{"id":638954,"date":"2024-08-23T15:00:30","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ftmo.com\/?p=638954"},"modified":"2024-08-23T15:03:57","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T13:03:57","slug":"why-are-trading-hours-in-forex-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ftmo.com\/en\/why-are-trading-hours-in-forex-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are trading hours in forex important?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Although forex can be traded 24 hours a day, five days a week, there are trading hours when activity and liquidity in the markets are higher or lower than at other times. What time of day is appropriate to trade individual currency pairs?<\/em><\/p>\n Unlike the stock or commodity markets, forex is open virtually continuously from Monday to Friday (depending on which part of the world you trade in) and can be traded at any time of the day. At first glance, it seems ideal that we can choose a currency pair (or a CFD instrument, which are also traded 24 hours a day in most cases) and open a position on it at any time of the day.<\/p>\n In reality, however, it is not that simple because the various markets on which financial instruments are normally traded are not open 24 hours a day. The 24-hour day is divided into three main trading sessions, Asian, European and American.<\/p>\n The Asian session, which is first on the agenda, is often referred to as the Tokyo session because the main financial centre open at that time is Tokyo. However, we include more countries in the Asian session than just Japan, including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore or China. The start of the trading day\/week is thus catered for by the Sydney session, which starts at 21:00 GMT. Two hours later, the Tokyo markets open and this session (Tokyo session) then lasts until 8am.<\/p>\n Before trading in Tokyo closes, the European markets open and the European session begins. This is often referred to as the London session, but even in this case it is not entirely accurate, because in Germany or France the stock markets open an hour earlier than in London. So officially the European session starts at 08:00 GMT, but market activity starts at least an hour before that. European markets then close at around 17:00 GMT.<\/p>\n The US markets then open at 13:00 GMT, this session is called the North American session, or New York session, and lasts until 22:00 GMT. In addition to the US, however, markets are also open at this time in countries such as Canada, Mexico and South America.<\/p>\n To make matters worse, many countries change their clocks to daylight saving time in the summer and adjust their trading hours accordingly (from GMT+2 to GMT+3). And since this time shift doesn’t happen all over the world at once, it can cause a little confusion among traders. We have written in more detail about what this can mean for traders and the differences in time shifts between continents in this article<\/a>.<\/p>\n Traders who live outside of Europe also need to be aware that swaps and rollovers, for example, may count in their time zone during the current trading day (not at the turn of the calendar day) and need to adjust their trading style accordingly.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
Be aware of time zones and time changes<\/h2>\n