Thursday, December 29, 2016

Forex Trading Sessions

Forex Trading Sessions

In this lesson you are going to learn about different trading sessions. Earlier I said Forex market is open 24 hours a day, but it is not always active in the whole day. You already know that when market is moving up or down you can make money but sometimes market does not move up and down and it is difficult to make money while market is not moving. Don’t worry; in this lesson you are going to learn what the best time to trade in Forex is and how it becomes best.
The Forex market is consisting of four major trading sessions. Look at the picture above. The sessions are Sydney session, the Tokyo session, the London session, and the New York session. You can find market open and close times also in above picture. Keep in mind that the time is not your local time it is GMT time. If you know your time zone you can easily convert this to your local time. If you are in somewhere having time zone of GMT +5.30 like India, the opening time of London session is 7+5.30. That means 12.30 PM. One more thing I need to tell you that this time is not fixed for entire year. There is a slight change in market open and close times in summer and winter. Look at the table below.
You need to know that summer is approximately April – October and the winter is approximately October – April

Come back to the first figure again


Did you noticed see that in there is a period where two sessions are open at the same time? From 12:00- 16.00 GMT, the London session and New York session overlap, and also from 23:00-06:00 GMT, the Sydney session and the Tokyo session overlap. Actually this is the time that most of traders are opening and closing their trades in Forex market. In other word those are the busiest times in Forex trading because the volume of the market is very high when two trading sessions are open at same time. Now look at the table below. It shows the average PIP movement of the major currency pairs during each Forex trading session. Now you must have a question. What is PIP? Just forget about it I will explain it in next lesson. For now just consider about the numbers in the table below.
Pair
Tokyo
London
New York
EUR/USD
76
114
92
GBP/USD
92
127
99
USD/JPY
51
66
59
AUD/USD
77
83
81
NZD/USD
62
72
70
USD/CAD
57
96
96
USD/CHF
67
102
83
EUR/JPY
102
129
107
GBP/JPY
118
151
132
AUD/JPY
98
107
103
EUR/GBP
78
61
47
EUR/CHF
79
109
84
If you look deeply at the table you can observed that PIP movement in London session is higher compared to Tokyo and New York sessions. Now we are going to learn some more about those sessions.

Tokyo Session

If you go back to previous lesson you can see that yen is the third most traded currency in Forex market. Sometimes Tokyo session is also known as Asian session because Japan has the largest financial capital in Asia. The opening time of Tokyo session is 12:00 AM GMT. Look at the table below which shows the average PIP movement in the major currency pairs during the Asian session.
Pair
Tokyo
EUR/USD
56
GBP/USD
54
USD/JPY
30
AUD/USD
65
NZD/USD
58
USD/CAD
39
USD/CHF
40
EUR/JPY
57
GBP/JPY
72
AUD/JPY
65
EUR/GBP
23
The values in the table are not absolute values. Those values were calculated using past data from the Forex market.



Which Pairs Should You Trade in Tokyo session?

During this session when news comes from Japan, Australia or New Zealand there could be good opportunities for Forex traders and there is a large movement in the pairs which consisting of JPY in one side. And also don’t forget the economic power of China because the news come from china may tends to create volatile movements in the Forex market.
Now let’s go to the London session.
London Session
This is the most volatile session in Forex market so this is the most important session which you need to pay more attention to the market. Because during this session thousands of European businessmen making transactions every single minute. As percentage it is about30% of all Forex transactions.
The table below shows the pip ranges of the major currency pairs during London session.
Pair
London
EUR/USD
83
GBP/USD
82
USD/JPY
36
AUD/USD
60
NZD/USD
64
USD/CAD
66
USD/CHF
58
EUR/JPY
80
GBP/JPY
102
AUD/JPY
86
EUR/GBP
40
Which Pairs Should You Trade in London session?
During this session you can trade any pair because of the volume of trades take place in this session. But better to stick with major pairs like EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY and also you can try yen crosses (specifically, EUR/JPY and GBP/JPY). You need to keep in mind that this market is influenced by news come during this session.
Then we have New York session

New York Session
This session starts at 12 pm GMT. Since US has one of major financial center you need to keep you will have to pay attention on the news come from US which influence to the Forex market.
The table below shows the pip ranges of the major currency pairs during New York session
Pair
New York
EUR/USD
77
GBP/USD
68
USD/JPY
34
AUD/USD
68
NZD/USD
62
USD/CAD
67
USD/CHF
56
EUR/JPY
72
GBP/JPY
77
AUD/JPY
71
EUR/GBP
36

Which Pairs Should You Trade?
During this session although you can trade any pair it is better to stick with major and minor pairs and also you need to pay attention on the data released from U.S.
I know you are confused now. Don’t worry in the nest lesion I will tell the best time of the day to trade and best days of the week to trade.



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