How to use the forex market hours clock
- Choose your time zone. By default the clock uses the time zone of your device; pick a city from the list to see the times somewhere else.
- Choose a 12-hour or 24-hour clock.
- Read the results. The main panel shows which sessions are open right now. Below it you see each session’s status, the next session to open, and the three overlap windows, all in your time.
The clock reads the current time when the page loads and whenever you press Update. The chart shows how many centres are open in each hour of your day, and the tables list every session and overlap with its opening and closing time.
How session times are worked out
Each session is defined in its own city’s local time, using the conventional business hours that traders refer to:
Tokyo 9:00–18:00 Tokyo time
London 8:00–17:00 London time
New York 8:00–17:00 New York timeSessions run Monday to Friday in each city's calendar. The trading week starts on Sunday at 17:00 New York time and ends on Friday at 17:00 New York time, so the first and last sessions of the week are cut to fit.
The calculator converts each local opening and closing time into an exact moment, using your browser’s time-zone database for every city, and then shows that moment in your zone. Overlaps are the stretches where two sessions are open at once.
These are conventions, not opening bells. The forex market is a network of banks and dealers, so activity builds and fades gradually around these times rather than switching on and off.
A worked example
Take a Wednesday in January, at 3:00 PM in Belgrade. The calculator shows London and New York as open. In Belgrade time:
- London trades from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and New York from 2:00 PM to 11:00 PM.
- The London–New York overlap runs from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM, 4 hours.
- Sydney opens next (9:00 PM to 6:00 AM), followed by Tokyo; the Sydney–Tokyo overlap runs from 1:00 AM to 6:00 AM.
- The Tokyo–London overlap is short: 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM the next morning.
The same moment seen from New York is London and New York open, with the overlap running 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM New York time.
Session overlaps in major time zones
The London–New York overlap is the window most traders plan around. In January:
| Your city | London–New York | Sydney–Tokyo | Tokyo–London |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | 5:00 AM to 9:00 AM | 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM | 12:00 AM to 1:00 AM |
| New York | 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM | 7:00 PM to 12:00 AM | 3:00 AM to 4:00 AM |
| London | 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM | 12:00 AM to 5:00 AM | 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM |
| Belgrade | 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM | 1:00 AM to 6:00 AM | 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM |
| Dubai | 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM | 4:00 AM to 9:00 AM | 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM |
| India | 6:30 PM to 10:30 PM | 5:30 AM to 10:30 AM | 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM |
| Singapore | 9:00 PM to 1:00 AM | 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM | 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM |
| Sydney | 12:00 AM to 4:00 AM | 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM | 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM |
For traders in Asia and Australia, the most liquid window falls late at night. Traders in Europe get it in the afternoon, and traders on the US West Coast early in the morning.
How daylight saving time moves the sessions
Three of the four centres change their clocks, on different dates, and Sydney does so in the opposite season. That is why session times in your zone shift during the year even if you never change your own clock. In UTC:
| Session | January | July |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 8:00 PM to 5:00 AM | 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM |
| Tokyo | 12:00 AM to 9:00 AM | 12:00 AM to 9:00 AM |
| London | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM | 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM |
| New York | 1:00 PM to 10:00 PM | 12:00 PM to 9:00 PM |
| Sydney–Tokyo overlap | 12:00 AM to 5:00 AM | 12:00 AM to 6:00 AM |
| Tokyo–London overlap | 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM | 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM |
In the northern summer, Sydney is on standard time while London is on summer time, so the gap between them narrows and the Tokyo–London overlap grows from 1 to 2 hours. The Sydney–Tokyo overlap grows too, from 5 to 6 hours. For someone in Sydney, London now trades 5:00 PM to 2:00 AM local time, instead of 7:00 PM to 4:00 AM in January.
The US moves its clocks a few weeks before Europe in March and a week after it in the autumn. During those weeks New York opens an hour earlier relative to London, and the London–New York overlap lasts five hours instead of four.
Trading around the sessions
- Pairs follow their home sessions. The yen and the Australian and New Zealand dollars are usually most active in the Asian hours; the euro, pound and Swiss franc from the London open; the US and Canadian dollars once New York is in.
- Major data releases cluster near the opening of each centre, for example US figures at 8:30 AM New York time, so the start of a session can be the most volatile part of it.
- Spreads widen in the quiet hour after New York closes, around the daily rollover, and in the first minutes after the Sunday open.
- The weekend gap. On a Saturday the clock shows the market as closed, with Sydney reopening it on Sunday evening in New York (5:00 PM to 12:00 AM New York time for that first session). Positions held over the weekend can open at a very different price.
What this clock does not include
- Bank holidays. When a centre is closed for a holiday, its session is much thinner or absent, which this clock does not show.
- Exchange-traded products. Currency futures and options on exchanges keep their own hours, which differ from the spot market.
- Your broker’s server time. Many platforms display a server time such as GMT+2 or GMT+3, so their daily candles may not line up with your local midnight.
- Gradual liquidity. The session edges are conventional. Real activity rises and falls over an hour or more around them.