Best Times To Trade Forex

As you know, the Forex market operates around the clock, 5 days a week. This is one of
the strong points of currency trading for retail traders: you can find good trade setups at
almost any time of the day.
However, what many beginner traders fail to remember is that not every single hour of
the day is a good time to trade. In this article, I will point out the best times to trade Forex,
and why.
What Are The Conditions For Favourable Trading?
Generally speaking, you’ll want to enter into trades when there is high liquidity in the
market. High liquidity helps to reduce slippage, while at the same time providing better
opportunities for large market moves and thus larger profits.
In times of low liquidity when relatively few traders are active, market prices are usually
flat. This reduces your chances of making money since you’ll need the market to move in
order to profit.
Another reason why you should trade during times of high liquidity is because the large
trading volume makes it harder (and more expensive) for the financial institutions to
artificially manipulate market prices. Stop-loss hunting for example, is much more
expensive to carry out during times of high liquidity.
Here are the times when liquidity in the market is typically the highest:
The London Session
The London market opens at 8am GMT (3am EST) and closes at 5pm GMT (12pm EST).
Most of the daily trading volume occurs during this time.
The currencies most actively traded during this period are the USD, EUR, GBP, CHF and
JPY.
The New York Session
New York opens at 1pm GMT (8am EST) and closes at 10pm GMT (5pm EST). This is
the second largest trading period in terms of transaction volume.
The Asian Session
Last but not least, the Asian session opens in Tokyo at 12am GMT (7pm EST) and closes
at 9am GMT (4am EST). Compared to the London and New York sessions, the Asian
session usually experiences less price volatility. However, some good currency moves
may be observed every now and then.