Forex Market Hours

 
Some times are better than others for trading the Forex
 

The Forex Market is traded with the sun in that it is traded 24 hours per day Sunday thru Friday.

The FX market opens on Sunday 5:00 pm EST and remains open until 4:00 pm EST Friday.  Due to the nature of global business currency is always in high demand as well as the need to convert currency for international trade.  The banks make sure that these needs are filled by being connected globally on a network that allows for the exchange of these currencies resulting in a 24 hr trading network that is now available to the smaller speculator.

Each day is opened by the Australia - Asia area followed by the European area and then lastly by the North American area.  In forex trading the best opportunities for making money is when the various markets overlap in time.  While the London Market is coming to a close the New York Market is opening.  During this overlapping time frame the forex is very active and allows for much more profit potential.

Forex Trading Hours by Trading Center:

Asian Session opens                    7:00 pm - 4:00 am EST

Australian Session opens              5:00 pm - 2:00 am EST

London Session opens                  3:00 am - 12:00 pm EST

New York Session opens               8:00 am - 5:00 pm EST

The Best Trading Times:

The best trading times is during the overlapping of 2 major market areas

Australian - Asian overlap              7:00 pm - 2:00 am EST

Asian - London overlap                  3:00 am - 4:00 am EST (the most active/volatile I have found)

London - New York overlap            8:00 am - 12:00 pm EST

Outside of the overlapping trading times you may notices a significant decrease in trading volume and relatively inactive currency pairs.

Best Regions to Live for Trading the Forex

Many people do not realize that there are optimal places to live that lend themselves to convenience all due to time zones and the overlapping of the most active trading times.  Depending on a trader's lifestyle, those best trading times fall during either convenient or inconvenient times. 

To trade during the overlap of the Asian - London session, it may be convenient for a trader to trade those times (3:00 am - 4:00 am EST) from 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm local time.   The best place to live to trade during this overlapping time at a local time of 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm would be Sydney Australia.  Where you live can have a big role to play in the style and type of trading that you perform.

Forex Open and Closing Times

Forex market opens on Sunday 10:00 pm GMT ( 5 pm EST), closes on Friday 10:00 pm GMT
(5 pm EST ).  The following tables are some sample weekly forex market open and closing hours for various cities around the world.  Note that the time is specific to one of two time zones.  Depending on where you live you will need to make the applicable time zone adjustment.