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Home » Forex Trading Academy » Introduction to Forex Trading » Trading Sessions

Trading Sessions

Written by Miro Nikolov
Miro Nikolov
Miro Nikolov is the co-founder of TradingPedia.com and BestBrokers.com. His mission is to help people make profitable investments by giving them access to educational resources and analytics tools.
, | Updated: October 23, 2025

Trading Sessions

This lesson will cover the following

  • Characteristics of a trading day in the Forex market
  • The time frames of the different sessions according to the current time of year

The international currency market has one distinct feature – it is open 24 hours per day, five days a week. A single trading day in the market, however, is not dominated by only one exchange; rather, it involves a network of exchanges and brokers around the globe.

Clock-iconEvery trading day comprises four different parts, which are usually referred to as “trading sessions” by market players. Currency pairs are traded from Sunday afternoon EST (Eastern Standard Time) to Friday afternoon EST. This means that, during the week, there is always at least one financial centre open for business, facilitating investors’ intention to enter into trades. As one market closes for the night, another opens elsewhere on the globe.

However, having four different sessions in a 24-hour day does not mean that each trading session lasts for six hours. These sessions overlap each other.

It is worth mentioning that the distinction of four trading sessions is relative. For instance, when the European trading session ends, this does not mean that all traders there go to bed; it simply indicates that trading activity in the European region is gradually reduced.

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  • Trading Sessions

    • Exclamation-iconBeginner traders should also note that, during the winter period, most countries adjust their clocks to winter time. This causes a shift in the times of the different trading sessions; thus, the degree of overlap can differ depending on the time of year.

    Trading in the currency market opens in New Zealand, followed by Australia, Asia (more precisely Japan), the Middle East, Europe (with London being the major financial centre) and North America. According to data from the Bank for International Settlements, trading in London accounts for 36.7% of total volume, trading in New York City for 17.9%, and trading in Tokyo for 6.2%.

    Bearing in mind the current time of year, we present the trading sessions as follows:

    Summer Time

    10:00 PM11:00 PM12:00 AM01:00 AM02:00 AM03:00 AM04:00 AM05:00 AM06:00 AM07:00 AM08:00 AM09:00 AM10:00 AM11:00 AM12:00 PM01:00 PM02:00 PM03:00 PM04:00 PM05:00 PM06:00 PM07:00 PM08:00 PM09:00 PM10:00 PM
    Sydney 
    overlap-icoOverlap 
    Tokyo 
    overlap-icoOverlap 
    London 
    overlap-icoOverlap 
    New York 

    Winter Time

    09:00 PM10:00 PM11:00 PM12:00 AM01:00 AM02:00 AM03:00 AM04:00 AM05:00 AM06:00 AM07:00 AM08:00 AM09:00 AM10:00 AM11:00 AM12:00 PM01:00 PM02:00 PM03:00 PM04:00 PM05:00 PM06:00 PM07:00 PM08:00 PM09:00 PM10:00 PM
    Sydney 
    overlap-icoOverlap 
    Tokyo 
    London 
    overlap-icoOverlap 
    New York 

    In the table above:

    EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) = UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) – 4 hours

    EST (Eastern Standard Time) = UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) – 5 hours

    Next, we will discuss each of the trading sessions in a little more detail.