Updated . Times computed for today's date.
The best time: the London–New York overlap
08:00–12:00 New York time: 13:00–17:00 UTC in mid-January, 12:00–16:00 UTC in mid-July.
| Period | UTC | New York time | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Now → 25 Oct 2026 | 12:00–16:00 | 08:00–12:00 | 4 h |
| 25 Oct 2026 → 1 Nov 2026 | 12:00–17:00 | 08:00–13:00 | 5 h |
| 1 Nov 2026 → 14 Mar 2027 | 13:00–17:00 | 08:00–12:00 | 4 h |
Why this window, and when it moves
It is the only stretch of the day when London and New York are both in their business day. The United Kingdom is the largest FX trading location, with 38% of global turnover in April 2025, and the UK, the US, Singapore and Hong Kong together handled 75% (BIS Triennial Survey, published 30 September 2025).
Right now: 12:00–16:00 UTC, which is 08:00–12:00 New York time (4 hours), until 25 Oct 2026. From 25 Oct 2026, when London's clocks go back to GMT: 12:00–17:00 UTC, 08:00–13:00 New York time (5 hours), until 1 Nov 2026. From 1 Nov 2026, when New York's clocks go back to EST: 13:00–17:00 UTC, 08:00–12:00 New York time (4 hours), until 14 Mar 2027.
The overlap runs five hours, 08:00 to 13:00 New York time, in the weeks when New York is on daylight time and London is not: in March, and from late October to the first Sunday of November. The live clock above counts down to the next overlap on your own clock.
Busy is not the same as profitable
More centres open is a fact about location, not a forecast for any trade.
What the overlap does not tell you
The overlap is the best time by one measure: how much of the world's FX trading is based in the centres that are open. That measure says nothing about which way a pair will move or whether a trade will make money. A wider range moves a stop as far as a target, costs differ by hour, and a strategy without an edge has none at 13:00 UTC either. Before you trust any window, take your own trades from those hours and work out their average result with the trading expectancy calculator.
Best time to trade each session
Each session on UTC, and the hours it shares with another centre.
| Session (local hours) | Home currency | Mid-January (UTC) | Mid-July (UTC) | Shares hours with (January / July) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney 07:00–16:00 | AUD | 20:00 (previous day)–05:00 | 21:00 (previous day)–06:00 | Tokyo: 5 h / 6 h New York: 2 h / none |
| Tokyo 09:00–18:00 | JPY | 00:00–09:00 | 00:00–09:00 | Sydney: 5 h / 6 h London: 1 h / 2 h |
| London 08:00–17:00 | GBP | 08:00–17:00 | 07:00–16:00 | Tokyo: 1 h / 2 h New York: 4 h / 4 h |
| New York 08:00–17:00 | USD | 13:00–22:00 | 12:00–21:00 | Sydney: 2 h / none London: 4 h / 4 h |
Session by session
Each session is its centre's business day on its own clock: Sydney 07:00–16:00, Tokyo 09:00–18:00, London 08:00–17:00 and New York 08:00–17:00. If you trade one session, the hours it shares with another are when more than one centre is open; the live clock above shows every session on your own clock.
- Sydney shares hours with Tokyo (00:00–05:00 UTC in mid-January, 00:00–06:00 in mid-July) and New York (20:00–22:00 UTC in mid-January only).
- Tokyo shares hours with Sydney (00:00–05:00 UTC in mid-January, 00:00–06:00 in mid-July) and London (08:00–09:00 UTC in mid-January, 07:00–09:00 in mid-July).
- London shares hours with Tokyo (08:00–09:00 UTC in mid-January, 07:00–09:00 in mid-July) and New York (13:00–17:00 UTC in mid-January, 12:00–16:00 in mid-July).
- New York shares hours with Sydney (20:00–22:00 UTC in mid-January only) and London (13:00–17:00 UTC in mid-January, 12:00–16:00 in mid-July).
Best time to trade EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, AUD/USD and gold
When both of a pair's home centres are open at once.
| Pair | Home centres | Both open, mid-January (UTC) | Both open, mid-July (UTC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | Euro area (London session) and United States | 13:00–17:00 (4 h) | 12:00–16:00 (4 h) |
| GBP/USD | United Kingdom and United States | 13:00–17:00 (4 h) | 12:00–16:00 (4 h) |
| USD/JPY | United States and Japan | never | never |
| AUD/USD | Australia and United States | 20:00–22:00 (2 h) | never |
Pair by pair
A currency's home centre is where its central bank and most of its domestic business sit. Trading in it is not confined there, but its home business day is when that country's banks and companies are at work. The table says nothing about how far a pair will move.
- EUR/USD and GBP/USD: both home sides are in their business day during the London–New York overlap, 13:00–17:00 UTC in mid-January and 12:00–16:00 in mid-July. The euro area's clocks run one hour ahead of London's all year, so its business day starts an hour before the London session; the four-session convention reads the euro through London.
- USD/JPY: Tokyo (00:00–09:00 UTC all year) and New York (13:00–22:00 UTC in mid-January, 12:00–21:00 in mid-July) are never open at once. London bridges them: it shares one hour with Tokyo in mid-January and two hours in mid-July, and four hours with New York.
- AUD/USD: Sydney's business day meets New York's only while Sydney is on summer time. In mid-January Sydney opens at 20:00 UTC and New York closes at 22:00 UTC, so they share 20:00–22:00; in mid-July Sydney opens at 21:00 UTC, as New York closes at 21:00. The Sydney–Tokyo overlap is the other stretch when two Asia-Pacific centres are open together.
- Gold (XAU/USD) has no home country. It is priced in dollars, so its dollar side's home is New York; instead of assuming a best session, ProEA measured how far it moved in each one, below. Gold's own trading hours and daily break are on the forex market hours page.
Best time to trade gold: how far it moved in each session
Gold's median range per session, widest in New York, narrowest in Sydney (ProEA data).
| Session | Hours | Median range | Middle half of sessions | Median, % of price | Sessions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 9 | $51.78 | $39.15 – $70.13 | 1.20% | 252 |
| Tokyo | 9 | $56.14 | $42.38 – $76.27 | 1.28% | 257 |
| London | 9 | $61.75 | $47.69 – $88.42 | 1.43% | 257 |
| New York | 9 | $64.99 | $47.53 – $89.96 | 1.47% | 249 |
| London–New York overlap | 4 (5 some weeks) | $54.47 | $41.02 – $73.54 | 1.22% | 257 |
Method and limits
Over 257 trading days from 1 October 2025 to 29 September 2026, gold's median session range ran New York $64.99, London $61.75, Tokyo $56.14, Sydney $51.78. The four-hour London–New York overlap alone had a median range of $54.47, more than the whole Sydney session's.
Method: XAUUSD bid prices from Dukascopy, 5-minute bars, 1 October 2025 to 29 September 2026: the dataset behind ProEA's practice replays. Each session is its centre's business hours, converted with daylight saving and clipped to the forex week; its range is the highest high minus the lowest low of the bars inside it. Sessions with fewer than 75% of their 5-minute bars (holidays, early closes) are left out. Gold's daily one-hour break falls inside the Sydney session, so Sydney is measured over eight hours. Ranges are in US dollars per ounce, before spread and costs; the middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile. Measured 8 October 2026 with scripts/market-hours/gold-session-ranges.ts. Past ranges, not a forecast.
A range is not a profit. It is how far price travelled, in both directions, before spread and costs, in one market over one year. ProEA has measured gold only; no currency pair is in this dataset, so the table is not evidence about EUR/USD or any other pair.
Worst times to trade forex
The weekend gap, the 17:00 New York rollover and the hours after New York closes.
| When | Rule | Mid-January (UTC) | Mid-July (UTC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekend gap | Friday 17:00 → Sunday 17:00 New York | Fri 22:00 → Sun 22:00 | Fri 21:00 → Sun 21:00 |
| Daily rollover | 17:00 New York, every day | 22:00 | 21:00 |
| After New York closes | 17:00 New York → Tokyo 09:00 | 22:00–00:00 (next day) | 21:00–00:00 (next day) |
| Holidays | 25 December, 1 January | broker schedule | broker schedule |
What brokers say, with sources
These are broker conventions and market structure, not ProEA measurements. Your broker's hours and spreads can differ, so check them in your platform. The broker pages below were checked 8 October 2026.
The weekend. Spot forex closes at Friday 17:00 New York time and reopens at Sunday 17:00 New York time: Sunday 22:00 UTC in mid-January and Sunday 21:00 UTC in mid-July. tastyfx, a US retail forex dealer, calls the weekend the most straightforward gap risk in forex, the only time each week that trading is suspended (tastyfx on gap risk, checked 8 October 2026). OANDA says prices may significantly change or gap when the market resumes trading (OANDA hours of operation, checked 8 October 2026). A stop order does not prevent a gap: once triggered, it fills at the first price available.
The daily rollover, 17:00 New York time (22:00 UTC in mid-January, 21:00 UTC in mid-July). Brokers roll open positions to the next day then and book swap: FOREX.com processes rollovers daily at 5:00 p.m. ET (FOREX.com rollover FAQ, checked 8 October 2026), and OANDA closes all forex instruments from 16:59 to 17:05 New York time each day. Global Prime says spreads on all its FX and metals products noticeably widen around its rollover, 00:00 on its GMT+2/3 platform clock (the same 17:00 New York moment), that pricing usually steadies 30 minutes to an hour later, and that the market open calls for the same care (Global Prime market rollover, checked 8 October 2026). The Friday close is the week's last rollover; the forex swap calculator shows what holding through it costs.
After New York closes. From New York's 17:00 close to Tokyo's 09:00 open, only Sydney's business day runs: 22:00–00:00 (next day) UTC in mid-January and 21:00–00:00 (next day) in mid-July. tastyfx describes the stretch from New York's close to the Asian open as a window of lower trade activity in which spreads are subject to widen, especially in less liquid pairs (tastyfx, checked 8 October 2026).
Holidays. Venues and brokers close or shorten trading around 25 December and 1 January, on schedules they publish each December; the dates are under Is forex open on Christmas and New Year?
Best time to trade forex in your time zone
The overlap on each clock; open a clock for every date in the next twelve months.
| Clock | Mid-January | Mid-July |
|---|---|---|
| India IST | 18:30–22:30 | 17:30–21:30 |
| Nigeria WAT | 14:00–18:00 | 13:00–17:00 |
| South Africa SAST | 15:00–19:00 | 14:00–18:00 |
| The Philippines PHT | 21:00–01:00 (next day) | 20:00–00:00 (next day) |
| Pakistan PKT | 18:00–22:00 | 17:00–21:00 |
| Kenya EAT | 16:00–20:00 | 15:00–19:00 |
| The UAE GST | 17:00–21:00 | 16:00–20:00 |
| Malaysia MYT | 21:00–01:00 (next day) | 20:00–00:00 (next day) |
| Singapore SGT | 21:00–01:00 (next day) | 20:00–00:00 (next day) |
| Indonesia (WIB) WIB | 20:00–00:00 (next day) | 19:00–23:00 |
| Thailand Thai time | 20:00–00:00 (next day) | 19:00–23:00 |
| Vietnam Vietnam time | 20:00–00:00 (next day) | 19:00–23:00 |
| Bangladesh Dhaka time | 19:00–23:00 | 18:00–22:00 |
| Sri Lanka SLST | 18:30–22:30 | 17:30–21:30 |
| Ghana GMT | 13:00–17:00 | 12:00–16:00 |
| Egypt EET/EEST | 15:00–19:00 | 15:00–19:00 |
| Japan JST | 22:00–02:00 (next day) | 21:00–01:00 (next day) |
| Central Europe (CET/CEST) CET/CEST | 14:00–18:00 | 14:00–18:00 |
| The UK GMT/BST | 13:00–17:00 | 13:00–17:00 |
| New York (ET) EST/EDT | 08:00–12:00 | 08:00–12:00 |
| Pacific Time (PT) PST/PDT | 05:00–09:00 | 05:00–09:00 |
| Australia (Sydney) AEST/AEDT | 00:00 (next day)–04:00 (next day) | 22:00–02:00 (next day) |
Reading the table
Each row is the London–New York overlap on that clock for a mid-January and a mid-July day. Times marked (next day) fall after midnight on that clock. The overlap moves on most clocks during the year, because New York, London and some local clocks change on different dates; each country page dates every change.