Forex Trading Hours - They’re not the same!

by Steve Maenshel

Forex trading hours are important for anyone who plans to trade currencies at the Forex exchange market. The Forex market operates twenty four hours a day, five days a week, except for national holidays. Forex trading hours differ due to that various major financial institutions operate in different hours in different time zones.

There are 4 main time zones with different Forex trading hours: USA, Europe, Asia and Australia. For example, Forex opens in Tokyo on Sunday at 23.00 GMT. Tokyo is where the Forex trading week starts. The trading week closes in Chicago at 10 PM on Friday.

Forex market does not stop its work even during the biggest holidays, because there will always be a region on Earth, which does not considered that day a holiday. The best examples are the opposing Christian and Muslim holidays. When a holiday starts in the Christian regions of the planet, you may simply concentrate your Forex trading hours on the financial centers of the Muslim countries, and vice versa. Even during the “global” holidays, currency trading usually does not just stop. For example, during the Catholic Christmas, you can still get the currency quotes from Muslim countries and other Asian countries banks.

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.

Forex trading hours were established in order to give employees time for Forex transactions, which is not achievable at the time of active trades, as well as probably to give traders some time to “rest and relax”.

The residents of different countries can be surprised that Forex trading hours start and end deep at night in their countries, however you should realize that the foreign exchange market works in different time zones, and thus while in some country Forex might seem to work “at night”, in other countries Forex trading hours match regular working hours.

Forex trading hours in the main 4 timezones

Forex trading hours of various countries overlap one another, together totaling 24 hours each day for 5 days in the row. Thinner trades are also carried out on the weekends. Please take a look at the 4 main time-zones of the Forex trading hours (EST):

Tokyo, Trading Hours: 19.00 to 04.00 EST

New York, Trading Hours: 08.00 to 17.00 EST

London Trading Hours: 3.00 to 12.00 (noon)

Sydney, Trading Hours: 17.00 to 02.00 EST

Forex trading hours are important for the best trading results. Forex market will become somewhat different depending on the Forex trading hours that you will choose for your trades.

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