The Best Trading Hours in the Forex Market

Forex and CFDs are highly leveraged products, which means both gains and losses are magnified. You should only trade in these products if you fully understand the risks involved and can afford to incur losses that will not adversely affect your lifestyle. Blueberry Markets is an authorised representative of ACY Capital Australia LLC (‘ACY LLC’), incorporated and approved by Financial Services Authority, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (2610 LLC 2022). The information on this website is intended for non Australian citizens and residents only. Please note, Australian residents cannot open an account with ACY Capital Australia LLC. Traders can trade at any hour based on their time zone and currency pairs they intend to trade.

Major economic centers in Europe and the US aren’t at work for the majority of the Tokyo session, which contributes to the lower trading volumes experienced. Other than the weekends, there are just two public holidays when the entire forex market is closed, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Before looking at the best times to trade, we must look at what a 24-hour day in the forex world looks like. Overall, around 20% of all forex trading volume takes place during the Asian session. Unlike equity or bond markets, the Forex market is necessary for around-the-clock trading. Imagine companies, governments, and even individuals having to wait for the Forex market to open for business.

#3 NZD/USD

We’re also a community of traders that support each other on our daily trading journey. This shouldn’t be too surprising since the yen is the third most traded currency, partaking in 16.8% of all forex transactions. The Forex market is decentralized, lacking a specific exchange or exchanges, taking place over the counter (OTC).

However, it is the normal working hours in that part of the world, so they operate according to their schedules. The absence of key economic hubs in Europe and the US for the most of the Tokyo session is a factor in the low trading volumes observed. It is our organization’s primary mission to provide reviews, commentary, and analysis that are unbiased and objective.

New York Session (13:00-21:00 GMT)

For example, the GBP/USD and EUR/USD pairs are the most active during the New York and London session overlap, showing high liquidity and volatility. This is why traders should find favourable movement in currencies at any time as compared to other sessions. The Sydney session is the first of the four Forex trading sessions and the most appealing aspect of this session is its opening and closing time. While there may be opportunities to trade fundamentals or for the longer-term during the overlaps, should price action be favorable, the volatility could lead to a trade execution at a less desirable strike price. Other than the weekends, there are just a number of public on which all of the forex markets are closed, these being 25th December and 1st January.

Traders who focus on the Sydney session should monitor economic data releases from Australia and New Zealand, as they can impact the value of the AUD and NZD. Kyle Townsend is the founder of Forex Broker Report, an experienced forex trader and an advocate for funding options for retail forex traders. In short, during the Asian forex session you’ll want to focus on pairs like USDJPY, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, GBPJPY. The two most common strategies in the Tokyo forex session involve breakouts and range trading. Levels of support and resistance assist traders with opportunities to enter or exit trades. Combining this with signals from indicators further increase the probability of entering a good trade.

How to choose the most suitable session for each forex pair

You can trade Forex at midnight, but many brokers suspend new trade entry or exit order for a few minutes at the New York close to perform accounting for overnight swap rates on open positions. But as the vast majority (80%) of currency trading occurs on the North American and European markets, night trading typically refers to the Asian currency markets. Milan Cutkovic has over eight years of experience in trading and market analysis across forex, indices, commodities, and stocks. He was one of the first traders accepted into the Axi Select program which identifies highly talented traders and assists them with professional development. This can lead to long-lasting trends but perhaps even more importantly to a sudden collapse in the exchange rate when the investment climate changes and carry traders unwind their positions all at once. This overlapping period can be a lot more active than the Sydney session alone since important financial centers such as Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong are all open at the same time.

AxiTrader Limited is a member of The Financial Commission, an international organization engaged in the resolution of disputes within the financial services industry in the Forex market. As there are multiple trading tokyo session forex pairs strategies and trading styles, identifying when markets open is a crucial step in organising your trading plan. You can stay up to date with the forex economic calendar to be aware of global economic announcements.

North American Forex Session (New York)

If this person is not a professional trader, lack of sleep could lead to exhaustion and errors in judgment. An alternative may be trading during the hours that comprise the European/U.S. Session overlap, where volatility is still elevated, even though Japanese markets are offline.