Friday, April 3, 2009

Forex Market Sessions

By Hass67

Stock trading and forex trading are altogether two totally different beasts. Stock exchanges are open only for a fixed time each day. You can only trade stocks during this time. On the other had the forex markets are open 24 hours, 5 days a week.

This continuous 24 hour trading makes forex markets somewhat confusing for the beginners. Forex is traded Over the Counter (OTC) and there is essentially no open and close of the market, many new traders find it hard to adjust.

Now, how to provide a open and close session for each day so that you dont have to sit in front of your computer all day getting yourself exhausted. An ingenious way is to divide the day into three eight hour session.

Again divide each 8 hour session in 4 hours by using 4 hour charts. As you will read this article, I will explain how this division is logical and can help you understand the forex markets. Forex markets are basically controlled by three money centers and these three sessions will help you identify the risk appetite and the price action for each.

The three major money centers that affect the forex markets everyday are namely: Asia, London and New York. We will call our three trading sessions, the Asian, the London and the New York Session.

Asian Market Session: Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore are the main cities that participate in this session. Major players are the export corporations and the central banks. Sydney opens and with that the forex markets become alive each day. Most of the price action that takes place in this session is unsustainable and jumpy.

London Market Session: London is the center of the global forex markets. The price action that takes place during this session forms the trend in the rest of the day trading. London forex markets are deep and highly developed. London market is also assisted by Paris, Geneva and Frankfurt. Since lot of money is needed to move this market, these moves give a lot of information for the traders.

New York Market Session: New York is second to London. Both New York and London overlap in the morning when New York is opening and London is closing. This is the best time of the day for savvy traders to trade as there is a lot of price action during this time.

The following table gives important times of the day that any forex trader needs to know: 00:00 GMT-Sydney Opens. 11:00 GMT-London opens. 15:00 GMT- London becomes very active. 17:00 GMT- London is active and New York opens. 18:00 GMT- London and Europe closes. 19:00 GMT- New York and Chicago getting ready for a close!

The overlap between London and New York is when major price moves take place. London is in fact the trend setter in forex as well as fashion. - 22871

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