What is Trading Session?
One of four major forex trading windows defined by financial center business hours — Sydney, Tokyo, London, New York.
The forex market operates 24 hours a day on weekdays through four overlapping sessions tied to financial centers. Each session has distinct characteristics for liquidity, volatility, and trading style.
Sydney session: 22:00-07:00 GMT. Lowest liquidity. Best for AUDUSD, NZDUSD news reactions. Generally quiet otherwise.
Tokyo (Asian) session: 00:00-09:00 GMT. JPY pairs (USDJPY, EURJPY) are most liquid. PBOC and BoJ news lands here. Range-bound trading dominant.
London session: 08:00-17:00 GMT. Most volume of any single session. EUR, GBP, CHF pairs see their biggest moves. ECB and BoE news.
New York session: 13:00-22:00 GMT. USD pairs and gold (XAUUSD) are most active. Non-Farm Payrolls (first Friday of each month), Fed decisions, CPI all land in this window.
London-NY overlap (13:00-17:00 GMT) is the highest-volume, tightest-spread, most-volatile window — preferred by scalpers and day traders for execution quality.