# 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. **Source:** https://propfirmpal.com/forex-market-hours **Generated:** 2026-09-25 **Publisher:** Prop Firm Pal — independent prop firm comparison _Prop Firm Pal earns affiliate commission from some listed firms. This is disclosed on-site and does not affect the computed ranking order._ --- ## Forex trading sessions (summer: US and UK both on daylight time; winter: both on standard time) | Session | Local time | ET summer | ET winter | UTC summer | UTC winter | Most active pairs | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Sydney | 7:00–16:00 Australia/Sydney | 5:00 pm – 2:00 am | 3:00 pm – 12:00 am | 21:00 – 06:00 | 20:00 – 05:00 | AUD/USD, NZD/USD, AUD/JPY | | Tokyo | 9:00–18:00 Asia/Tokyo | 8:00 pm – 5:00 am | 7:00 pm – 4:00 am | 00:00 – 09:00 | 00:00 – 09:00 | USD/JPY, EUR/JPY, AUD/JPY | | London | 8:00–17:00 Europe/London | 3:00 am – 12:00 pm | 3:00 am – 12:00 pm | 07:00 – 16:00 | 08:00 – 17:00 | EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/GBP | | New York | 8:00–17:00 America/New_York | 8:00 am – 5:00 pm | 8:00 am – 5:00 pm | 12:00 – 21:00 | 13:00 – 22:00 | EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/CAD | _Session hours: [Babypips, Forex Trading Sessions](https://www.babypips.com/learn/forex/forex-trading-sessions), read 2026-09-24. Forex has no exchange; brokers and prop firms set their own server hours (e.g. [OANDA](https://www.oanda.com/us-en/trading/hours-of-operation/): Sunday 17:05 – Friday 16:59 New York time)._ ## Session overlaps | Overlap | ET summer | ET winter | UTC summer | UTC winter | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Sydney–Tokyo | 8:00 pm – 2:00 am | 7:00 pm – 12:00 am | 00:00 – 06:00 | 00:00 – 05:00 | | Tokyo–London | 3:00 am – 5:00 am | 3:00 am – 4:00 am | 07:00 – 09:00 | 08:00 – 09:00 | | London–New York | 8:00 am – 12:00 pm | 8:00 am – 12:00 pm | 12:00 – 16:00 | 13:00 – 17:00 | ## 2026 clock changes and session opens in ET | Date | Where | Change | | --- | --- | --- | | 2026-03-08 | New York (US) | Clocks forward | | 2026-03-29 | London (UK) | Clocks forward | | 2026-04-05 | Sydney (Australia) | Clocks back | | 2026-10-04 | Sydney (Australia) | Clocks forward | | 2026-10-25 | London (UK) | Clocks back | | 2026-11-01 | New York (US) | Clocks back | | From | To | Clocks | Sydney (ET) | Tokyo (ET) | London (ET) | New York (ET) | London–NY overlap (ET) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 2026-01-01 | 2026-03-07 | New York EST · London GMT · Sydney AEDT | 3:00 pm – 12:00 am | 7:00 pm – 4:00 am | 3:00 am – 12:00 pm | 8:00 am – 5:00 pm | 8:00 am – 12:00 pm | | 2026-03-08 | 2026-03-28 | New York EDT · London GMT · Sydney AEDT | 4:00 pm – 1:00 am | 8:00 pm – 5:00 am | 4:00 am – 1:00 pm | 8:00 am – 5:00 pm | 8:00 am – 1:00 pm | | 2026-03-29 | 2026-04-04 | New York EDT · London BST · Sydney AEDT | 4:00 pm – 1:00 am | 8:00 pm – 5:00 am | 3:00 am – 12:00 pm | 8:00 am – 5:00 pm | 8:00 am – 12:00 pm | | 2026-04-05 | 2026-10-03 | New York EDT · London BST · Sydney AEST | 5:00 pm – 2:00 am | 8:00 pm – 5:00 am | 3:00 am – 12:00 pm | 8:00 am – 5:00 pm | 8:00 am – 12:00 pm | | 2026-10-04 | 2026-10-24 | New York EDT · London BST · Sydney AEDT | 4:00 pm – 1:00 am | 8:00 pm – 5:00 am | 3:00 am – 12:00 pm | 8:00 am – 5:00 pm | 8:00 am – 12:00 pm | | 2026-10-25 | 2026-10-31 | New York EDT · London GMT · Sydney AEDT | 4:00 pm – 1:00 am | 8:00 pm – 5:00 am | 4:00 am – 1:00 pm | 8:00 am – 5:00 pm | 8:00 am – 1:00 pm | | 2026-11-01 | 2026-12-31 | New York EST · London GMT · Sydney AEDT | 3:00 pm – 12:00 am | 7:00 pm – 4:00 am | 3:00 am – 12:00 pm | 8:00 am – 5:00 pm | 8:00 am – 12:00 pm | ## Weekly open and close Sunday 5:00 pm ET to Friday 5:00 pm ET: Sunday 21:00 – Friday 21:00 UTC while New York is on EDT; Sunday 22:00 – Friday 22:00 UTC while New York is on EST. CME currency futures keep futures hours instead: https://propfirmpal.com/futures/market-hours. ## Frequently asked questions ### 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 pages - [Stock market holidays 2026 (NYSE & Nasdaq)](https://propfirmpal.com/stock-market-holidays-2026) — markdown: https://propfirmpal.com/stock-market-holidays-2026.md - [How many trading days in 2026](https://propfirmpal.com/trading-days-2026) — markdown: https://propfirmpal.com/trading-days-2026.md - [CME futures holiday schedule 2026](https://propfirmpal.com/futures/holiday-calendar-2026) — markdown: https://propfirmpal.com/futures/holiday-calendar-2026.md - [Futures market hours: open now?](https://propfirmpal.com/futures/market-hours) — markdown: https://propfirmpal.com/futures/market-hours.md - [Prop firm guides & trading reference](https://propfirmpal.com/learn) - [Stock prop firms compared](https://propfirmpal.com/stocks) - [Futures prop firms compared](https://propfirmpal.com/futures)