The Major Forex Sessions

One effective way you can use when you trade forex is to know the best time to do so. The market operates around the clock, but that doesn't mean you should trade anytime you want. 

Remember, the forex day mainly encompasses the four major trading sessions, which are not equal. Each trading session may not be best for your risk appetite and profit goals.  

In this lesson, you'll walk through the major trading sessions and how each plays a crucial role in your trading success. 

 

Lesson Highlights :

• The forex market is open 24 hours a day during the weekdays. The market is closed during the weekends due to the closed operations of institutional traders and central banks.  

• Trading the overlapping session may yield great profitable returns due to increased trading volume.  

 

Overview: The 24-Hour Day in Forex

The most well-loved feature of forex trading is its accessibility. When you trade forex, the market is readily available at your fingertips anytime during the weekday.  

But what makes this forex accessibility possible is the operation of the major trading sessions, each aligning with their respective countries' business hours.  

This continuous flow of trading activities is credited to the cyclical nature of these sessions. When a particular session closes, the other one opens.  

Have a quick look at the side-by-side comparison of major trading sessions' open and close times:  

 

Trading Session	Open Time	Close Time
Tokyo Session	Local Time: 9:00 AM UTC: 12:00 MN EST: 7:00 PM	Local Time: 6:00 PM UTC: 9:00 AM EST: 4:00 AM
London Session	Local Time: 8:00 AM UTC: 7:00 AM EST: 2:00 AM	Local Time: 5:00 PM UTC: 4:00 PM EST: 11:00 AM
New York Session	Local Time: 8:00 AM UTC: 1:00 PM EST: 8:00 AM	Local Time: 5:00 PM UTC: 10:00 PM EST: 5:00 PM
Sydney Session	Local Time: 7:00 AM UTC: 9:00 PM EST: 4:00 PM	Local Time: 4:00 PM UTC: 6:00 AM EST: 1:00 AM

 

Tokyo Trading Session

The traders of the Tokyo session are the first ones to welcome the market volatility when the week restarts. It basically starts the forex trading day. 

The session kickstarts the new forex day, which starts at midnight and ends at 9 AM UTC. 

This session is also called the Asian trading session because it also covers the operations of other big Asian financial centers, including;
 

1. Singapore 

2. China 

3. South Korea 

4. Hong Kong 

When these big financial centers operate together with the Tokyo session, the trading volume during this session increases. This market phenomenon results in an average of 20% of forex trading activities during the Tokyo session.  

The most traded currencies during this session are the following; 
 

• USD/JPY 

• EUR/JPY 
   

Remember what I've said about the Tokyo session welcoming the forex week?  

Be cautious if you trade this session on Mondays because unexpected market trends carried out over the weekend will surprise you here. 

 

London Trading Session

The London trading session is the most important in the forex market. It holds the greatest number of trading activities of all sessions.  

This trading session runs from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM UTC.  

You can expect the market to be volatile when you trade this session. You can expect currency pairs to break through their support and resistance, hence the high opportunities to profit from the market.  

The currency pairs that would experience significant price movement include;
 

• EUR/USD 

• GBP/USD 

• USD/CHF 

New York Trading Session

The New York trading session is the second most volatile because the major pairs are traded here. Remember, most forex traders trade majors because of these pairs' stability and opportunities.  

This forex trading session starts at 1 PM and ends at 10 PM. But the best time to trade this is when it overlaps with the London session, which is in the morning session. 

When you trade this session, you have the chance to profit by trading all majors, but more specifically, the;
 

• EUR/USD 

• GBP/USD 
   

 

Sydney Trading Session

The Sydney trading session is the only Pacific trading session that is considered major. This trading session starts at 9 PM and ends at 6 AM UTC.  

While it does not belong to the historical three peak trading sessions, this session still has perks that attract traders. For beginner traders, this trading session may be the best to trade in because it's less overwhelming, making the practice time less risky.  

If you trade this session, make sure to use these pairs to enjoy liquidity: 

 

• AUD/USD 

• NZD/AUD 

 

The Best Time to Trade Forex

This goes without saying: the best time to trade forex is when it's active. Remember, what you want to experience is for the market to fluctuate.  

With a large volume of trading activities, the market moves together with enormous supply and demand.  

But when are the active hours? Obviously, when the two sessions overlap.  

Note: You can enjoy numerous profitable opportunities if you trade during the active market hour due to the snapping market. 

Here's the table of the overlapping sessions in the forex market. Make sure to use this to bag those sweet profits! 
 

Overlapping Session	UTC
Sydney-Tokyo Session	12 MN-6 AM
Tokyo-London Session	7 AM-9 AM
London-New York Session	1 PM-4 PM
New York-Sydney Session	9 PM-10 PM

In the next lesson, we’ll dive deeper into the traded assets in the forex market, which are the currency pairs.