Best Market Hours to Trade

If you want to be profitable in Forex, it is vital to know how to trade. However, knowing when to trade is also a very important condition to succeed in Forex. The market behaves differently depending on the time of the day and the day of the week. It is a well known fact for all experienced Forex traders that trading is easier when the market is busy and it moves in large and predictable waves. On the contrary, when trading is slow and liquidity decreases, the market itself becomes unpredictable and it is easy to lose money. If you want to trade when the market is most active, then learn these three simple rules:

  1. There are several major regional Forex trading sessions — Tokyo (0:00–7:00 GMT), London (8:00–17:00 GMT), and New York (13:00–22:00 GMT).
  2. The market becomes more active when the two biggest trading sessions overlap — London and New York(13:00–17:00 GMT).
  3. Trading is more active in the middle of the week — particularly Tuesday and Wednesday. Friday is the worst day to trade. Not the least due to the fact that positions left open on Friday night have a chance of a negative weekend gap occurring on Monday opening.

So, to trade with the best market conditions available, you just need to trade on Tuesday and Wednesday from 1 to 5 PM GMT. Of course, not everybody can trade during this time period. In that case, I would recommend setting up stop and limit orders to catch the most juicy price movements.


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