So far, all the lessons we have taught you deal with “how” to trade the forex market. But another important lesson that you need to learn is “when” to trade the forex market.
Yes, it is true that the forex is open 24 hours a day, but that doesn’t mean it’s always active the whole day. You can make money in the forex when the market moves up, and you can even make money when the market moves down. However, you will have a very difficult time trying to make money when the market doesn’t move at all. This lesson will help determine when the best times of the day are to trade.
Market Hours
Before looking at the best times to trade, we must look at what a 24hr. day in the forex world looks like. The forex can be broken up into three major trading sessions: the Tokyo Session, the London Session, and the U.S. Session. Below is a table of the open and close times for each session:
| Time Zone | EST | GMT |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo Open | 7 PM | 0:00 |
| Tokyo Close | 4 AM | 9:00 |
| London Open | 3 AM | 8:00 |
| London Close | 12 PM | 17:00 |
| U.S. Open | 8 AM | 13:00 |
| U.S. Close | 5 PM | 22:00 |
You can see that in between each session there is a period of time where two sessions are open at the same time. From 3-4 a.m. EST, both the Tokyo and London markets are open, and from 8-12 p.m. EST, both the London and U.S. markets are open. Naturally, these are the busiest times during the market because there is more volume when two markets are open at the same time.
| Session | EUR/USD | GBP/USD | USD/CHF | USD/JPY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | 66 | 79 | 100 | 66 |
| London | 80 | 99 | 121 | 74 |
| U.S. | 67 | 78 | 101 | 60 |
As you can see, the London session usually shows the most movement
