The foreign-exchange market runs from Sunday evening to Friday evening without a break. That does not mean it is equally active at every hour. Volume, spreads and the size of moves follow the sun around the world, and most of what matters happens in one four-hour window.
The four sessions
Traders divide the day into four sessions, named for the financial centre that dominates each one. In GMT, with daylight-saving shifts noted:
| Session | Hours (GMT) | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 21:00–06:00 (22:00–07:00 in northern winter) | Thin; AUD and NZD react to Asian data |
| Tokyo | 00:00–09:00 | Steady; JPY pairs most active; ranges rather than trends |
| London | 07:00–16:00 (08:00–17:00 in winter) | The largest session; EUR, GBP, CHF; the day's trend usually starts here |
| New York | 12:00–21:00 (13:00–22:00 in winter) | US data releases; USD pairs; strong until London closes, then fades |
Our Market hours page shows which sessions are open right now and when the next one opens.
The overlap
From roughly 12:00 to 16:00 GMT (13:00 to 17:00 in winter) both London and New York are trading. This is the busiest window in the world's largest market. A large share of daily volume goes through in these four hours, most scheduled US data lands at 12:30 or 14:00 GMT, and European traders are squaring positions before their close while American traders are opening theirs.
The consequences for price are consistent enough to plan around:
- Spreads on the majors are at their tightest.
- Moves that started in London either accelerate or reverse — the overlap is where the day's direction is usually decided.
- Big-figure levels (round numbers) are tested and broken more often here than at any other time.
The quiet hours
The mirror image is the period between the New York close and the Tokyo open — roughly 21:00 to 00:00 GMT — and the late Tokyo hours before London wakes. Volume is thin, spreads widen and a modest order can move the price more than it should. Two things happen in these hours that catch people out.
First, false moves: a pair drifts 40 pips on nothing, then reverses when London opens and real volume arrives. Second, stop hunts: in thin conditions the price can reach a cluster of stops just beyond an obvious level, trigger them, and snap back. Neither is a conspiracy; both are what thin markets do.
What it means for a copier
When you copy a master, you inherit their hours. Look at the times on their Recent Trades:
- Trades opened and closed inside the overlap — the master is a day trader working the busiest window. Expect frequent trades, tight results and sensitivity to US data.
- Trades opened in London, closed in New York — a classic intraday trend approach. Expect a few trades a day and larger average wins.
- Trades held for days — a swing trader for whom sessions barely matter, except that overnight moves in Asia will show up as gaps in your copy's equity each morning.
- Many trades in the quiet hours — a range trader betting on the Asian session's tendency to go nowhere. Works until the day it does not; check the drawdown.
Session by session: who is awake
A little more colour on why each session behaves as it does.
Sydney is thin because Australia is a mid-sized economy trading alone; volume is a fraction of London's, and a single large order can move AUD/USD noticeably. Tokyo brings in Japan's huge institutional investors and the exporters who hedge in yen, which is why USD/JPY and the yen crosses do most of their Asian moving between 00:00 and 03:00 GMT; but Asian traders tend to trade ranges, not breakouts, and the session often ends near where it began. London is where the world's largest banks and funds are headquartered; the first hour after the open is when overnight news gets a real vote, and yesterday's ranges are broken or confirmed. New York adds the US institutions and, crucially, the US data — but by the time London goes home at 16:00 GMT the market thins fast, and the last three hours of the American day are quieter than most people expect.
Put together, that produces the rhythm you will see on any daily chart: a quiet Asian range, a decisive move in early London, confirmation or reversal in the overlap, and a drift into the close. A master's Recent Trades read against that rhythm tells you exactly which part of the day they are trying to capture.
The Friday close and the weekly break
New York's Friday close at 22:00 GMT (21:00 in summer) is the end of the trading week. Non-crypto instruments on IDTraders cannot be opened, closed or edited from then until the Sunday reopen — see what changes for forex copies on Friday night. Crypto trades on through the weekend, which is why the Live prices page never goes quiet.
A simple habit
Look at the Market hours page once each morning. If the day's big data is at 12:30 GMT and your master holds open trades, expect movement in your copy's equity at that time and do not be surprised by it. If it is a public holiday in the United States, expect a slow afternoon. Ten seconds of checking removes most of the surprises that make new copiers stop a good master at a bad moment.
This article is education, not investment advice. Trading and copy trading in leveraged instruments carry a high risk of losing the funds you allocate. Read the Risk Disclosure.