Wednesday, November 21, 2012

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.

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 is open at the time of major holidays just as well. However, of course, it’s not open in the country where the holiday is celebrated. For example, at the time of a major Christian holiday you can still get foreign currency quotes from the banks of Asian and Muslim countries, and the other way around. Thus, if you feel like trading, you will not have to wait for the holiday to pass in your country; you would just trade with others. It never happens that one holiday would happen in all of the countries all over the world at the same time.

Probably, the only uncomfortable time for your trades is weekends. Even though you can trade on the weekends, the volume of the transactions will be so thin, that you may risk not being able to find a counterpart for your transaction.

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”.

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 in the main 4 timezones

As mentioned above, Forex market is open 24 hours a day, five days a week (with inactive trading during weekends), so you can participate in the trade virtually day and night. Below are the Forex trading hours, according to the Eastern Time Zone for the four major financial centers:

Tokyo, Trading Hours: 19.00 to 04.00 EST

New York, Trading Hours: 08.00 to 17.00 EST

London, Trading Hours: 03.00 to 12.00 (noon) EST

Sydney, Trading Hours: 17.00 to 02.00 EST

Forex trading hours are also an important part of a trading strategy, since the trades will differ depending on the Forex trading hours, which you choose to trade at.

About the author: Steve Maenshel can help you understand forex trading hours. For more forex trading information, visit his forex resource center.

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