The liquidity is usually low during the Asian session. Most currency pairs trade in narrow ranges preparing for stronger movements in the subsequent trading hours. The Asian stock exchanges often set the trend for the rest of a trading day. The market is moderately volatile so that any trading style can be applied here.

Given the unhurried pace of the price movements, traders act similar to hunters. They have to wait long and patiently for their prey, but a fine shot can bring decent profits.

The European trading session is the most lively and eventful one. The trade volumes here are large, so the trading activity is heightened. Mostly, sustainable trends on the market are formed during the European session. Traders need to bear in mind this fact. Besides, false signals are frequent in this period, as the European dealers test the market, try to find the congestion of stop orders, and spot support and resistance levels. The beginning of the session is usually calm, and the price movements speed up at the opening of the London Stock Exchange.

The peak of activity is usually seen in early and late hours, while in the afternoon, traders take a short break. The price trends usually change at the end of the session.

Experienced traders like the European session as it can provide ample opportunities for reaping hefty profits. An ability to analyze a large amount of information and define the market tendencies promptly can yield generous gains. An outburst of trading activity is usually witnessed during the American trading session, involving huge sums and captivating the attention of millions of traders around the world.

It is the most aggressive, unpredictable, and potentially profitable trading session. Market participants largely focus on the release of the news that often causes mixed and chaotic currency movements. The price trends that are formed in the European session can either continue or reverse during the American session.

Geographically, the American session covers not only the United States but also in Canada and Brazil. Traders pay special attention to USD and CAD currency pairs. Besides, JPY pairs also become highly volatile in this period. There is one more essential aspect. It is no secret that the European banks are as influential as the American banks, so the first ones partially offset the importance of the latter. Imagine that a deal was made last week between Mitsubishi in Japan and a car dealer in Australia who wants to import units of Mitsubishi's latest Sports Utility Vehicles SUVs.

According to the contract between two parties, the Australian car importer would settle the invoice amount on the first hour of Monday. As soon as the banks open in Tokyo, the Australian importer will need to convert its Australian Dollars to Japanese Yen in order to pay for the cars to the Japanese car manufacturer.

As the payment for cars would a substantial amount, the demand for the Japanese Yen will suddenly go up early on Monday morning, which will turn the Yen bullish. This is just a simple example, but this is the reason why often prices start to move, and trends are created. The point of this illustration is to make a point that when Japanese and Australian banks are open to conducting international transactions, there is a high probability that the respective currencies, such as the Australian Dollar and the Japanese Yen, will experience increased trading volume.

Consequently, the prices of these currencies will fluctuate more compared to outside of the banking hours. Theoretically, it is true that there is no central exchange in the Forex market, and anyone can buy and sell currencies any time of the day or any day of the week. Nonetheless, to trade a Forex pair, you need a counterparty. To buy something you need someone else to sell you want you are trying to buy and vice versa.

This is why in practice; you should spend your active trading hours when there are ample buyers and sellers in the market. Even if some brokers allow trading during the weekends, the prices of various currency pairs hardly move on Saturday and Sunday.

If you are a short-term day trader, who opens and closes trades within a day, trading outside banking hours in major financial centers around the world will also feel like you are trading during the weekend.

Because if major financial institutions and professional traders are not placing huge orders that move the market, there is no reason for the solid trends to take place. Hence, the concept of Forex Market Hours derives from the notion that when major financial markets are open in a given time zone, the volume and liquidity in the market remains high, which in turn reduces the difference between the bid and ask prices and helps traders to fill their orders relatively easily without incurring slippage.

After all, as a retail Forex trader with limited capital, you will not be in a position to move the market. You will solely rely on larger players like banks and institutional investors to create the trends and hopefully catch a few to turn a profit. This is why short-term retail Forex traders should trade only during active banking hours and avoid looking for trading opportunities when the forex market hours clock stops ticking.

Technically speaking, if you exchange U. Dollars to get some British Pound for pocket money at an Airport Foreign Exchange Kiosk after arriving in London, in the middle of the night, it would be also considered as a foreign exchange trade. However, as you can guess by now, large billion-dollar, cross-border, transactions do not happen at 3 a. at the parking lot of the Heathrow Airport. These market-moving transactions happen among large banks during their respective banking hours.

Moreover, not all branches of a certain big bank will do these large-scale cross-border transactions. For example, a small branch of the Bank of America in Louisville, Kentucky. However, its downtown Manhattan branch in New York will certainly engage in large-scale foreign exchange deals. Similarly, a branch of the Swiss multinational investment bank, UBS Group AG, in Bangkok will have a lower transaction volume in the Forex market compared to its branch located in a major Asian financial hub like Singapore.

Hence, banking hours in the time zone of major financial centers like Tokyo in Japan, Singapore City in Singapore, Frankfurt in Germany, London in the United Kingdom, and New York in the United States generate the bulk of the trading volume in the Forex market.

Therefore, liquidity and volatility are usually higher when markets are open in these time zones. Besides banks engaged in commercial cross-border currency transactions, institutional investors and hedge funds speculating in the international stock exchanges also generate a high volume of foreign exchange transactions.

Hedge funds with international exposure often buy and sell a large number of stocks across the globe to diversify their portfolios. Coincidentally, some of the major forex exchange hubs also host the major stock exchanges. For example, the NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange are located in, you guessed it right, in New York; The London Stock Exchange is located in London, and the Tokyo Shoken Torihikijo is based in Tokyo.

So, cross-border investments that require moving funds from one end of the globe to another generally contributes to a higher level of trading volume in the global foreign exchange market.

Furthermore, when banks and stock exchanges in more than one major financial centers are open simultaneously, the trading volume and liquidity go up substantially. This is why the beginning of the New York trading session has usually generated the bulk of the trading opportunities for short-term traders because it opens when the London trading session is also open across the Atlantic. Hence, if you overlay the trading volatility in a forex market hours chart, you can see that it spikes up when trading begins in the financial center located next in the time zone.

And so Overlapping hours of the London trading session and the New York trading session is the best time to trade forex, since the market is most active. If you are a swing trader or a trend trader who likes to keep positions open overnight or several days at a time, then paying attention to the forex market hours chart in figure 2 may not be that important. However, most Forex traders are day traders and different trading sessions based on the time zone and geographic location of the financial centers around the world will have a substantial impact on the bottom line.

While the actual trading strategy you have may not change, knowing when to trade can certainly help you stop wasting time looking for trades when are no trading opportunities in the market. Furthermore, success in Forex trading in highly depends on timing, as trends can often reverse and wipe out the profits in your open trades.

Knowing when to enter and exit the market based on active Forex market hour can have an immensely positive impact on your profitability and aid in building the confidence you need to succeed in this agile market environment. Forex Market Time Converter. Time and date: PM November GMT. Refresh page every minutes set refresh to 0 to turn off refresh. The Forex Market Hours Converter assumes local "wall clock" trading hours of AM - PM in each Forex market.

Holidays not included. Not intended for use as an accurate time source. Please send questions, comments, or suggestions to webmaster timezoneconverter. The forex market is available for trading 24 hours a day, five and one-half days per week.

The Forex Market Time Converter displays "Open" or "Closed" in the Status column to indicate the current state of each global Market Center.

However, just because you can trade the market any time of the day or night doesn't necessarily mean that you should.

Use the Forex Market Time Converter , below, to view the major market open and close times in your own local time zone. The foreign exchange "forex" or "FX" currency market is not traded on a regulated exchange like stocks and commodities.

Rather, the market consists of a network of financial institutions and retail trading brokers which each have their own individual hours of operation. Since most participants trade between the hours of a. and p. in their local time zone, these times are used as the market open and close times, respectively. Forex Market Time Converter. Refresh page every minutes set refresh to 0 to turn off refresh.

The Forex Market Hours Converter assumes local "wall clock" trading hours of AM - PM in each Forex market. Holidays not included. Not intended for use as an accurate time source. Please send questions, comments, or suggestions to webmaster timezoneconverter.

The forex market is available for trading 24 hours a day, five and one-half days per week. The Forex Market Time Converter displays "Open" or "Closed" in the Status column to indicate the current state of each global Market Center. However, just because you can trade the market any time of the day or night doesn't necessarily mean that you should. Most successful day traders understand that more trades are successful if conducted when market activity is high and that it is best to avoid times when trading is light.

Event Planner. Zones by Country. World Time. Time Zone Converter. Forex Market Hours. What's My Time Zone? Forex Market Hours sponsored ads:. About The Forex Time Zone Converter The foreign exchange "forex" or "FX" currency market is not traded on a regulated exchange like stocks and commodities.

Click on a time zone for Daylight Saving Time DST transition dates and times. Home Time Zone Converter World Time Zones By Country Reference Card Link to Us Copyright © timezoneconverter.

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Yet, seasoned traders know that there is an unofficial concept of Forex market hours. However, speculative trading, such as trading in the Forex market, requires a decent level of volatility to generate profits. While most brokers suspend trading during the weekend, the fact is that economic news and geopolitical events still occur on Saturdays and Sundays. At night, quotes usually move slowly, while in the daytime, the volatility increases sharply. Moreover, not all branches of a certain big bank will do these large-scale cross-border transactions.

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