The best times to trade: Asian, London and New York sessions

The currency market is open 24 hours from Monday to Friday, but it doesn't move the same at every hour. Most of the volume is concentrated in three sessions, each with its own character.

The three sessions (approximate UTC times)

• Asia (Tokyo): roughly 00:00 to 09:00 UTC. Calmer moves; the ranges London later breaks often form here.
• London: about 07:00 to 16:00 UTC in summer (08:00 to 17:00 in winter). The highest-volume forex session.
• New York: about 12:00 to 21:00 UTC in summer (13:00 to 22:00 in winter). US indices (NAS100, US30, SPX500) open at 13:30 UTC in summer and 14:30 UTC in winter.
• The US and Europe switch clocks on different dates: for two or three weeks a year the opens shift by an hour.

When markets move most

• The London–New York overlap (roughly 12:00–16:00 UTC in summer) is usually the busiest, most volatile stretch.
• High-impact news (US jobs, CPI, rate decisions) moves price in seconds: either have a plan for it or don't trade right before.
• Late Friday hours and holidays often have thin liquidity and wider spreads.

The best time is yours

There's no session that's best for everyone. Some traders win at the London open and lose in New York, and vice versa. The only way to know is to log the session on every trade and look at your results by session after 50–100 trades.

In Katanith the session fills in automatically from your entry time and the analytics show your result in each one, like in the demo. If a session costs you, drop it from your plan: how to build a trading plan.