CurrenlyzerWhat Time Does the Forex Market Open and Close? (In Your Time)
The forex week opens on Sunday evening (about 21:00 to 22:00 UTC) and closes on Friday evening (about 21:00 UTC). Convert those hours to your time zone with the times below; the first candles of the week in our database are in the 21:00 and 22:00 UTC hours.
Forex trades five days a week. The exact opening and closing time depends on your broker and the season, so use the strip below to see the sessions at this moment, and the times shown in your own time zone where your browser allows it. The hours are measured, not assumed: the table of candles in our database starts and ends where the market does.
Which sessions are open right now
The live strip needs JavaScript.
The sessions by hour (UTC)
| Session | Opens (UTC) | Closes (UTC) |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 21:00 | 07:00 |
| Tokyo | 00:00 | 10:00 |
| London | 07:00 | 17:00 |
| New York | 13:00 | 23:00 |
These are the hours Currenlyzer draws on its charts. Sessions move one hour with daylight saving time in New York and London, so check the clock for your own date.
How busy each hour really is
Across the seven major pairs the busiest hour is 12:00–13:00 UTC (1.57 times a normal hour), followed by 14:00–15:00 UTC and 13:00–14:00 UTC. The quietest hour is 20:00–21:00 UTC (0.60 times a normal hour). The sessions have names, but the hours inside them are not equal, and the overlap of London and New York is where the chart usually rises.
How to use the session times
The session names are a map, not a rule. Use them to know who is in the market: Tokyo traders move the yen and the Australian dollar, London traders the euro and sterling, and New York traders the dollar and the US data. The activity chart then tells you how much that matters in each hour. If you trade one pair, the table of its busiest hour in the dashboard is more useful than any session name.
Why the hours differ between sources
Sources disagree on the exact opening hours because the sessions have no official time, and because local business hours shift with daylight saving. We use the hours drawn in the Currenlyzer dashboard so that the article and the tool say the same thing. The activity chart is measured and does not depend on the definition.
How to check this in Currenlyzer
- Open the scanner. It lists every symbol with its reading for the current hour: Busy, Normal or Quiet.
- Sort by the busiest now or by the usual range, and filter by currency.
- Click a symbol to open its analyzer, where the hours of every weekday and the number of days counted are shown.
How we count
The numbers come from the live price feed of Currenlyzer: one-minute prices are built into hourly and daily candles, all in UTC. The range of a candle is its high minus its low. We use finished candles only, and we leave out hours when the market is closed and days that are too thin to count (the first hours of the Sunday open, short holiday days), so a closed hour is never averaged in as zero. Averages cover the last 30 days for the daily range and the last 60 days for hours, unless the text says otherwise. Pips follow the dashboard: one pip is 0.0001 on most pairs, 0.01 on yen pairs and 0.10 on gold. The same method is used in the dashboard.
Frequently asked questions
What time does forex open on Sunday?
Around 21:00 to 22:00 UTC. Our data shows the first hourly candles of the week at 21:00 and 22:00 UTC for the major pairs.
What time does forex close on Friday?
Around 21:00 to 22:00 UTC. Gold and many indices stop slightly earlier.
Is forex open on Saturday?
No. There are no candles for forex pairs or gold on Saturday. Crypto trades through the weekend.
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Historical statistics for information only. This is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell. Past patterns do not predict future moves. Trading leveraged products carries a high risk of loss. Read the full disclaimer.