Forex Trading Hours – When To Trade?

Forex trading hours are the hours of the opening and closing of the largest market in the world – the foreign exchange market. Forex trading hours overlap each other in various countries around the globe, and one can say that Forex is always open. However, in reality it is not completely so. Forex market is indeed always open, but not everywhere at the same time. As well as, some trading hours are better for trades than others. Forex opening and closing hours depend on the opening and the closing hours of the main financial institutions of various countries.

Basically, there are four major zones with various Forex trading hours: Europe, USA, Australia and Asia. Forex opens in Tokyo at 23.00 GMT on Sunday and then in 5 days it closes on Friday at 10 PM in Chicago, thus ending the so-called Forex trading week.

Forex actually works even at the time of major holidays, because different countries celebrate different holidays on different dates, and many of these holidays do not even overlap. For example: Hindu and Jewish holidays, Muslim and Christian holidays etc. When a holiday starts in one part of the world, another part of the world is “available for trading”. In the time of the holidays in one country, you can still get quotes from the banks of another country etc.

One of the least suitable days for Forex trading is the weekends. This is due to that it is often hard to find a counterpart for your transaction, since the volume of both – sellers and buyers – is much less on the weekends. Novice Forex traders should try to only trade within the Forex trading hours on the weekdays.

Forex trading hours are different around the globe, which makes Forex one of the most colorful and mixed markets. The currencies that are traded on the Forex market include such major currencies like: USD, Euro, Yen, Pounds, Australian and Canadian Dollars and many others.

Why were Forex trading hours established? Why cant the market be open 24/7 without holidays? Forex trading hours are also needed for employees to carry out certain necessary operations to maintain order at the market, as well as for the traders to simply get some “rest”.

Some countries actually get the Forex trading hours falling particularly in the time of the late evening and night. However, in other countries Forex trading hours perfectly fit within the regular business day.

Forex trading hours

Forex trading hours overlap and make up 24 hours of every day, 5 days a week. Trades are also carried out on the weekends. However they are much less active. Below you can take a look at the Forex trading hours in the 4 major time zones, in accordance with Eastern Standard Time:

Tokyo: 19.00 to 04.00 EST

New York Trading Hours: 08.00 to 17.00

London: 03.00 to 12.00 (noon) EST

Sydney, Trading Hours: 17.00 to 02.00 EST

A trader should get familiar with Forex trading hours, since Forex trading hours are often important to know, in order to gain reliable profits in transactions, rather than getting stuck in thin trades.

Author Steve Maenshel can help you understand forex trading hours. For more forex trading information, visit his forex resource center.

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