Forex Market Trading Hours


The Forex market has a huge advantage compared with the other investment markets: it is open 24 hours a day, six days a week. Whereas the commodities and stock market are open five days a week (Monday through Friday) during normal business hours, the Forex market is active around the clock. If you want to trade at 3:00 am EST on Monday morning you can place your trade. If you would like to invest at 8:00 pm on Thursday night you can easily place your trade. But even though the market is a 24-hour market it is necessary to know when the market is actually active and when is the best time to make a trade.

 

Actual operating hours

 

Even though the Forex market is open 24 hours a day each trading center (New York, London, Frankfort, Tokyo, and Australia) has its own operating hours that are usually from 8:00 am - 4:00 pm, local time. That implies when it is 8:00 am (Tokyo time) on Monday morning the Tokyo market will be open for trading even though it is 10:00 pm EST on Sunday night.

 

Overlapping of hours

 

With so many trading centers around the globe you will have times when two or more markets overlap. E.g. the New York and London markets overlap from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm EST while the London and Tokyo markets overlap from 3:00 am to 4:00 am EST. The Sydney and Tokyo markets also overlap from 7:00 pm - 2:00 am EST. These overlapping periods are the best time to trade because the volume - liquidity - is big.

 

Good times to trade

 

Besides the overlapping periods it is best to trade at the following times:

  • During the middle of the week because it shows the most movement.
  • During trading hours of the three largest markets - London, New York and Tokyo.

Times to avoid trading

 

It is best to avoid the following times or days:

  • Sundays because of the limited volume
  • Fridays is unpredictable
  • Holidays because of the limited volume
  • Release of economic reports because of the volatility
  • 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm EST because of the low market volume