Sydney / Tokyo
00:00 – 06:00 UTC
6 hours with both centres open. A quiet overlap: liquidity improves but ranges stay narrow.
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The currency market never closes during the week, but it is nowhere near equally liquid at every hour. This page maps the four trading sessions onto a single 24-hour UTC clock, marks the overlaps where spreads are tightest, and sets out the best window for each major pair.
Highlighted columns are hours when two centres are open at once. Peak coverage is 2 sessions simultaneously.
| Session | UTC window | Local window | Share of volume | Lead currencies | Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 21:00 – 06:00crosses midnight · 00:00–06:00, 21:00–00:00 | 07:00 - 16:00 AEST | 6% | AUD, NZD | The first session to open after the weekend. Ranges are narrow, spreads are at their widest, and the Aussie and kiwi carry most of the flow. |
| Tokyo | 00:00 – 09:00 | 09:00 - 18:00 JST | 18% | JPY, AUD, CNY | Asian corporate and exporter flow dominates. Yen crosses trend, ranges are respected, and the 05:00 GMT Tokyo fix can produce a sharp, short-lived move. |
| London | 07:00 – 16:00 | 08:00 - 17:00 BST | 43% | EUR, GBP, CHF | The deepest session of the day and the one that sets the daily range. European data lands in the first two hours and the 15:00 GMT WM/R fix concentrates hedging flow. |
| New York | 12:00 – 21:00 | 08:00 - 17:00 EDT | 33% | USD, CAD, MXN | US data prints at 12:30 GMT into an already busy London book. Liquidity is excellent until London closes, then thins quickly through the afternoon. |
00:00 – 06:00 UTC
6 hours with both centres open. A quiet overlap: liquidity improves but ranges stay narrow.
07:00 – 09:00 UTC
2 hours with both centres open. A short handover window where Asian positioning meets the European open.
12:00 – 16:00 UTC
4 hours with both centres open. The deepest window of the trading day and where most US data lands.
| Pair | Best window | Why | Hours to avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 12:00 - 16:00 GMT | The London-New York overlap is where both legs of the pair are simultaneously at full depth, so spreads are tightest and follow-through is best. | 21:00 - 00:00 GMT, when both centres are shut and quotes widen sharply. |
| GBP/USD | 07:00 - 16:00 GMT | Sterling only trades properly while London is open. UK data lands at 06:00 GMT and the reaction develops through the morning. | 00:00 - 06:00 GMT, when Asian desks quote sterling defensively. |
| USD/JPY | 00:00 - 06:00 and 12:00 - 16:00 GMT | Tokyo supplies genuine exporter and pension flow in the morning; the New York session supplies the US-rate impulse in the afternoon. | 09:00 - 12:00 GMT, the gap between the Tokyo close and the US open. |
| AUD/USD | 00:00 - 06:00 GMT | Australian and Chinese data print during the Asian session, and Aussie liquidity is at its deepest while Sydney and Tokyo are both open. | 16:00 - 21:00 GMT, when the Aussie drifts on New York afternoon flow. |
| USD/CAD | 12:30 - 16:00 GMT | Canadian and US data are released the same minute, and Toronto and New York desks are both fully staffed. | 21:00 - 07:00 GMT, when the loonie has essentially no local market. |
| EUR/GBP | 07:00 - 12:00 GMT | The pure European morning, before US flow arrives to dominate both legs, is when the cross reflects genuine relative pricing. | After 16:00 GMT, when the cross tends to drift with no fresh European input. |
| XAU/USD | 13:00 - 17:00 GMT | Gold takes its cue from US real yields, so the hours around the US data window and the London fix carry the most volume. | 22:00 - 01:00 GMT, when futures volume is at its daily low. |
When a centre is closed its currencies still trade, but in a much thinner book. Expect wider spreads, compressed ranges and a higher chance of slippage on stops.
| Date | Holiday | Country | Affects | Liquidity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Aug 2026 | Bank Holiday | AU | Sydney session | Thin liquidity |
| 11 Aug 2026 | Mountain Day | JP | Tokyo session | Full close |
| 17 Aug 2026 | Assumption Day (observed) | FR | European bank settlement | Partial |
| 31 Aug 2026 | Summer Bank Holiday | GB | London session | Full close |
| 7 Sep 2026 | Labor Day | US | New York session | Full close |
| 21 Sep 2026 | Respect for the Aged Day | JP | Tokyo session | Full close |
| 12 Oct 2026 | Thanksgiving | CA | Toronto settlement | Partial |
| 26 Nov 2026 | Thanksgiving | US | New York session | Full close |
| 27 Nov 2026 | Day after Thanksgiving | US | New York session | Partial |
| 25 Dec 2026 | Christmas Day | GB | All sessions | Full close |
| 28 Dec 2026 | Boxing Day (observed) | GB | London session | Full close |
| 1 Jan 2027 | New Year's Day | GB | All sessions | Full close |
The trading day is a relay. Sydney opens first with thin, range-bound conditions, Tokyo adds genuine corporate and institutional flow, London arrives with the deepest book of the day, and New York overlaps London for four hours before carrying the market alone into the evening. Where you sit in that relay determines what kind of behaviour you should expect from price.
Range and mean-reversion approaches tend to work better in the Asian session, where volatility is low and levels get respected. Breakout and trend-following approaches suit the London open and the London-New York overlap, where there is enough volume behind a move for it to follow through. Trading a breakout system at 22:00 UTC is fighting the clock.
A pair that costs half a pip to trade during the overlap can cost two or three pips at 23:00 UTC. On a short-horizon strategy that difference is often larger than the edge itself. Check your broker's typical spread by hour, not just its headline average.
Release times and session times interact. UK inflation prints at 06:00 UTC, an hour before London properly opens, which is why sterling can gap on the number and then reverse once real liquidity arrives. Check our economic calendar alongside this page so you know both what is coming and how deep the book will be when it lands.
The market closes at the New York Friday close and reopens with Sydney on Monday. News over the weekend is repriced instantly at the reopen, which is why positions held over a weekend carry gap risk that no stop-loss can protect against.
It is open continuously from the Sydney open on Monday morning local time to the New York close on Friday afternoon, because one financial centre is always working. That is not the same as being equally tradeable throughout: spreads in the quiet hours can be several times what they are during the London-New York overlap.
London. It accounts for the largest share of daily spot turnover of any single centre, sits between Asia and North America, and sets the day's range more often than any other session.
An overlap is an hour in which two centres are open at once, so both sides of a pair have a deep local market. Liquidity is at its highest, spreads at their tightest, and moves are more likely to follow through rather than fade.
The UTC windows shift because the local business day stays fixed while the offset to UTC changes. Northern-hemisphere clocks move in March and October or November, and the southern hemisphere moves in the opposite direction, so the overlap windows drift by an hour several times a year.
Treat them with caution. When a major centre is closed, the pairs it normally quotes trade in a thinner book, ranges compress and then break unexpectedly, and slippage on stops is far more likely.