| Updated: October 23, 2025North American Trading Session
This lesson will cover the following
- Basic features of trading during the North American session
- Advantages and disadvantages
As we have already explained in previous articles, the North American trading session, also referred to as the New York session, begins between 12:00 and 13:00 GMT, depending on the season, and winds down between 21:00 and 22:00 GMT. In U.S. time, this corresponds to a regular working day – 08:00-17:00 EST/EDT.
Unlike the one-hour overlap between the first two sessions of the day, when American trading hours begin, the European session is only halfway through. This means the European and U.S. sessions share a four-hour window, during which you will often see a marked increase in liquidity and volatility provided by both London and New York market participants.
The North American trading session ranks second in trading volume, accounting for roughly 17-18% of overall turnover. It is dominated by activity from the U.S., supplemented by contributions from Canada, Mexico and several South American countries. As one would expect, the main participant in these trades is the U.S. dollar, which is involved in 80-85% of all transactions executed during American trading hours. This is hardly surprising, given that the dollar featured on one side of 87% of all trades on the foreign-exchange market as of April 2013. Consequently, traders should pay particular attention to any currency pair that includes the greenback.
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Despite the dominant role of the U.S. dollar, almost every pair can be traded during the American session, especially during the four-hour overlap with the European session. Not only is there heightened activity due to the increased number of traders from both sides of the Atlantic, but U.S. banks also exchange billions of dollars early in the morning between themselves and with their European counterparts, such as Deutsche Bank, the largest liquidity provider in the world.
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Another aspect to consider is the release of keenly awaited U.S. economic data, which can cause rapid moves in the dollar crosses. The majority of such market-moving releases are published during the U.S. morning – 13:30-15:00 GMT – coinciding with the European session overlap. Another event of utmost importance, which echoes throughout the global financial markets, is the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, usually held at around 18:00 GMT, while the minutes are released roughly three weeks later at about the same time.
It is also worth remembering that, while overall market activity generally follows the trend of the major crosses, pairs comprising currencies from a given session tend to experience the greatest volatility during that session. For example, the USD/CAD pair is typically most active during U.S. trading hours, whereas a cross such as EUR/JPY will see its highest volatility during the Asian-European overlap.
Another fact worth noting is that Friday evenings are usually very calm, as the Asian and European markets have already closed for the weekend. Consequently, the remaining U.S. market participants experience low volume and volatility, making it harder to position themselves and profit, especially for novice traders. At the same time, sudden price reversals can occur despite the muted activity, as some traders take profits while others close positions to avoid additional risk exposure to news over the weekend.