The Sensible Guide to Forex: Safer, Smarter Ways to Survive and Prosper from the Start

APPENDIX C

Forex Trading Time Zones, Liquidity, and Why These Matter

The trading week runs 5.5 days per week, 24 hours a day. It begins in Asia Sunday afternoon Eastern Standard Time (EST), or Sunday evening Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and progresses each day until the close of trading in the United States as follows.

• New Zealand trading is open from 2:00 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST starting Sunday.
• Sydney is open from 5:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. EST.
• Tokyo is open from 7:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. EST.
• Hong Kong and Singapore are open from 9 p.m. EST to 6 a.m. EST.
• Frankfurt, Germany, the primary European market, is open from 2:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. EST.
• London is open from 3:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon EST. London is the world's largest forex trading center.
• New York opens at 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST. NYC is the second-largest forex center. Not surprisingly, then, the greatest liquidity occurs when both London and New York are operating.

Table C.1 shows this graphically.

TABLE C.1 The Trading Day per EST

TABLE C.2 Trading Day per GMT(To adjust to GMT, add 5 hours to EST. That is, Tokyo would begin at 12:00 midnight, London at 8:00 a.m.,New York at 12:00 noon, etc.)

THREE MAJOR TRADING SESSIONS AND WHY THEY MATTER

There are three major sessions each day: Asian, London/European, and U.S. The timing of ...