Forex Market Hours for 2022

It is important to know the Forex Market Hours when deciding which currency to trade. There are four main trading sessions: Forex London Session, Forex New York Session, Forex Singapore Session, and Forex Tokyo Session or the Forex Asian Session. The map shows the open and close times for the Asian, European, and North American trading sessions. Remember Institutional traders trade their own currencies and what’s in their pocket. The most active and most volatile times are during their trading hours.

Note: You may select the currency you wish to trade to get estimates of the volatility, volume, and spreads of that particular currency in that trading session.

Why are Forex Market Hours so important to forex traders?

Forex traders need volume in the market to enable them to execute their trades. If there is no volume there is no liquidity. When there is liquidity and volume then the markets are at their most active and the spreads (the difference between the buy and sell prices) are at their smallest. This is the optimum time to enter a trade.

There is no point trading forex when there is no liquidity ie other traders trading. Also, it is important to focus on the currency of the specific trading session. For example, if trading within the European Session then the focus currency pairs are the EURUSD, GBPUSD, and the USDCHF. Institutional bank traders generally trade ‘what is in their pocket’!

Whilst the Forex Market is a 24 Hour market the best liquidity can be found during the hours of the specific session hours and the overlaps. The overlaps of a trading session have the most volume. The best trading session overlap is the European and North American overlap.

Forex Trading Sessions Times

(Times in Eastern Standard Time)

New York | Opens 8am EST – Closes 5pm EST
Tokyo | Opens 7pm EST -Closes 4am EST
Sydney | Opens 5pm EST – Closes 2am EST
London | Opens 3am EST – Closes 12:00 Noon ESTs

Overlap Forex Trading Sessions Times

(Times in Eastern Standard Time)

New York & London | 8am EST – 12 Noon EST
Sydney & Tokyo | 7pm EST – 2am EST
London & Tokyo | 3am EST – 4am EST

Forex Trading Sessions Map

The Forex Trading Hours map above is fully dynamic you can:

Select between local or GMT time Zones
Select the trading pair
Check Spreads
Check Volume
Check Volatility

When selecting your local time zone this will be displayed at the bottom of he map as shown.

Look at the local time to easily identify overlaps of trading sessions.

This Forex Trading Hours Map is provided by DukasCopy.

Summary

The two busiest time zones for forex trading are London and New York. The period when these two trading sessions overlap (London afternoon and New York morning) is the busiest period and accounts for the majority of volume traded in the $6 trillion a day market.

Whilst the forex market is a 24-hour market, some currencies in several emerging markets, are not traded 24 hours a day. The seven most traded currencies in the world are the U.S. dollar, the Euro, the Japanese yen, the British pound, and the Australian dollar, the Canadian Dollar, and the New Zealand Dollar, all of which are traded continuously while the forex market is open.

Speculators typically trade in pairs crossing between these seven currencies from any country in the world, though they favor times with heavier volume. When trading volumes are heaviest forex brokers will provide tighter spreads (bid and ask prices closer to each other), which reduces transaction costs for traders. Likewise institutional traders also favor times with higher trading volume, though they may accept wider spreads for the opportunity to trade as early as possible in reaction to new information they have.

Despite the highly decentralized nature of the forex market it remains an efficient transfer mechanism for all participants and a far-reaching access mechanism for those who wish to speculate from anywhere on the globe.