Trade Stock Indices

Trading Market Hours and The 3 Major Sessions

London Close Charts

To maximize the number of trading opportunities during these Index hours, it is important to be aware of the times when the trading market is busiest. This is the time that most trade activity forms.

Even though there is no official open & close time during the week, it can be broken up in to 3 major Indices sessions - Tokyo, London and New York market sessions.

However, although it seems not to be very crucial at the start, the correct time to trade is one of the most important points required to be a successful trader.

The best time is when the trading market is most active & therefore has the biggest volume of transactions. A more active market creates a good opportunity to make some profit while a calm & slow one is literally a waste of your time resource - turn off your Desktop computer PC and don't even bother trading at this time.

Not all the times are suitable, that is because the volatility keeps changing. Below is a guide outlining the schedule of Index Sessions. The time used is GMT 0

The Most Active Trading Market Session Overlaps and The 3 Major Sessions

The 3 major sessions are:

  1. Asian Session Times( Tokyo ): 00:00 - 9:00 GMT
  2. European Session Hours( London ): 7:00 to 17:00 GMT
  3. U.S. Session Times( New York ): 13:00 - 22:00 GMT

Index Sessions Overlaps

There are hours when 2 sessions are overlapped:

London + Tokyo over-lap - 7:00 to 9:00 GMT

New York + London over-lap - 13:00 - 17:00 GMT

At these over-lapping market hours you'll find the highest volume of transactions & therefore more chances to win during these hours.

This means that the lion share of transactions is happening between the London session and US market session. Naturally this is the best time to earn profits.

The prices moves a lot during the New York and London Sessions because Multinational companies, hedge funds, managed funds & banks are open for trading.

During this period, multinational companies will engage in trading indices to support international business activities. Hedge funds and managed funds will also participate in index trading for investment reasons. Meanwhile, banks will facilitate significant monetary exchanges for clients, which might include tourists traveling worldwide or individuals needing to convert currency for purchases or transactions in other countries.

This makes the trading market very liquid at this time and the high volume of transactions means that prices move a lot. At this time the charts will in general move in a specific direction & form a short-term trend.

As a trader, you may want to participate when others are placing their orders since this is when there is sufficient liquidity and numerous opportunities to profit. With high liquidity, price movements tend to be more predictable, unlike periods of low liquidity that can lead to erratic price movements constrained within a range without a clear direction.

Once you trade indices for a while you will get to know that is easier to make money when the trading market is moving up or moving down, unlike when it is in a range.

Asian Session Characteristics:

  1. Least volatile of the 3 sessions
  2. Account for 15 % of daily transaction turnover
  3. Typical 20 -30 pips moves

European Session Characteristics:

  1. Most volatile of the 3 sessions
  2. 35 % of daily transaction volume
  3. Typical 90 -150 pip moves

USA Session Characteristics:

  1. 2nd most volatile of the 3 sessions
  2. Accounts for 25% of daily trade turnover
  3. Focuses on US economic news

US & Europe Market Session Overlaps Characteristics:

  1. Combines the two most volatile trading sessions
  2. Accounts for 60 % of the total daily transaction turnover
  3. Focuses on US & European economic/fundamental news
  4. Fast moving prices and trends in a particular direction

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