You want to know the best time for trading, and which times you might want to stay away from when the time comes to get that money out there. Since the Forex market is open for 24 hours a day, this does not mean that you have to be on there at all hours that it is open. It also doesn’t mean that the market is active during those times. You have to find out the best times in order to make the money you want. You can make money in two different ways: by having the market move up and by having the markets move down. You will not, however make money when the market does not move at all.
The market will be still at times, and knowing those times is essential to knowing when the best time is to trade at.
Knowing the Market Hours
You will want to know what the best time in a 24 hour period looks like when it comes to Forex trading. The Forex market has four trading sessions: the Tokyo Session, the Sydney Session, the London Session, and then the New York Session. There are open and close times for each of these sessions to occur and trade to happen:
| Time Zone | EST | GMT |
| London Open London Close | 3:00 AM 12:00 AM | 8:00 AM 5:00 PM |
| New York Open New York Close | 8:00 AM 5:00 PM | 12:00 PM 10:00 PM |
| Sydney Open Sydney Close | 5:00 PM 2:00 AM | 10:00 PM 7:00 AM |
| Tokyo Open Tokyo Close | 7:00 PM 4:00 AM | 12:00 AM 9:00 AM |
In between each of the sessions above, there are going to be two sessions that are open at the same time. This is from 3-4 am EST. The Tokyo and London markets are open at that time. During 8 to 12 am EST both London and New York markets are open during these times. These are some of the busiest times of the market since there is more volume during the time when two markets are open during the same time. During those times of operation, the market participants within the system are trying to buy and sell as they move along. This allows more money to transfer hands.
The major currency pairs during each of the trading sessions and there is an average pip movement for each and every one:
| Pairs | London | New York | Tokyo |
| USD/JPY | 66 | 59 | 51 |
| EUR/USD | 114 | 92` | 76 |
| GBP/USD | 127 | 99 | 92 |
| NZD/USD | 72 | 70 | 62 |
| AUD/USD | 83 | 81 | 77 |
| USD/CAD | 96 | 96 | 57 |
| USD/CHF | 102 | 83 | 67 |
| AUD/JPY | 107 | 103 | 98 |
| EUR/JPY | 129 | 107 | 102 |
| GBP/JPY | 107 | 103 | 118 |
| EUR/GBP | 61 | 47 | 78 |
| EUR/CHF | 109 | 84 | 79 |
The European session is usually the one that comes out at the top with the most movement for the day. The sessions will overlap, and they will also allow you more time to trade.
