Market investing hours | Stock markets hours

To know the schedule of sessions on the currency market means being able to rationally allocate one’s efforts and effectively use one’s possibilities and time. Sessions are periods of time when banks are active. As is well-known, currency market working hours are unlimited and it functions round the clock. When the evening begins in one part of the world, in another part - the morning comes and the local currency market starts working. Sessions come one after another, or partially superimpose on one another, giving investors a possibility to invest whenever convenient to them. Once logged in, you’ll find market working at any time, except Saturday and Sunday, when all markets in all countries are closed. Likewise the market doesn’t work on holidays, for example Christmas, New Year, and Easter.

To know the schedule of sessions on the currency market is also useful because currencies behave differently according to different sessions. For instance, yen usually “wakes up” and starts to move actively during the Asian session, while euro is more active during the European session. At other times, sharp price movements for these particular currencies are unusual. The most aggressive session out of all is American, which can either significantly drop or, conversely, strengthen, its very own dollar.

As the market employs a lot of countries from different time zones, the currency market is considered to work according to universal time. At present instead of GMT standard, which is rendered obsolete, it's widely accepted to use UTC - Coordinated Universal Time. RM Investment Bank server time differs from UTC by 2 hours (UTC +2), and in summer, with a switch to daylight-saving time, the difference equals to UTC +3.

Schedule of currency market hours.. The time zone is UTC+2 (Eastern European Time, EET):

RegionCityOpenClose
AsiaTokyo2:0010:00
Hong Kong3:0011:00
Singapore2:0010:00
EuropeFrankfurt8:0016:00
London9:0017:00
AmericaNew York15:0023:00
Chicago16:0024:00
Pacific Wellington22:006:00
Sidney22:006:00

Each regional currency market has its own peculiarities.

Open hours of Asian Currency Market

During these hours the most active deals in the market exchange operations are the US dollar against the yen (USDJPY), the euro against the yen (EURJPY), the US dollar against the euro (EURUSD) and the Australian dollar against the US dollar (AUDUSD).

Open hours of European Currency Market

At this time the deals are conducted in the European financial centres. The volatility of the most popular currency pairs increases significantly after the London currency online market starts its session. Investment activity is somewhat reduced for dinner, but at night the players actively carry out operations again. Changes of rates during the European market hours could be significant, because the majority of monetary stock is concentrated in Europe.

Open hours of American Currency Market

Currency market activity reaches its maximum level when the New York market hours open and US banks begin to work, and European dealers return after their lunch break. The influence of European and American banks is similar, so no significant changes take place in market compared to the start of the European session. However, after the termination of the European market volatility may be higher. Often this is observed on Friday, before the weekend. The American session is more aggressive than others.