Trading session - this is the operating time of the largest stock, futures, currency and commodity exchanges in the world, providing quotes and online charts for free purchase (Buy) - sale (Sell) of financial instruments listed on them.
What is a Forex trading session?
A trading session on the forex market is a relative concept , because Forex brokers work around the clock, 5 days a week (except weekends), because... the end of work of some exchanges smoothly transitions to the beginning of work of others (Asia - Europe - America - Pacific Basin - Asia, etc.) according to the cycle of time zones.
Why is it important for a Forex trader to know trading sessions? This is a time of high volatility for those currency pairs and CFDs that are represented in a given region.
- at 0-3 o'clock Moscow time - Australian dollar (AUD) and New Zealand dollar (NZD);
- at 1:00 - 6:00 Moscow time - Japanese yen (JPY), Hong Kong dollar (HKD), Chinese yuan (CNY), Singapore dollar (SGD), Thai baht (THB) and Indian rupee (INR);
- from 9 a.m. - euro (EUR), etc.
The most dangerous time to trade
Every experienced trader can probably point to a time when they believe that forex trading tends to be riskier than at other times. Most of these periods will include important changes in key market risk factors for currency traders, which typically include:
- Volatility is a term associated with the degree of market movement, and certain types of volatility, including implied, historical and actual volatility, have become important measures of risk for many traders, especially those involved in options trading.
- Liquidity - This relates to the depth of the forex market and the ability to efficiently process large transactions, and its ratings usually reflect the number of market participants willing to quote the market.
- Trade Execution Ability - This risk factor determines whether trades can be effectively executed without multiple re-quotes due to rapid market movements.
- Slippage - This refers to the difference between the level at which a trade is opened and the level at which the order is actually executed.
- A spread is the difference between the bid and ask prices quoted by the market maker.
Trading conditions typically deteriorate by most standards during risky trading and are typically characterized by factors such as increased volatility, decreased liquidity, greater slippage on orders, and wider trading spreads.
Many currency traders will find this risk trading time potentially problematic for their strategies, especially those based on technical analysis.
Technical trading methods tend to work better in highly liquid and orderly markets because technical analysis assumes that the market price has already discounted all available data, and this assumption tends to break down in fast markets.
Times that many forex professionals avoid, whose strategies work better in liquid and orderly markets, include:
- Friday and Sunday afternoons - Although the forex market is technically open, liquidity is often thin and trades expand during these times due to fewer market participants.
- Holidays – These can be particularly problematic for liquidity when holidays occur in one or more major trading centers, including London, New York and Tokyo.
- Major news releases may include election results, national conflicts and disasters, or announcements from powerful central banks.
- Major Economic Data Releases - Traders may wish to check the forex economic calendar for the times and dates of such releases, which are typically provided prior to the actual release of the release. A particularly notable example is the US non-pharma report, which is usually published on the first Friday of each month at 8:30 am New York time, which is usually 1:30 pm London time.
However, some forex traders actually like to take advantage of the strong market movements seen during periods of high volatility.
These participants include news traders, whose strategies are designed to take advantage of the large price movements that typically occur when major news reports or economic data are released. They often look forward to trading more volatile periods focused on these economic news releases that many other technical traders avoid.
Types and times of trading sessions according to Moscow time
There are 4 types of trading sessions per day : Asian, European, American and Pacific.
The operating time of each session is presented in the table below:
| Session | Exchanges | Opening time (Moscow time) | Closing time (Moscow time) |
| Asian | Tokyo TSE | 02:00 | 11:00 |
| Hong Kong HKE | 03:00 | 12:00 | |
| Singapore SGX | |||
| Shanghai SSE | |||
| Shenzhen SZSE | |||
| European | Frankfurt FSE | 09:00 | 18:00 |
| Swiss SWX | |||
| Paris Euronext | |||
| Madrid BME | |||
| London LSE | 10:00 | 19:00 | |
| American | New York NYSE | 16:00 | 01:00 |
| Toronto TSX | |||
| Chicago CME | 17:00 | 02:00 | |
| Pacific | New Zealand NZX | 23:00 | 08:00 |
| Australian ASX | 01:00 | 10:00 |
Why is 24/7 market availability great?
Having the ability to trade any time during the week is one of the best features of the forex market.
Let's take the Russian stock market for comparison.
For example, you live in Moscow (your time is GMT +3). You wake up at 7:00 am to go to work and return home at 7:00 pm. The Russian stock market is open from 10:00 to 18:35. It turns out that it is not available for you to trade.
With forex, you can go home at any time, open your charts and trade when it suits you. You don't need to rush to enter or exit trades before the market closes. You can even trade during holidays. There will always be a bank in the same time zone that will work. And all your Forex transactions will be processed.
Asian trading session
The Tokyo Stock Exchange plays the main role here : data on the Japanese economy is published, and currency pairs with the Japanese yen are the most active - USDJPY, EUR JPY, PLNJPY, GBPJPY, NOKJPY, AUDJPY, CADJPY, SEKJPY, NZDJPY, SGDJPY, HKDJPY, MXNJPY;
Currency pairs with Hong Kong and Singapore dollars are also popular among traders and investors - AUDHKD, USD SGD, CADHKD, HKDJPY, USDHKD, CHFHKD, GBPHKD, EURHKD, SGDJPY, SGDHKD, NZDSGD, EURSGD, CADSGD, SGDCHF, AUDSGD, USDSGD, GBPSGD and other.
The volume of the Chinese economy is growing, as a result of which the popularity of securities among banks, hedge funds and trust funds (TD) financial assets of the Chinese stock market - USD CNY, EUR CNY, NZD CNY, AUD CNY, GBP CNY, etc., not to mention already about investments in securities and derivatives of Chinese corporations - issuers (common shares, bonds, preferred shares, warrants, depositary receipts, ETFs, forward contracts, treasury bills and, for Forex brokers, presented in the form of CFDs.
European trading session
At the beginning, the European session overlaps with the end of the Asian session. An hour after the start, the London Exchange joins , then the Moscow Exchange MOEX. A large number of currency pairs are involved in trading - these are the main world currency pairs EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDCHF, as well as their crosses - EURGBP, EURNZD, EUR AUD, CHFEUR, EURSEK, EURRUB, EUR CAD, EURDKK, EURNOK, EURRON, EURPLN, EURHUF, EURCZK, EURHKD, EURON, GBPEUR, GBPSEK, GBPJPY, GBPNOK, GBPAUD, GBPJPY, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPCHF, GBPTRY, GBPDKK, GBPSGD, CADCHF, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD, NZD. CHF, CHFAUD, CHFEUR, CHFCAD, CHFJPY, CHFPLN, CHFNZD, CHFSEK, CHFDKK, CHFNOK, CHFTRY and others.
During the European trading session, data on the economy of the European Union and Great Britain are released. The greatest volatility of most of the listed currency pairs is observed here.
American trading session
By the time the American session begins, currency activity increases, especially when the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange open. The most active currency pairs here include the American and Canadian dollars - USDMXN, USDILS, USD RUB, USDCNY, GBPUSD, EURCAD, EURUSD, USDPLN, CADJPY, GBPCAD, USD UAH, USD BYN, EURCAD, USDCHF and others.
Pacific trading session
The Pacific trading session is characterized by the lowest volatility. However, economic data for Australia and New Zealand immediately comes out, and accordingly the volatility of their currencies increases - AUDJPY, AUDCAD, AUDUSD, NZDUSD, AUDNZD, AUDGBP, AUDEUR, CHFAUD, AUDSGD, AUDHKD, AUDCHF, EURAUD and others.
If everything is clear with theory, let's move on to practice.
MSF MF and a task from Masterforex-V to take profit during a trading session
The term “intersession flat” (ISF) was first introduced by Masterforex-V , which is often formed from a flat (correction) on the m30 timeframe
- for EUR USD, GBP USD, USD JPY, USD CHF at the Pacific and Asian trading sessions;
- for AUD JPY, NZD JPY at European and American trading sessions, etc.
If the conditions are met, there MAY be a strong trend in the "main trading session" of these currency pairs.
Question from Masterforex-V: in a bullish market of a long-term and medium-term trend, when the lower boundary of the MSF is broken, will you open Buy or Sell?
- Every time the MSF level is broken, do we open trades?
- What options are there if the MSF levels are broken?
- What is a double penetration of the MSF level?
- Is it possible to exit the MSF without a double breakout and what are the entry points in this case?
You will receive answers to these and other questions during Masterforex-V professional training.
Where is the best place to trade?
The Forex market has already formed a list of reliable brokers. In terms of trading conditions and the range of tools available for trading, AMarkets is among the best. Here you can work with currency pairs and CFDs on commodities, indices, shares of major companies, and cryptocurrencies.
I will list the main features of the broker:
- The company is a member of The Financial Commission.
- To open a standard account, you need a capital of at least $100/€100/5000 RUB.
- Spread – from 0 for ECN and from 3 points.
- Leverage is 1 to 1000, on ECN it decreases to 1 to 200.
- Trading terminals – 4 and 5 versions of MetaTrader.
- Over 100 trading instruments available.
- Clients are offered auxiliary indicators – Cayman and COT. Other brokers have no analogues.
- Good bonus policy, tournaments are held.
If you are at the stage of choosing a company for your first deposit, I recommend reading the review of the AMarkets broker. Perhaps this is where your search will end.
Open a Forex account in AMarkets
Trading sessions indicator for Metatrader 4
Professional traders practically do not use this indicator . For what? Or you are looking for daily routine indicators on the Internet to indicate on it what time you should go to bed, what time you should wake up, leave the house, etc. The same goes for currency pairs - after a few months, a trader will easily remember which financial instruments MAY have a trend at a certain time when trading began. Like what
- at night (Moscow time), as a rule, there is no impulse for EUR USD or USD CHF (bankers of the EU, Switzerland and the USA are sleeping), but a strong movement is preparing for AUD JPY and NZD JPY;
- the trend in GBP JPY occurs in most cases during European and Asian forex trading sessions, etc.
For novice traders : there are many indicators of trading sessions for various trading platforms on the Internet, but we offer a modified indicator with the presence of the Pacific session and automatic adjustment to your time zone. You can download it from the link.
How to Determine Your Broker's Time Zone
Screenshot 1. Where is the server time in the MT4 terminal
Brokers work according to local time, that is, according to the one used in their region.
Because of this, the time in the trading terminal often differs from the time zone of the trader, and, for example, MetaTrader does not allow you to change it.
The easiest way to find out your broker's time is to look at it in the terminal, or search on the official website.
Also, the company's maternity time is displayed in the economic calendar. As a last resort, you can always contact technical support, but you need to know what schedule your broker works on.
