Want to know when the Forex market opens? Then, use our unique tool to determine the opening and closing times of the leading Forex trading sessions. With it, you can view the working hours of the world's leading financial markets in your local time.
Forex Market Time Converter
Use our Forex Market Time Converter to determine your current time relative to the four key Forex trading sessions: Sydney, Tokyo, London, and New York.
How does it work?
- Time localization. Our tool automatically detects your time zone and adjusts the time frames accordingly.
- Visualization. A clear and understandable chart shows active and inactive periods for each leading trading session: Sydney, Tokyo, London, and New York.
- Current status. To make timely trading decisions, determine which session is open or closed in real time.
Why do you need this?
- Trading optimization. Market activity varies throughout the day. Knowing the opening and closing times of the sessions allows you to optimize your trading strategy.
- Avoiding "dead" periods. Not all hours are equally helpful for trading. Our tool will help you avoid periods of low volatility.
- Session overlap. The overlap of trading sessions is often accompanied by increased volatility, providing additional trading opportunities.
Our tool will make managing your trading time much simpler and more efficient. Just open it and get all the necessary information in real-time!
Forex Trading Sessions
The Forex market operates around the clock from Monday to Friday, starting at 00:00 GMT on Sunday and closing at 23:00 GMT on Friday.
Forex operating hours are divided into four main trading sessions:
- Pacific session (from 20:00 to 7:00 GMT)
- Asian session (from 1:00 to 10:00 GMT)
- European session (from 7:00 to 17:00 GMT)
- American session (from 14:00 to 23:00 GMT)
Each session has its volatility and liquidity characteristics, providing traders with a wide range of trading opportunities.
Pacific session
The Pacific session operates from 19:00 to 6:00 GMT. It is the least active session, with key financial hubs in Sydney and Wellington. Experienced traders closely monitor this session as it is often when trends that will be relevant throughout the week begin to emerge. Institutions review their strategies after the weekend and cautiously enter the market. Volatility is relatively low, making this session ideal for conservative investors.
Asian session
The Asian session, with financial centers in Tokyo and Hong Kong, operates from 00:00 to 9:00 GMT. Its trading volume is significantly higher than that of the Pacific trading session. Here are the main features of the Asian session:
- Average and high volatility, especially at the beginning of the session.
- Activity is often concentrated at the beginning of the session when economic reports from Japan and other Asian countries are published.
European Session
The European session operates from 6:00 to 16:00 GMT. The financial centers of this session are located in Frankfurt and London, and they are considered the most active and influential. This is often where major trends originate. Key features:
- Huge trading volume and high liquidity.
- Activity decreases in the middle of the session as traders prepare for the opening of the American market.
American Session
The American session operates from 10:00 to 20:00 GMT. The US market is the second in trading volume after the European, with major financial venues in New York and Chicago. Features of the American session:
- High liquidity, especially in the morning when it overlaps with the European session.
- Price volatility increases with the publication of critical economic data from the USA.
Forex Trading Sessions Schedule
The operating hours of trading sessions globally serve as a general guide rather than strictly fixed frames. They are subject to various influences, including the working hours of local organizations and companies.
As of today, the schedule of the main Forex exchange trading sessions is as follows:
Session | Open (GMT) | Close (GMT) | Major Currency Pairs |
Sydney | 21:00 | 06:00 | AUD/USD, EUR/AUD |
Tokyo | 00:00 | 09:00 | USD/JPY, EUR/JPY |
London | 07:00 | 16:00 | GBP/USD, EUR/GBP |
New York | 13:00 | 22:00 | EUR/USD, USD/CAD |
The operating hours of trading sessions can also change due to the transition to daylight saving time in the respective regions. Thus, sessions in Sydney, London, and New York are subject to the influence of daylight saving time, while in Tokyo, it does not apply. The complexity is added because the session in Sydney is in the Southern Hemisphere, and its transition to daylight saving time occurs at the opposite time of year compared to London and New York.
When does the Forex market open and close
The hours of operation on the Forex market are somewhat unusual. Most financial markets open around 8:00 am and close around 6:00 pm.
Forex is open 24 hours a day.
Since the Forex market does not have a central office, it moves from country to country throughout the day. Forex closes only on weekends when most world banks are not operating.
The Forex market opens every Monday at 8:00 am in New Zealand (Auckland).
Then, trading proceeds around the world as follows: Australia (Sydney), Japan (Tokyo), Europe (Frankfurt), the United Kingdom (London), and the USA (New York).
This cycle continues throughout all weekdays until finally, the market closes at 18:00 on Friday in New York. The market is closed on weekends.
ECN account allows trading on the Forex market 24 hours a day, providing a very high level of flexibility.
Why It's Important to Know Forex Market Hours
The Forex market cyclically goes through local markets of different countries every weekday. This means that other countries are more active at different times.
Understanding Forex trading hours is important because trading at different times has characteristics.
Volatility during the day can and will change.
This also means it can sometimes be challenging to understand when the market opens, depending on where you live.
The simplest way to find out when the Forex market opens for your time zone is to use our special Forex trading hours.
They show which markets are currently open or closed and when the market that is currently open will close.
The Benefits of a 24-Hour Market
The ability to trade at any time during the week is undoubtedly one of the best features of the Forex market.
What does this entail?
Imagine you want to engage in intraday trading on the stock market.
Meanwhile, you live on the East Coast of the USA. You wake up at 7 AM to go to work and return home around 6 PM. Therefore, you won't have time for buying and selling stocks.
In the case of the Forex market, you can come home at 6:00 or 10:00 PM – it doesn't matter. You can open the charts at any convenient time and trade calmly.
There's no need to rush with opening or closing trades before the market closes. There are virtually no daily price gaps, which occur on the stock market every day.
You can even trade when banks have weekends off. There will always be some banks open in the same time zone. Transactions will still be processed!
This gives us greater flexibility in terms of timing and enhances the quality of trading because there are no significant time restrictions.
