Forex market hours
When the Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York sessions open and close — in Eastern Time, UTC and your own time zone — and which of them is open right now.
What are forex market hours?
The forex market is open 24 hours a day, five days a week: from Sunday 5:00 pm ET to Friday 5:00 pm ET. Trading moves through four sessions — Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York — and is busiest from 8:00 am – 12:00 pm ET, when London and New York overlap. Session times shift in March, April, October and November as the US, UK and Australia change clocks, and each broker or prop firm sets its own exact server hours.
Which forex sessions are open now?
Checked in your browser against each city’s own clock, daylight saving included. Holidays are not applied.
Checking the time in your browser…
Forex market
Sun 5 pm – Fri 5 pm ET
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Sydney session
AUD/USD, NZD/USD, AUD/JPY
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Tokyo session
USD/JPY, EUR/JPY, AUD/JPY
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London session
EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/GBP
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New York session
EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/CAD
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Forex trading sessions
Each session is its city’s business day. Summer is while the US and UK are both on daylight time, winter while both are on standard time; the in-between weeks are below.
Session
Local time
ET, summer
ET, winter
UTC, summer
UTC, winter
Most active pairs
Session hours: Babypips, Forex Trading Sessions, read 2026-09-24. Forex has no exchange, so these are conventions; brokers and prop firms set their own server hours. Times converted with each city’s daylight-saving rules.
Session overlaps
When two centres are open at once, volume and spreads are at their best.
Overlap
ET, summer
ET, winter
UTC, summer
Length
The London–New York overlap is the busiest stretch of the forex day: both of the largest trading centres are open, and EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY trade their tightest spreads. The Tokyo–London handover is shorter and matters most for yen and euro crosses. After New York closes, the market is at its quietest until Sydney and Tokyo pick up.
2026 daylight saving changes
The US, UK and Australia change clocks on different Sundays, and Japan never does, so session times in ET move through the year.
Date
Where
Change
Period
Clocks
Sydney (ET)
Tokyo (ET)
London (ET)
New York (ET)
London–NY overlap
Computed from each city’s time-zone rules. Sydney and Tokyo open on the previous evening in ET.
Forex sessions in your time zone
The next session of each, converted by your browser.
Sydney (7:00–16:00 local)
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Tokyo (9:00–18:00 local)
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London (8:00–17:00 local)
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New York (8:00–17:00 local)
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Weekly open and close
The forex week opens at Sunday 5:00 pm ET and closes at Friday 5:00 pm ET — Sunday 21:00 – Friday 21:00 UTC while New York is on EDT, and Sunday 22:00 – Friday 22:00 UTC while New York is on EST. The 5:00 pm New York close is also when brokers roll open positions to the next value date and charge or pay swap.
Exact hours differ by broker. OANDA, for example, opens forex at 5:05 pm and closes at 4:59 pm New York time, with a six-minute pause every day at the rollover (OANDA hours of operation). CME currency futures keep futures hours instead — Sunday 6:00 pm to Friday 5:00 pm ET with a daily one-hour break (futures market hours).
Forex hours at prop firms
A forex prop firm’s hours are its broker’s or platform’s hours, and its rules run on that server’s clock: the time the daily loss limit resets, the cut-off for holding over the weekend, and any restriction around news. Those differ from firm to firm, so read the rules for the account you buy — or compare forex prop firms side by side.
Forex keeps trading on US stock market holidays, with thinner liquidity in the dollar pairs. The 2026 stock market holiday calendar lists those days.
FAQs — forex market hours
Session conventions checked 2026-09-24; times computed from each city’s time-zone rules.
What time does the forex market open on Sunday?
At 5:00 pm New York time (ET) on Sunday, when the Sydney session begins the trading week. That is 21:00 UTC while New York is on daylight time and 22:00 UTC in winter. Brokers differ by a few minutes — OANDA, for example, opens at 5:05 pm.
What time does the forex market close on Friday?
At 5:00 pm ET on Friday, the New York close. Liquidity thins well before then, and many prop firms require positions to be closed before the weekend.
What is the best time to trade forex?
The London–New York overlap, 8:00 am – 12:00 pm ET for most of the year, has the most volume in EUR/USD, GBP/USD and the other dollar pairs. The Tokyo session is the most active for yen pairs.
Do forex session times change with daylight saving time?
Yes. The US, UK and Australia change clocks on different dates and Japan does not change at all, so a session’s ET and UTC times move several times a year. For three weeks in March and one week around the end of October, London opens an hour later in ET than usual and the London–New York overlap lasts five hours instead of four.
Is the forex market open on holidays?
Mostly yes. Forex has no exchange, so it trades through national holidays with thinner liquidity in the affected currency. Around Christmas and New Year’s Day most brokers close or shorten hours — check your broker’s holiday schedule.
Are forex prop firm hours the same as the market’s?
Not exactly. A prop firm trades through a broker or platform with its own server time, daily break and rollover, and adds its own rules — news restrictions, weekend-holding bans, a daily-loss reset at a set server time. Read the firm’s rules for the times that apply to your account.
Related reference
Market calendars and hours, and where they meet prop firm rules.
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