London–New York overlap
Roughly three hours when both centres trade at once — four for the one week a year they change clocks on different dates. Largest volume, usually the tightest spreads, and most US data.
Each session is defined once, in the clock its own market keeps, and converted from there. London and New York shift for daylight saving on different dates; Tokyo and Riyadh never shift. That is four clock changes a year a static table gets wrong, and none that this one does.
Session open now: London. The overlap opens in 1h 15m.
Session hours are a market convention, not the opening bell of a central exchange — forex has no single venue. Measurement, not advice.
| Session | Saudi Arabia | UAE | Egypt | Morocco | Most active |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asian (Tokyo) | 03:00 – 11:00 | 04:00 – 12:00 | 03:00 – 11:00 | 00:00 – 08:00 | JPY · AUD · NZD |
| London open | 10:00 – 18:30 | 11:00 – 19:30 | 10:00 – 18:30 | 07:00 – 15:30 | EUR · GBP · CHF |
| New York | 15:30 – 23:00 | 16:30 – 00:00 | 15:30 – 23:00 | 12:30 – 20:00 | USD · CAD |
| Overlap — deepest liquidity | 15:30 – 18:30 | 16:30 – 19:30 | 15:30 – 18:30 | 12:30 – 15:30 | All |
| Dead zone | 23:00 – 03:00 | 00:00 – 04:00 | 23:00 – 03:00 | 20:00 – 00:00 | — |
Roughly three hours when both centres trade at once — four for the one week a year they change clocks on different dates. Largest volume, usually the tightest spreads, and most US data.
Between the New York close and the Tokyo open. Volume falls and spreads usually widen, which raises the cost of entering.
A trader in Dubai or Riyadh can watch the day's deepest hours in the evening — where a European watches them mid-afternoon.
Asian (Tokyo), London and New York. They are market conventions rather than the opening hours of a central exchange — forex has no single venue — and they describe when the banks in each region are most active in their own currencies.
For roughly three hours, and four for the week each year when London and New York change clocks on different dates. It is the deepest liquidity of the day: spreads are usually tightest and most US data is released inside it. The table above shows the window in your time zone, computed now.
London is usually deepest in EUR, GBP and CHF pairs; New York in USD and CAD; the Asian session in JPY, AUD and NZD. This describes where volume tends to sit, not where anyone should trade.