Forex Market Trading Hours

The ability of the Forex to trade over a 24-hour period is due in part to different time zones and the fact it is comprised of a network of computers, rather than any one physical exchange that closes at a particular time. When you hear that the U.S. dollar closed at a certain rate, it simply means that that was the rate at market close in New York. But it continues to be traded around the world long after New York’s close, unlike securities.

Each day of forex trading starts with the opening of the Australasia area, followed by Europe and then North America. As one region’s markets close another opens, or has already opened, and continues to trade in the forex market. Often these markets will overlap for a couple hours providing some of the most active forex trading. So if a forex trader in Australia wakes up at 3am and decides to trade currency, they will be unable to do so through Forex dealers located in Australasia but they can make as many trades as they want through European or North American dealers. With all of this action happening across borders with little attention to time and space, the sum is that there is no point during the trading week that a participant in the Forex market can’t potentially make a currency trade.

If you need to know the exact times that the markets open and close, you have to take time zones into consideration. It is very simple when expressed in GMT. This is Greenwich Mean Time. This is the standard (winter) time in Greenwich, London which is the point of zero longitude on the globe.

The normal Forex market hours are 22.00 Sunday GMT to 22.00 Friday GMT.

The hours of the different major national currency markets are as follows: