Around the Clock: Navigating the Global Forex Trading Sessions

Theoretically, you could be trading on the forex market 24 hours every workday by knowing the opening and closing hours for major global forex trading sessions. Whether you're a high-activity trader or a more conservative one, the time slots let you tweak your approach to better suit your trading goals—and organize your trading routine.

The Structure of Forex Trading Sessions

The Tokyo and Sydney session are sometimes grouped together into what is known as the Asian session.

Each location's opening and closing hours are based on their local business hours, but in most cases, trading begins between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. local time.

The trading activity ceases only on weekends, Christmas Day, and New Year, and nobody trades 24/7.

Knowing the times of different trading sessions means you could trade 24 hours a day—or whenever suits you during workdays. More importantly, the sessions' overlap allows you to compare currency pairs and observe trends in different markets, in real time.

Different sessions also come with varying liquidity. Taking all this into account, it would be possible to adjust the trading approach, lower transaction costs, and pick trading sessions that align best with your goals.

The opening and closing times for these four locations in local time are:

Sydney (Australian Eastern Time)

• Opens: 7:00 a.m.
• Closes: 4:00 p.m.

Tokyo (Japan Standard Time)

• Opens: 9:00 a.m.
• Closes: 6:00 p.m.

London (Greenwich Mean Time)

• Opens: 8:00 a.m.
• Closes: 5:00 p.m.

New York (Eastern Time)

• Opens: 8:00 a.m.
• Closes: 5:00 p.m.

Following the movement of global forex trading sessions is vital for traders because forex markets can be volatile at different times of the day.