Trading Hours
When you can Trade
Forex Market Trading Hours
The forex market is open 24 hours a day from 5pm Sunday to 4pm Friday, due to differing time zones throughout the world. This offers many trading opportunities; however, certain periods of the day have higher volatility, such as the 8am to noon crossover of the New York and London exchanges.
Tokyo Session (Asian Session)
During the autumn and winter months, the Tokyo session opens at 12am and closes at 9am UK time. It is one of the largest forex trading centres worldwide, with roughly a fifth of all forex transactions occurring during this session. During the Asian session, there’s likely to be more movement in currency pairs containing the yen, as well as Asia Pacific currency pairs, like AUD/USD.
London Session
The London forex market opening hours start at 8am UK time and accounts for roughly 35% of all forex transactions (estimated £2.1 trillion daily). Due to the large volume of trading during the London session, there are likely to be lower forex spreads as liquidity is higher. However, the London session is also subject to high volatility, often making it the best to trade the major currency pairs, which offer reduced spreads due to the high volume of trades. This session closes at 4pm.
Sydney Session
The Sydney forex market hours are from 8pm to 5am UK time, completing the 24-hour forex trading loop.
