Market Hours (UTC +1)

Forex Session Times in London

List of Forex Sessions

What is The Best Time To Trade Forex in London?

1. At The Start of the London Forex Session

The London forex trading session starts at 7 AM.

You should wake early to trade forex at exactly 7 AM because that's when most the institutional traders in London execute their deals.

You will see faster price movement early in the morning when compared to later in the morning.

The best time to trade EUR/USD is at the start of the London session between 7 AM & 9 AM.

2. At The Overlap of London & New York Forex Sessions

Overlap in forex means when both London & New York sessions are online simultaneously.

The New York session forex time in London starts at 1 PM and ends at 9 PM.

The London - New York sessions overlap happens between 1 pm to 5 pm and this is one of the best times to trade forex due to traders on two continents being active.

The best time to trade NASDAQ in London, is during the New York session around 1 PM; because the NASDAQ exchange will be open for business at that time so you get lower spreads.

What is the London Session Forex Time?

The London session starts by 7 AM and ends by 5 PM. During this hours, you get better liquidity when trading pairs that contain the GBP.

What is the New York Session Forex Time?

The New York session starts by 1 PM and ends by 9 PM .

During the NY session, you get better liquidity when trading pairs that contain the USD. You can also trade indices like S & P 500 & Nasdaq during the New York session.

What Time Does the Forex Market Open on Sunday in London?

The forex market opens on Sunday by 10 pm London time.

What Time Does the Forex Market Close on Friday in London?

On Fridays, the online forex market in London closes by 10 PM.

When Not To Trade Forex in London

1. Asian Forex Session

The Asian forex trading session starts by 9 PM & ends by 7 AM.

The Asian forex trading session is not the best time to trade forex because most of the world is asleep at that time & mostly people in Asia are online.

During the Asian forex session you are likely to witness slow price movement, low liquidity & high spreads.

During the Asian session, the most active participants are Asian banks & manufacturing companies in Asia.

Pairs like the AUD/USD & USD/JPY are best traded during the Asian session.

2. Monday Mornings (sluggish markets)

Monday mornings around 7 till 9 AM are not a good time to trade forex in London because of the weekend effect.

On Monday mornings the market starts sluggishly with settlement of transactions that were rolled over from the weekend. On Monday mornings you may not see the kind of fast price movement that you are used to.

If you trade on Monday mornings you may end up paying a higher spread & this could affect your profits.

On Monday mornings, there is usually a gap on the charts (because no trading happened on Saturday & Sunday) and this gap makes technical analysis more difficult.

3. Friday Afternoons

On Friday mornings the markets will be extremely busy because everyone is rushing to close for the weekend. This rush will cause brokers to widen their spread.

However, on Friday afternoons the rush dies down and the markets become sluggish because most big traders have closed for the weekend. Again, the brokers will widen their spreads during sluggish markets.

How To Convert Forex Sessions From EST to London Time

EST means Eastern Standard Time; to convert EST into London time, just add +5 hours to the EST.

Example the forex market opens by 5 PM EST every Sunday, so to convert to London time simply add +5 to give 10 PM.