Trade Stock Indices

Trading Market Hours and The 3 Major Sessions

London Close Charts

To get the most chances to trade during these Index times, it's key to know when the trading market is busiest. This is when most of the trading happens.

Even though there aren't official open and close times during the week, you can break things up into three main index sessions - Tokyo, London, and New York.

However, even though it may not seem that important at first, knowing when to trade is a key thing for being a trader who makes money.

The optimal time for trading is when the market is most active, resulting in the highest transaction volume. A more active market presents a favorable opportunity for profit, whereas a calm and slow market is essentially a waste of your time - turn off your desktop computer and refrain from trading during such periods.

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

Sometimes there are hours when two sessions overlap:

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

New York and London overlap from 13:00 to 17:00 GMT.

Overlap hours bring top trade volume. You get more win trades then.

Most trades occur between the London session and the US market session. This period offers the top chance to make gains.

Prices change a lot during the New York and London times because big companies, funds, and banks are open for trading.

In this time, big companies from different countries trade indexes to help their global business. Hedge funds and managed funds join in to invest. Banks handle large money swaps for customers. This can include travelers or people changing cash for buys abroad.

This makes the trading market very active at this time, and the large number of trades means prices change a lot. Usually, charts will move in a certain way and create a short trend at this time.

As a trader, you might want to trade when many others are doing so, because this means there are enough buyers and sellers, offering more chances to make money. With enough activity, price changes are usually easier to predict, unlike times with less activity, which can cause prices to move randomly without a clear direction.

After trading indices for some time, it's evident that profits are easier to make when markets exhibit upward or downward momentum compared to range-bound conditions.

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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