Ready to trade with a regulated broker? You’ll be redirected through our secure transition page.
Visit XMThis page contains affiliate links. If you open an account through one of them we may earn a commission, at no cost to you. Commissions never influence our scores, rankings or verdicts — see our methodology.
The four sessions and when they actually open
A "session" is not an exchange bell. Forex has no central exchange; a session is simply the working day of one of the four financial centres that between them cover almost the whole clock. When a centre's banks and funds are at their desks, the currencies they deal in trade with more volume, tighter spreads and cleaner price action.
The hours below are a nine-hour local working day in each centre — 08:00–17:00 in London and New York, 09:00–18:00 in Tokyo and Sydney — converted to UTC. They are given for the northern-hemisphere winter, roughly November to March — the part of the year when London is on GMT and New York is on Eastern Standard Time. In the northern summer London and New York are one hour earlier in UTC, and Sydney, then on its own standard time, is one hour later at 23:00–08:00 UTC; the summer schedule is set out further down.
| Session | UTC | Ghana (GMT, UTC+0) | Nigeria (WAT, UTC+1) | South Africa (SAST, UTC+2) | Kenya (EAT, UTC+3) | UAE (GST, UTC+4) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 22:00–07:00 | 22:00–07:00 | 23:00–08:00 | 00:00–09:00 | 01:00–10:00 | 02:00–11:00 |
| Tokyo | 00:00–09:00 | 00:00–09:00 | 01:00–10:00 | 02:00–11:00 | 03:00–12:00 | 04:00–13:00 |
| London | 08:00–17:00 | 08:00–17:00 | 09:00–18:00 | 10:00–19:00 | 11:00–20:00 | 12:00–21:00 |
| New York | 13:00–22:00 | 13:00–22:00 | 14:00–23:00 | 15:00–00:00 | 16:00–01:00 | 17:00–02:00 |
Tokyo is the only one of the four that never moves: Japan does not observe daylight saving, so its session sits at 00:00–09:00 UTC all year. Sydney, London and New York all shift, and they do not shift on the same dates — which is the source of most of the confusion about session times, and the subject of its own section below.
Why the times you see elsewhere disagree
Two sites can both be right and still print different hours. Some quote the interbank centre's working day (used here), some quote their own broker's server time, and some quote an exchange's futures hours. If a chart's session shading does not line up with a table you have read, check what time zone the platform is set to before assuming either is wrong. A MetaTrader chart shows the broker's server time, which the broker chooses and which is often neither UTC nor your local time.
Session hours in your time zone
None of the five zones covered here observes daylight saving. Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and the UAE hold a fixed offset from UTC all year. London and New York do not. That single asymmetry is the practical point of this page: twice a year the market's schedule slides by an hour against your clock, in two steps a few weeks apart, without your clock ever changing.
Nigeria (WAT, UTC+1)
London opens at 09:00 WAT in winter and 08:00 WAT in summer. The high-volume window that matters most to a Nigerian trader — the London–New York overlap — runs 14:00–18:00 WAT in winter and 13:00–17:00 WAT in summer. That falls in the afternoon either way, while the Asian sessions run through the Nigerian night and early morning.
Kenya and Tanzania (EAT, UTC+3)
East Africa sits two hours ahead of Nigeria. London opens at 11:00 EAT in winter, 10:00 in summer, and the overlap runs 16:00–20:00 EAT in winter and 15:00–19:00 in summer. The New York session does not close until 01:00 EAT in the northern winter, 00:00 in summer, so late-evening trading in Nairobi is still inside a liquid market — but it is the thinning end of it, not the peak.
South Africa (SAST, UTC+2)
South Africa is two hours ahead of London in the northern winter and one hour ahead in summer. London opens at 10:00 SAST in winter, 09:00 in summer, and the overlap runs 15:00–19:00 SAST, shifting to 14:00–18:00 in summer. USD/ZAR is most active during the London session, when the South African banks and the London desks that quote the rand are open at the same time.
United Arab Emirates (GST, UTC+4)
Dubai is the furthest east of the five. Sydney and Tokyo open in the small hours there, though Tokyo's last hours run into the Dubai morning, until 13:00 GST. London opens at 12:00 GST in winter and 11:00 in summer, and the overlap runs 17:00–21:00 GST, moving to 16:00–20:00 in summer. That puts all four winter hours of the overlap, and three of the four summer hours, after a 17:00 finish: more of it than anywhere else on this page.
Ghana (GMT, UTC+0)
Ghana keeps UTC year-round, so every UTC figure on this page is also Ghanaian local time. In the northern summer the market's schedule moves an hour earlier: London opens at 07:00 and the overlap runs 12:00–16:00.
The London–New York overlap
For four hours a day the two largest centres are open at the same time. It is the deepest liquidity of the trading day: the most participants quoting, the tightest spreads on the major pairs, and typically the largest moves on EUR/USD, GBP/USD and XAU/USD. It is also where most scheduled US data lands, which is why the moves are large as well as liquid.
| Overlap | UTC (winter) | UTC (summer) | WAT (winter) | SAST (winter) | EAT (winter) | GST (winter) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney–Tokyo | 00:00–07:00 | 00:00–08:00 | 01:00–08:00 | 02:00–09:00 | 03:00–10:00 | 04:00–11:00 |
| Tokyo–London | 08:00–09:00 | 07:00–09:00 | 09:00–10:00 | 10:00–11:00 | 11:00–12:00 | 12:00–13:00 |
| London–New York | 13:00–17:00 | 12:00–16:00 | 14:00–18:00 | 15:00–19:00 | 16:00–20:00 | 17:00–21:00 |
The local columns show the winter case. In summer the London–New York window moves one hour earlier on your clock, because the London and New York clocks moved and yours did not; the other two windows each stretch by an hour, as the UTC columns show. The summer Sydney–Tokyo figure assumes Sydney is on its standard time, which is the case from early April to early October.
Note the Tokyo–London overlap doubles in summer, from one hour to two. It is thin either way, but it is the window where a JPY cross can start a move that the London session then carries.
What changes when the clocks change
Three of the four centres observe daylight saving, on three different schedules, and the countries in this article observe none. The result is four distinct periods in the year, not two.
| Period | London | New York | Overlap (UTC) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early November to mid-March | GMT | EST | 13:00–17:00 | 4 hours |
| Mid-March to late March | GMT | EDT | 12:00–17:00 | 5 hours |
| Late March to late October | BST | EDT | 12:00–16:00 | 4 hours |
| Late October to early November | GMT | EDT | 12:00–17:00 | 5 hours |
The United Kingdom changes on the last Sunday of March and the last Sunday of October. The United States changes on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November. For the few weeks each year when the two are out of step — two or three in March, one at the turn of October and November — the overlap is five hours instead of four: an extra hour of the day's deepest liquidity that is easy to miss.
Australia runs the opposite way: its daylight saving begins in October and ends in April, so the Sydney session shifts when the northern centres do not.
What this means in practice
If you trade a fixed slot on your local clock, that slot is not pointing at the same part of the market in July as it was in January. A Kenyan trader who sits down at 16:00 EAT is at the start of the overlap in winter and one hour into it in summer. Set your platform to show UTC alongside local time, or recheck the schedule at each of the four clock changes: mid-March and early November for New York, late March and late October for London.
Which pairs move in which session
A currency is most active when its home market is open, for the plain reason that the banks and corporates who need it are at work. That gives a simple rule for choosing what to trade when.
| Pair group | Most active session | Why |
|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/GBP | London, and the New York overlap | European desks are open through London hours; New York joins for the two USD pairs in the overlap |
| USD/JPY, EUR/JPY, AUD/JPY | Tokyo, into the Tokyo–London overlap; USD/JPY also moves on US data | Japanese bank and exporter flow |
| AUD/USD, NZD/USD | Sydney–Tokyo, plus New York for USD-driven moves | Antipodean data releases and Asian risk sentiment |
| USD/CAD | New York | Toronto keeps New York's hours, and Canadian and US data both land at 08:30 New York time |
| USD/ZAR | London | South African and London desks open together |
| XAU/USD (gold) | London–New York overlap | The afternoon London gold price auction, at 15:00 London time, and US data both land here |
A daily schedule on your clock
The tables above give the sessions, the overlaps and the pairs separately. Put together, they make a timetable: six blocks that cover the whole day, each defined by which centres are at their desks, with the pairs worth watching in each. The blocks are bounded by the Tokyo close at 09:00 UTC, which never moves, and by the London and New York opens and closes, which do. The first table is the northern winter; the second is the same day in summer.
| Block | UTC and Ghana (GMT) | Nigeria (WAT) | South Africa (SAST) | Kenya and Tanzania (EAT) | UAE (GST) | Pairs to watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asia, before London opens | 00:00–08:00 | 01:00–09:00 | 02:00–10:00 | 03:00–11:00 | 04:00–12:00 | USD/JPY, AUD/JPY, AUD/USD, NZD/USD |
| Tokyo–London overlap | 08:00–09:00 | 09:00–10:00 | 10:00–11:00 | 11:00–12:00 | 12:00–13:00 | EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY; the first London moves on EUR/USD and GBP/USD |
| London morning | 09:00–13:00 | 10:00–14:00 | 11:00–15:00 | 12:00–16:00 | 13:00–17:00 | EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/GBP, USD/ZAR |
| London–New York overlap | 13:00–17:00 | 14:00–18:00 | 15:00–19:00 | 16:00–20:00 | 17:00–21:00 | EUR/USD, GBP/USD, XAU/USD, USD/CAD; US data lands at the start |
| New York afternoon | 17:00–22:00 | 18:00–23:00 | 19:00–00:00 | 20:00–01:00 | 21:00–02:00 | USD/CAD and the USD majors, on thinning volume |
| New York close to Tokyo open | 22:00–00:00 | 23:00–01:00 | 00:00–02:00 | 01:00–03:00 | 02:00–04:00 | Nothing, unless your strategy is built for it: the thinnest liquidity of the day |
Read along the column for your country. A trader in Johannesburg with three hours to give the market gets the most from 15:00–18:00 SAST in winter: the first three hours of the overlap, including the 08:30 New York data releases at 15:30 SAST. A trader in Dubai with a free evening has the whole overlap at 17:00–21:00 GST. The Asian block is the longest of the six, but it is the home session only for the yen and the Australian and New Zealand dollars; EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/ZAR still trade then, without their home markets at their desks.
The same day in the northern summer
From late March to late October, London and New York run an hour earlier in UTC and Tokyo does not move. The overlap and the New York afternoon keep their length and simply start an hour earlier on your clock. The other four blocks change length: the Asian block and the London morning each lose an hour, the Tokyo–London overlap doubles to two hours, and the stretch after the New York close grows from two hours to three.
| Block | UTC and Ghana (GMT) | Nigeria (WAT) | South Africa (SAST) | Kenya and Tanzania (EAT) | UAE (GST) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asia, before London opens | 00:00–07:00 | 01:00–08:00 | 02:00–09:00 | 03:00–10:00 | 04:00–11:00 |
| Tokyo–London overlap | 07:00–09:00 | 08:00–10:00 | 09:00–11:00 | 10:00–12:00 | 11:00–13:00 |
| London morning | 09:00–12:00 | 10:00–13:00 | 11:00–14:00 | 12:00–15:00 | 13:00–16:00 |
| London–New York overlap | 12:00–16:00 | 13:00–17:00 | 14:00–18:00 | 15:00–19:00 | 16:00–20:00 |
| New York afternoon | 16:00–21:00 | 17:00–22:00 | 18:00–23:00 | 19:00–00:00 | 20:00–01:00 |
| New York close to Tokyo open | 21:00–00:00 | 22:00–01:00 | 23:00–02:00 | 00:00–03:00 | 01:00–04:00 |
In the weeks when the UK and the US are out of step, London is still on its winter hours while New York is already on its summer ones, so take the London times from the winter table and the New York times from this one. That is what produces the five-hour overlap of 12:00–17:00 UTC: 13:00–18:00 WAT, 14:00–19:00 SAST, 15:00–20:00 EAT and 16:00–21:00 GST.
If you trade around a day job
If you work office hours, the useful question is not which session is best but which part of it you can reach. The table assumes a 09:00–17:00 working day on your local clock and counts the hours of the overlap left after work, and the hours of the London session available before it.
| Country | Overlap after work, winter | Overlap after work, summer | London before work, winter | London before work, summer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghana (GMT) | None (ends 17:00) | None (ends 16:00) | 1 hour (08:00–09:00) | 2 hours (07:00–09:00) |
| Nigeria (WAT) | 1 hour (17:00–18:00) | None (ends 17:00) | None (opens 09:00) | 1 hour (08:00–09:00) |
| South Africa (SAST) | 2 hours (17:00–19:00) | 1 hour (17:00–18:00) | None (opens 10:00) | None (opens 09:00) |
| Kenya and Tanzania (EAT) | 3 hours (17:00–20:00) | 2 hours (17:00–19:00) | None (opens 11:00) | None (opens 10:00) |
| UAE (GST) | 4 hours (17:00–21:00) | 3 hours (17:00–20:00) | None (opens 12:00) | None (opens 11:00) |
The further east you are, the more of the overlap lands in your evening: Dubai keeps all four winter hours after work, Accra none. West Africa's compensation is the morning — in summer a trader in Accra has the first two hours of London before a 09:00 start, and a trader in Lagos has one — and the New York afternoon, which runs 17:00–22:00 in Accra and 18:00–23:00 in Lagos in winter. That block is liquid in the USD pairs but thinner than the overlap before it, so expect wider spreads and plan targets accordingly.
The cost of a late shift is not only the spread. Trading the New York afternoon after a full working day, or the small hours because the day was full, is where tired decisions creep in; our piece on why most retail traders lose looks at how that plays out.
Why USD/ZAR belongs in the London rows
USD/ZAR is an exotic pair (see major, minor and exotic pairs), and exotics are where the hour you trade changes the cost most. Its pip is the fourth decimal place, 0.0001 rand per dollar, which works out at ZAR 10 per pip on a standard lot of 100,000 dollars and ZAR 1 on a 0.10 mini lot. Because the pip is priced in rand, that holds at any exchange rate, which makes the cost of trading at the wrong hour easy to count. Every extra pip of spread costs ZAR 10 per standard lot. If the quote at 01:00 SAST were 30 pips wider than the same quote at 11:00 SAST — a hypothetical figure; your platform shows the live spread — a one-lot trade would start ZAR 300 further behind, and a mini-lot trade ZAR 30. Compare the two hours on your own platform before deciding the night is worth it.
The hours to avoid
Two windows cost retail traders money for structural reasons rather than bad luck.
The hours after the New York close
Once New York closes, Sydney, the smallest of the four centres, has the market to itself until Tokyo opens at 00:00 UTC. On the working-day hours used on this page, Sydney opens at 22:00 UTC in the northern winter, just as New York closes at 17:00 New York time. From early April to early October, though, Sydney opens at 23:00 UTC and New York closes at 21:00 UTC, which leaves two hours when none of the four is at its desk; in the weeks either side of that period the gap is one hour. The FX market's trading day also rolls over at the New York close. Liquidity thins, quoted spreads widen, sometimes sharply and most of all on exotics, and a stop placed close to price is much easier to reach. If your strategy is not specifically built for it, this is not a window to hold tight stops through.
Late Friday
Liquidity drains through the last hours of the New York session on Friday as desks close their books for the week. Spreads widen into the close, and any position carried into the weekend is exposed to a gap when the market reopens. An ordinary stop-loss does not protect against that: it becomes a market order once price reaches it, and after a gap the first available price can be well beyond the level you set. Only a guaranteed stop, which some brokers offer for a premium, fixes the exit price. Swap is a separate matter. Spot FX settles two business days after the trade, so the financing for the weekend is usually charged as a triple swap on Wednesday night rather than on Friday; your broker's contract specifications show which day it uses.
Thin hours on an offshore account
Both windows are more dangerous on high leverage. ESMA and FCA rules cap retail leverage at 30:1 on major currency pairs and 20:1 on other pairs, USD/ZAR among them, but many African traders are onboarded by a broker's offshore entity, which can offer far more. Leverage does not change what a pip is worth; it changes how big a position the same deposit can open, and so how many lots a widened spread or a gap is multiplied by. Take the hypothetical 30-pip night-time widening on USD/ZAR from the section above. With $500 of margin used in full at the 20:1 cap, the largest position is $10,000, or 0.10 of a standard lot, and the widening costs ZAR 30. At an illustrative 500:1 the same $500 opens $250,000, or 2.5 lots, and the same 30 pips cost ZAR 750, 25 times as much because the position is 25 times larger. The dollar is the base currency and the pip is priced in rand, so none of these figures depends on an exchange rate. Know which entity holds your account and what leverage it has set — how to verify a broker shows how to check.
Best times if you are starting out
For a new trader, the argument for the London–New York overlap is not that it is exciting but that it is forgiving. Spreads are at their tightest, so each trade costs least to open; liquidity is deep, so orders fill near the price you asked for; and the moves are large enough that a sensible target is reachable without oversized leverage.
The argument against it is that it is also when scheduled news lands, and news is where a beginner's stop is most likely to be jumped rather than filled. The workable compromise is to trade the overlap but to stay flat across the release itself — see our guide to the economic calendar and news events for how to read the schedule.
Whatever window you pick, position size decides whether you survive it. Our guides to pips, lots and position sizing and to leverage and margin cover the arithmetic, and how spreads work explains why the same trade usually costs more at 23:00 UTC than at 14:00.
Trading around scheduled news
Most of the releases that move the majors are published on a fixed local clock in their home centre, which means their UTC time moves with daylight saving exactly as the sessions do.
| Release | Home-centre time | Lands in | Typically affects |
|---|---|---|---|
| US non-farm payrolls | 08:30 New York | Start of the London–New York overlap | USD pairs, gold, indices |
| US CPI | 08:30 New York | Start of the overlap | USD pairs, gold |
| FOMC statement | 14:00 New York | New York session, after London closes | USD pairs, gold, indices |
| Bank of England decision | Midday London | London session | GBP pairs |
| ECB decision | Early afternoon Frankfurt | London session | EUR pairs |
Converted to your clock, the US releases work out as follows. Payrolls and CPI at 08:30 New York time are 13:30 UTC while New York is on EST, from the first Sunday of November to the second Sunday of March: 13:30 in Accra, 14:30 in Lagos, 15:30 in Johannesburg, 16:30 in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and 17:30 in Dubai. For the rest of the year New York is on EDT and each of those is an hour earlier. The FOMC statement at 14:00 New York time is 19:00 UTC in winter — 20:00 WAT, 21:00 SAST, 22:00 EAT, 23:00 GST — and 18:00 UTC in summer. US releases move on the US dates, not the UK ones, so in the out-of-step weeks payrolls lands at its summer time, 12:30 UTC, while London is on GMT.
Release times are occasionally rescheduled and the exact clock times differ between central banks, so confirm them against the official source before you plan a session around one: the BLS release schedule, the FOMC calendar, the Bank of England MPC dates and the ECB Governing Council calendar are the primary sources.
Frequently asked questions
What time does the forex market open in Nigeria?
The trading week opens when Sydney opens on Monday morning Sydney time, which is late Sunday night in Nigeria. On the working-day hours used on this page, that is 23:00 WAT while Sydney is on daylight saving, from early October to early April, and midnight, 00:00 WAT, from early April to early October. Your broker sets its own weekly open, which can differ from this, so check its contract specifications or trading-hours page for the exact time.
What time does the forex market open in Kenya?
Sydney opens at 01:00 EAT on Monday while Sydney is on daylight saving, from early October to early April, and at 02:00 EAT from early April to early October, so the week begins in the small hours of Monday in Nairobi. The London session, which covers the Nairobi working afternoon, opens at 11:00 EAT in the northern winter and 10:00 EAT in summer.
What is the best time to trade forex in South Africa?
The London–New York overlap, which runs 15:00–19:00 SAST in the northern winter and 14:00–18:00 SAST in summer. That is when spreads on the majors are tightest and liquidity is deepest. USD/ZAR specifically is most active earlier, during the London session, when South African and London desks are open together.
When is the London New York overlap?
13:00–17:00 UTC while London is on GMT and New York on EST, and 12:00–16:00 UTC while both are on summer time. For two or three weeks from mid-March, and for one week from late October to early November, the two are out of step and the overlap stretches to five hours, 12:00–17:00 UTC.
What time is US non-farm payrolls in Nigeria and Kenya?
It is released at 08:30 New York time, which is 14:30 WAT and 16:30 EAT from the first Sunday of November to the second Sunday of March, and 13:30 WAT and 15:30 EAT for the rest of the year. The switch follows the US clock change, not the UK one. The BLS occasionally reschedules a release, so check its calendar for the month.
Does the forex market close on weekends?
Yes. Trading stops when the New York session closes on Friday and does not resume until Sydney opens on Monday morning local time. News can still break while the market is shut, so a position held through the weekend can reopen at a very different level, and an ordinary stop-loss is then filled at the first available price, not at the level you set.
Which session is best for beginners?
The London–New York overlap, because tight spreads and deep liquidity make mistakes cheaper and fills more predictable. The caveat is that most scheduled US data also lands at the start of it, so a beginner is usually better off trading the overlap while staying flat across the release itself.
Why do session times change twice a year?
Because London, New York and Sydney observe daylight saving and Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana and the UAE do not. The financial centres move their clocks and yours stays where it is, so the schedule slides by an hour on your clock. Strictly it happens in steps rather than twice: New York moves on the second Sunday of March and London on the last Sunday of March, then London moves back on the last Sunday of October and New York on the first Sunday of November. Sydney changes separately, in early April and early October.
Can I trade forex at night from Africa?
You can — the market is open — but the hours after the New York close are the thinnest of the day. Spreads widen, slippage increases and stops are easier to reach. For traders in East Africa and the Gulf the more useful late window is the New York session itself, which runs until 01:00 EAT and 02:00 GST in the northern winter, and an hour earlier in summer.
What time zone should I set my trading platform to?
Where the platform lets you choose, as cTrader does, use UTC and keep your local time visible alongside it. MetaTrader charts always show the broker's server time, which the broker chooses and which often matches neither UTC nor your local clock; that is the usual reason a candle's timestamp does not match a session table. Work out the server's offset from UTC once, and check it again after each clock change.
