Forex market hours refer to the times when the global currency trading market is open and active.
What Time Does the Forex Market Open in the UK?
The UK forex market opens from Monday to Friday at 08:00 GMT/BST. However, due to overlap with the New York session, trading at many forex brokers in the UK starts at 21:00 on Sunday.
What Time Does the UK Forex Market Close ?
Forex trading hours in the UK close at 16:00 GMT/BST from Monday to Friday, although the global market is still open. Trading does not happen on bank holidays, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.
What Time Do UK Forex Markets Close on Friday?
The UK forex market closes at 16:00 GMT/BST on Friday, but overlap with other sessions means that many UK forex brokers are open for trading until about 22:00. During these times, the liquidity is at its peak, the costs are the lowest and traders can spot many forex trading opportunities.
When is the Best Time to Trade Forex in the UK?
The best time to trade FX in the UK is shortly after the open of London session at 8am (GMT/BST) and then between 12pm and 4pm GMT/BST UK time. At this time, volatility and liquidity in the market is at its highest and therefore traders can find many trading opportunities in the market at this time.
Although the forex market is open 24/5, some times are much better to trade than others. It is best to trade when the market is highly active, and many forex traders open and close positions, resulting in heavy trade volumes.
The two busiest sessions are in London and New York. These two overlap when it is morning in New York and afternoon in London, resulting in the single most active trading period with high volume and liquidity amounting to trillions of pounds.
Most money managers and pension funds use the Reuters/WM benchmark rates for spot and forward foreign exchange to measure performance and determine portfolio valuation.
This rate is set at 16:00 GMT/BST (whichever is the current local time in London).
The Effect of Daylight Savings Time on Forex Trading Hours
Around March/April and October/November, many countries put their clocks backward or forwards as they move to or from daylight saving time (DST). Japan does not use DST, but the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand all use it.
The US generally implements DST a week later than the UK, so take this into account. As of November 2023, the US will most likely have permanent DST. The Southern Hemisphere has seasons inverse to the Northern Hemisphere, so they change forwards around the time the UK is changing backward, and vice versa.
The forex trading hours for the four main sessions and their cities, given in UTC (GMT+0), are shown below. Remember to compensate for BST during the UK summer.
- Pacific – Wellington 22:00 – 05:00 (summer) 21:00 – 04:00 (winter)
- Pacific – Sydney 00:00 – 06:00 (summer) 23:00 – 05:00 (winter)
- Asia – Tokyo 00:00 – 08:00 (summer and winter)
- Asia – Hong Kong/Singapore 01:00 – 09:00 (summer and winter)
- Europe – Frankfurt 06:00 – 18:00 (summer) 07:00 – 19:00 (winter)
- Europe – London 08:00 – 16:00 (summer and winter; but note use of BST in summer)
- America – New York 13:00 – 21:00 (summer) 14:00 – 22:00 (winter)
- America – Chicago 13:00 – 21:00 (summer) 14:00 – 22:00 (winter)
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