Market Hours

The foreign exchange market runs continuously from the Sydney open on Sunday evening to the New York close on Friday, but liquidity is far from evenly distributed across those 120 hours. Knowing which desks are at their screens tells you what kind of price action to expect.

Session times shift by an hour when London and New York move on and off daylight saving, and the two centres do not switch on the same date.

The overlap is where the range gets made

Between roughly 12:00 and 16:00 GMT, London and New York are both fully staffed. Spreads are at their tightest, depth is at its best, and the majority of high-impact US data lands inside this window. If you trade breakouts, this is the period that most often produces a clean one.

Quiet windows to respect

The hour after the New York close and the stretch between the Tokyo close and the London open both see thin books. Ranges compress, spreads widen, and stops sitting just outside a consolidation are unusually easy to sweep. Rollover at 21:00 GMT can also produce brief, meaningless spikes on some venues.

Weekend gap risk

Price does not stop existing when the market closes on Friday. Geopolitical events, election results and central-bank statements released over a weekend are all priced in at once when Sydney reopens. Position sizing should account for the fact that a stop cannot be filled between Friday close and Sunday open.