Asset classes · Forex
Forex trading sessions: Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York hours
When the 24-hour forex market is open, how the Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York sessions overlap, how daylight saving shifts them and why liquidity changes by hour.
On this page
The stock market opens and closes. The currency market does not, at least not on weekdays. Because forex is traded between banks and their clients in financial centers around the world, someone is always at work: when New York goes home, the trading day is starting in Wellington and Sydney, then Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong, then Europe and London, and then New York again. By convention the spot week runs from about 5 p.m. New York time on Sunday to about 5 p.m. on Friday.
"Open 24 hours" does not mean the market is the same at every hour. How many dealers are quoting, how tight the spreads are and how much prices move all depend on which centers are open. The hours when London and New York overlap are the busiest of the day; the hours after New York closes are among the quietest. For anyone trading currencies, or simply reading a currency chart, the session clock explains a lot of what they see.
This guide maps the four main sessions, converts them to New York time, explains how daylight saving time shifts them during the year, and describes what tends to happen to liquidity and volatility as the day moves around the globe.
The four sessions
The session times are not official. No authority opens or closes the spot market; the sessions describe when each center's dealers are at their desks, roughly 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time. The chart uses UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, the same as London time in winter) so that all four can sit on one line.
| Session | Approx. hours (UTC) | Approx. hours (New York, summer time) | Currencies most active |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 21:00–06:00 | 5 p.m.–2 a.m. | AUD, NZD |
| Tokyo | 00:00–09:00 | 8 p.m.–5 a.m. | JPY, plus other Asian pairs |
| London | 07:00–16:00 | 3 a.m.–noon | EUR, GBP, CHF and most others |
| New York | 12:00–21:00 | 8 a.m.–5 p.m. | USD, CAD and most others |
The New York column uses Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4). When New York is on standard time (UTC−5), subtract one more hour from the UTC column instead.
Sydney and Wellington
The trading week begins here. Volume is light, and the Australian and New Zealand dollars are the most active currencies. Monday's first prices also absorb anything that happened over the weekend, which is why weekly opening gaps appear in this session.
Tokyo and the Asian session
Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong form the Asian session. Yen pairs are the most active, and Japanese companies' and investors' flows matter. Singapore has grown fast: the BIS reported it handled 11.8% of global turnover in April 2025, up from 9.5% in 2022.
London
London is the center of the market. In the BIS survey of April 2025 the United Kingdom accounted for 38% of all FX turnover, and the four leading centers (the UK, the US, Singapore and Hong Kong) for 75%. Because London's day overlaps with Asia in the morning and New York in the afternoon, most of the world's currency trading passes through it. Widely used benchmark exchange rates are also set during London hours.
New York
New York's morning overlaps with London's afternoon. Major US economic data, such as the jobs report and the consumer price index, are released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, inside that overlap, which is why the overlap sees some of the day's biggest moves. After London closes, US afternoon trading is usually quieter, and the day winds down toward the 5 p.m. cut-off, when spot positions are rolled to the next value date.
The overlaps
The busiest hours are when two big centers are open at once:
- London–New York, about 12:00–16:00 UTC (8 a.m. to noon New York summer time): the deepest liquidity of the day for most pairs, including EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/CAD.
- Tokyo–London, about 07:00–09:00 UTC: a short handover in which European traders react to the Asian session.
- Sydney–Tokyo, about 00:00–06:00 UTC: the active part of the Asian day for yen and Australian-dollar pairs.
Daylight saving: the moving clock
Each center changes its clocks on its own schedule, and some not at all, so the session map shifts by an hour several times a year.
- United States: second Sunday in March to first Sunday in November. In 2026: March 8 to November 1.
- United Kingdom: last Sunday in March to last Sunday in October. In 2026: March 29 to October 25.
- Japan does not observe daylight saving time, so Tokyo stays at UTC+9 all year.
- Sydney observes daylight saving in the southern-hemisphere summer, so it moves in the opposite season from Europe and North America.
Liquidity and volatility through the day
More participants mean tighter spreads and smoother prices. Fewer participants mean the opposite.
- Busy hours (London morning, the London–New York overlap) usually have the narrowest spreads and the largest volume. Big moves still happen, especially around scheduled data, but the market can absorb large orders.
- Quiet hours (the late US afternoon, the gap between New York's close and Tokyo's open) have fewer dealers quoting. Spreads widen, and a single large order can move the price more than it would in London hours. See Liquidity and slippage: volume, depth, spread and market impact.
- Holidays thin the market when one center is closed and others are open; on a US holiday, dollar pairs trade with less depth.
- The weekly open carries weekend risk. Prices on Sunday evening in New York can open well away from Friday's close if news broke over the weekend, and stop orders can be filled at worse prices than set.
Pairs follow their home centers. EUR/USD and GBP/USD are most active in London and New York hours; USD/JPY and AUD/USD see more of their activity in Asian hours than European pairs do.
Why session times matter for prices you read
Because there is no single closing time, a "daily close" depends on who records it. The Federal Reserve's daily rates, for instance, are noon buying rates in New York; on October 23, 2026, its EUR/USD noon rate was 1.1199. A chart that closes its day at 5 p.m. New York time, or at midnight UTC, will show slightly different daily highs, lows and closes for the same pair. When comparing daily changes across sources, check which cut-off each one uses.
Pitfalls
- Treating 24 hours as uniform. A strategy tested on London-hours prices may not work at 3 a.m. New York time, when spreads are wider.
- Forgetting daylight saving. Session times in UTC shift twice a year, on different dates in each country.
- Weekend gaps. Positions held over the weekend can open far from Friday's price, with no chance to exit in between.
- News outside your hours. A central-bank decision in Tokyo or London happens while US-based traders sleep. Orders left in the market are exposed.
Forex hours compared with other markets
| Market | Trading hours (New York time unless noted) |
|---|---|
| Spot forex (OTC) | About Sunday 5 p.m. to Friday 5 p.m., continuous |
| CME currency futures | Sunday–Friday, 5 p.m.–4 p.m. Central time, 1-hour daily break |
| US stocks, regular session | 9:30 a.m.–4 p.m. on exchange business days |
| Major crypto markets | Continuous, including weekends |
The Stock market hours: regular, pre-market, after-hours and overnight guide covers stock-market hours, including pre-market and after-hours sessions.
How Finabase does it
The /forex page lists 51 currency pairs with the last rate and the day's change, so you can see at a glance which currencies moved most in the current session; pairs such as GBP/USD and USD/JPY each have a symbol page with a chart. The app does not show session markers, market-open clocks or dealer spreads, and it does not execute trades. The session diagram on this page is ours.
Frequently asked questions
What time does the forex market open?
Spot forex opens on Sunday at about 5 p.m. New York time, when the Asia-Pacific trading day begins, and trades continuously until about 5 p.m. on Friday. It does not trade over the weekend.
What is the best time to trade forex?
For most major pairs, liquidity is deepest during the London–New York overlap, about 8 a.m. to noon New York time in summer. That means tighter spreads, though not necessarily calmer prices, since major US data come out at 8:30 a.m.
Which forex session is the biggest?
London. The United Kingdom handled 38% of global foreign exchange turnover in April 2025, according to the BIS Triennial Survey, far more than any other center.
Does daylight saving time change forex hours?
Yes. Each center keeps its local hours, so in UTC the sessions shift when clocks change, and because the US, UK and Australia change on different dates, the gaps between them change for a few weeks each spring and autumn. Japan does not change its clocks.
Summary
The forex market runs continuously from about Sunday 5 p.m. to Friday 5 p.m. New York time, handing off from Sydney to Tokyo, London and New York. London is the largest center, with 38% of global turnover, and the London–New York overlap is usually the most liquid part of the day, while the hours after New York's close are the thinnest. Daylight saving moves the sessions on different dates in each country, as in late October 2026, when London and New York were four hours apart for a week. Liquidity, spreads and even the definition of a daily close all depend on the hour, so knowing the session clock is part of reading any currency price.
Sources and further reading
- Bank for International Settlements — Global FX trading hits $9.6 trillion per day in April 2025 (press release, September 30, 2025)
- CME Group — Euro FX futures contract specifications (trading hours)
- NIST — Daylight saving time (US rules and 2026 dates)
- GOV.UK — When do the clocks change?
- Federal Reserve Board (H.10) — Foreign exchange rates, daily noon buying rates (FRED series DEXUSEU), downloaded 2026-10-30