Forex Market Trading Hours

This article will tell you about Forex trading hours and  appropriate time for Forex trading. 

Four Forex trading sessions can be conditionally distinguished: Pacific, Asian, European and American.

Each session has its specifics and Forex trading hours, therefore, it is important for a trader to be aware of them and take them into account this time in their Forex work. We will now take a close eye on each time interval:

Pacific Forex trading hours: opens market after weekend, and its name speaks for itself. It is the quitest market time, trading "calm". Market activity is created by stock exchanges and banks of New Zealand and Australia. Because of low financial volumes, this Forex trading session is often related to Asian.

Asian Forex trading session: starts work in three hours after opening of Wellington stock exchange. Activity is moderate. Tokyo – Asian finance center – opens session. There is no surprise that during this period of time the number of trading positions for such pair as USD/JPY can reach 78 % (in contrast, EUR/USD ≈ 15 %). Apart from Japan, such countries and Hong Kong, Singapore, China, India contribute to liquidity. The most volatile pairs are USD/JPY, GBP/JPY, AUD/JPY. Asian and Pacific regions together provide up to 21% Forex volume.

European Forex market hours: as Asians slowly curtail their market activity, Europe takes the stage. It is an open secret that the strongest economy in the region is German whereas the most stable is Switzerland, but finance capital is situated in London which takes 30% of entire volume. The last fact is explained by strategical position of the city, which is like a conductor truck between Western Europe and the eastern Atlantic, and besides, London manages to participate in three trading sessions. But we should not forget about such countries as France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, countries of middle East, Africa – all they create not big bur a certain liquidity. The most demanded trading pairs are: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/GBP, USD/CHF, GBP/CHF, GBP/JPY.

American Forex trading session: the most important news, fundamental data, events fall into this period thereby ensuring the biggest liquidity in the market. We cannot forget that 80% of all trading positions include such component as US dollar. The largest finance global center – New York – starts its work at 13:00 (UTC) when Europe come back from lunch. This is the time of enhanced trading activity for EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/CAD, USD/CHF, GBP/CAD. Apart from the USA and Canada, trading volume is added by Mexica, Brasilia and other countries of Latin and South America. During American-Pacific period of time AUDUSD and NZDUSD are more popular.

In conclusion we will supply you with the table of average price movement in points for major currency pairs based on the trading session.