Forex Trading Sessions: Asian, London and New York Session Times

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The Asian session (Tokyo) runs from roughly 11 p.m. to 9 a.m. UTC, which is 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time. The London session follows from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. UTC, and the New York session from about 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. UTC. Together they keep the currency market open 24 hours a day, five days a week, from Sunday evening to Friday evening New York time. The sessions overlap at both ends: London opens about an hour before Tokyo closes, and New York opens while London still has roughly four hours left.

These hours are conventions, not exchange rules. Forex trades over the counter between banks, brokers and institutions, so no bell opens or closes a session. Activity rises when a region’s banks and trading desks start work and fades when they leave, and the edges of each session blur as a result.

Forex session times at a glance

Times are given in UTC, with U.S. Eastern Standard Time (UTC−5), U.S. Pacific Standard Time (UTC−8) and India Standard Time (UTC+5:30) alongside, plus 24-hour format, which many charting platforms use.

To convert to any other zone, start from the UTC column and apply that zone’s offset. A trader in Singapore (UTC+8), for example, would see the Asian session from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time and the London session from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m.

How daylight saving time moves the sessions

The sessions follow local business hours, so when a financial center moves its clocks, its session moves in UTC.

• Tokyo: Japan does not observe daylight saving time, so the Asian session’s UTC hours stay fixed year-round.
• London: The UK moves to British Summer Time (UTC+1) from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. During those months the London session starts and ends an hour earlier in UTC, around 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• New York: U.S. daylight time runs from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. During those months the New York session sits around 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. UTC, though it is still 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on a New York clock.
• Sydney: Australia’s southeastern states move clocks forward in the southern spring (first Sunday in October) and back in April, the opposite of the Northern Hemisphere, which changes how early the Asia-Pacific open falls for European and American traders.

Because the U.S. and UK change clocks on different dates, there are a few weeks each March and late October to early November when the gap between the London and New York opens is four hours instead of five. India has no daylight saving time, so the London open moves between about 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. IST across the year, and the New York open between about 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. IST. The London and New York overlap falls in the Indian evening, around 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. IST in winter.

How the 24-hour market hands off

The forex market is the largest financial market in the world. The Bank for International Settlements’ Triennial Survey put average daily turnover at $9.6 trillion in April 2025. That volume moves across time zones in a roughly continuous relay.

The trading week begins in the Asia-Pacific region on Monday morning local time, which is Sunday afternoon or evening in the Americas. Wellington and Sydney open first, then Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore join. As Asian desks wind down, European centers open, with Frankfurt and Paris often active before the official London start. Before Europe closes, New York comes online. After New York finishes, a short gap of lower liquidity follows until the next Asian morning.

This lets traders take part during their own working hours, after work or overnight, but not every hour is worth trading. Some windows are steady and active, others thin, and a surprise announcement, such as an unscheduled central bank statement, can move a currency sharply while most traders in other regions are asleep. Many traders choose a fixed window and use pending, stop-loss and take-profit orders to manage positions they cannot watch.

Asian session (Tokyo)

The Asian session is the first to see trading at the start of each week. Tokyo is the usual reference point, but the session also includes activity in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. Its conventional window is 11 p.m. to 9 a.m. UTC.

General characteristics of Asian hours:

• Lower volatility: Price movements are often smaller than in the European or U.S. sessions, and trading tends to be more technical.
• Range-bound behavior: Pairs frequently move between a relatively stable high and low rather than trending strongly.
• Regional currencies: The Japanese yen (JPY), Australian dollar (AUD) and New Zealand dollar (NZD) see more activity, as do crosses built on them, such as AUD/JPY.
• Regional data: Economic releases from Japan, Australia, New Zealand and China land during these hours and can move their currencies sharply on the day.

Market observers also associate the Asian hours with more central bank activity, while commercial banks are more prominent in European trading and institutional investors in New York.

The Asian range

Because Asian trading is often quieter, some traders mark the session’s high and low, sometimes called the Asian range, and watch how price behaves near those levels once London opens. A break of the range can be treated as a possible signal, and its boundaries as reference points for stops and targets. This is a charting technique, not a rule of market behavior: London can reverse an Asian move, extend it or ignore the range, so treat it like any other support and resistance level, a zone to test rather than a guarantee.

European session (London)

London defines the European session, but the period really includes several major centers. Trading often picks up before the official 8 a.m. UTC start because Frankfurt, Paris and other continental markets open an hour earlier on local time, and activity frequently stays elevated after the 5 p.m. UTC close.

London is the single biggest forex center. In the BIS April 2025 survey, sales desks in the UK accounted for about 38% of global forex turnover, roughly double the U.S. share.

General characteristics of the London session:

• High liquidity: Deep order books mean large trades can usually be executed without moving prices as much, and spreads on major pairs are often at their tightest.
• European currencies: Pairs involving the euro (EUR), British pound (GBP) and Swiss franc (CHF) are especially active, including EUR/GBP and EUR/CHF.
• Data reactions: Eurozone and UK economic releases tend to produce immediate reactions because a large share of the market is at its desk.
• Setting direction: The London session often establishes the day’s trend, which may carry into New York hours.

Does London start after Asia?

Mostly, but not cleanly. The Asian session runs to 9 a.m. UTC and London starts at 8 a.m. UTC (7 a.m. UTC in British summer time), so the two overlap for about an hour or more, and European pre-market activity begins even earlier.

North American session (New York)

By the time New York opens, Asian markets have been closed for several hours, but Europe is only about halfway through its day. The session is dominated by U.S. activity, with Canada and Latin American centers also contributing. The BIS survey attributed about 19% of global turnover to the U.S.

The North American session can effectively begin before its 1 p.m. UTC (8 a.m. ET) start, driven by early activity in financial futures and commodities and by the timing of U.S. economic releases. Many major U.S. reports, including the monthly nonfarm payrolls report, are released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The session ends around 10 p.m. UTC (5 p.m. ET).

General characteristics of the New York session:

• Morning volatility, quieter afternoons: The morning overlap with London brings some of the biggest moves of the day. After European traders leave, the afternoon can turn more technical and choppy.
• U.S. dollar pairs: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CAD and other dollar pairs are heavily traded.
• Major U.S. events: Payrolls, inflation data, Federal Reserve rate decisions and Fed officials’ remarks can move the whole market, not just dollar pairs.

A common way to summarize the daily rhythm: Asia lays the groundwork, London sets the direction, and New York confirms or reverses it. Treat that as a rough description, not a forecast for any particular day.

Session overlaps and quiet periods

Overlaps matter because more participants means more orders, which tends to bring both higher liquidity and larger price ranges.

Asia and London (about 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. UTC): Hourly ranges in many pairs typically begin to rise around 7 a.m. UTC as European desks come in while Asian desks are still trading. Crosses made of currencies most active in Asian and European hours, such as EUR/JPY and GBP/JPY, tend to respond more to this overlap than to the later London and New York overlap.

London and New York (about 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. UTC, or 8 a.m. to noon ET): This is generally the most active window of the day. The world’s two largest forex centers are open at the same time, U.S. data is released in this period, and EUR/USD and GBP/USD in particular see their heaviest movement. On a New York clock the window stays close to 8 a.m. to noon year-round.

Quiet periods: The late New York afternoon and the gap before the Asian open usually have the least liquidity. Thin markets can mean wider spreads and occasional sharp moves on modest volume.

Scheduled event risk overrides much of this. A major central bank decision or data release can make a normally quiet hour very active, regardless of which session a currency is “supposed” to trade in.

Using sessions in your trading strategy

Three choices shape which session hours suit your trading plan.

1. How much volatility you want: Overlaps and data releases offer larger price swings, which create opportunities and also a greater risk of loss. Range-based traders may prefer quieter Asian hours; breakout and momentum traders often focus on the London open or the London and New York overlap.
2. Which pairs and time frames you trade: EUR/USD moves most during the European and U.S. crossover, AUD/USD and NZD/USD respond to Asia-Pacific data, and yen crosses are active through Asia and into London. Traders who day trade or scalp depend on movement within a session, while a swing trader holding for days cares less about the exact hour of entry.
3. How involved you can be: Some traders sit at the screen during one session; others place orders in advance or use automated rules so they do not need to be awake when markets on the other side of the world are active.

Volatility cuts both ways for entries. For a longer-term or fundamental trader, opening a position during a pair’s most hectic hours can mean a poor fill or a missed entry; for short-term traders who close out by day’s end, that volatility is the point. Because ranges change by session, a stop-loss distance sensible in London may be too tight or too loose in Asian hours; sizing each trade to the stop distance with a position size calculator keeps risk per trade consistent across sessions.

Trading gold (XAU/USD) across sessions

Forex brokers typically offer spot gold against the dollar on a similar near-24-hour schedule, and it is influenced by the same handoffs: Asian demand, the London market (historically central to gold dealing) and U.S. data and Fed decisions that move the dollar. There is no fixed pattern in which London reverses or continues the Asian move.

Weekend hours

Forex trading is available around the clock on weekdays but stops on weekends. The market closes at about 5 p.m. ET on Friday and reopens at about 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, when the Asia-Pacific week begins. In UTC that is roughly 10 p.m. Friday to 10 p.m. Sunday during U.S. standard time, an hour earlier during U.S. daylight time. Exact weekend cutoffs and holiday schedules are set by each broker, and some brokers offer separate weekend products, which are not the same as the interbank market.

Positions held over the weekend are exposed to any news that breaks while the market is shut, and the Sunday open can price that news in with a gap instead of a gradual move.

FAQs

The Bottom Line

Session timing matters most to day traders and scalpers, who depend on movement within a session, and to anyone setting stops. Breakout traders often focus on the London open or the London and New York overlap, while range traders may prefer quieter Asian hours. Because ranges change by session, sizing each trade to its stop distance keeps risk consistent, and orders placed in advance cover hours you cannot watch.