Forex Market - Best Trading Hours

FX / Forex Market - Best Trading Hours

The three major foreign exchange or forex markets are in Tokyo, London and New York.

Unlike stock market, the forex market opens 24 hours a day.  It starts from Sunday 5pm EST (or Monday 6am Singapore time) through to Friday 4pm EST (or Saturday 5am Singapore time). 

Since the forex market opens 24 hours a day, this means that we can trade it anytime of the day.  However, there are certain things to take note of when trading the forex market, one is the trading hours of the day. 

During certain time of the day, trading volume will be more active and this is when a breakout signals for certain pairs of currencies have a higher chance of success since they come with higher trading volume, enabling us to capture more profits or pips.

The following are the normal trading hours of the 4 main forex markets :

Sydney Forex Trading Hours

Singapore time 0600-1500         EST 1700-0200        GMT 2200-0700      

Tokyo Forex Trading Hours

Singapore time 0800-1700         EST 1900-0400        GMT 0000-0900      

London Forex Trading Hours

Singapore time 1600-0100         EST 0300-1200        GMT 0800-1700      

New York Forex Trading Hours

Singapore time 2100-0500         EST 0800-1600        GMT 1300-2100      

So when is the best trading hours for the forex market ?

The best trading hours are when the trading hours of the above forex markets overlap :

London and New York 0800 to 1200 EST

London and Tokyo 0300 to 0400 EST

Sydney and Tokyo 1900 to 0200 EST

As such, we can expect that between 0800 to 1200 EST, trading EUR/USD or GBP/USD currency pairs may yield better results based on breakout strategy when the trading volume is more active during those hours and the likelihood of a trending market is higher during those time. 

Happy Trading

Rooney