend and most likely not humanly possible. Some traders make use of Automated software in the form of EA’s and robots, thinking more trading is more profits. In Forex trading is should always be quality above quantity! Trading 2 – 6 hours a day can generate you more profits than spending endless hours in front of the charts. Be a smart trader and use your time wisely.
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