One of the most commonly asked questions by novice currency traders is probably “When is the best time to trade Forex?” Heck, I asked the exact same question a few years ago when I started trading currencies too.

Well, most experienced traders will tell you that there are no definitive answer to this subjective question as the currency markets are open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Anytime is a good time to trade as long as there is an opportunity to allow you to enter a trade.

Sometimes you can fire up your PC and spot a good opportunity to trade within minutes, at other times, you might have to wait hours before the right setup comes along.

But having said that, one must be strictly observe all pre-determined trading rules and setups before blindly jumping into a trade.

Remember, don’t ever trade just for the sake of trading.

And like everything else in trading, it’s all about “Stacking The Odds In Your Favor”, even choosing the most appropriate times to trade.

In my opinion, the “Better” times to trade are during the “Active & Overlapping Operating Hours” of the chosen currency pair.

My reasoning for that is fairly logical if you think about it.

To better understand this concept, let us understand a tat more on the “Operating Hours” of the key financial exchanges of these selected currency pairs.

Referring to the diagram above, the major financial exchanges start off a typical trading day in the following order, tabulated it in Singapore Time ( GMT +8:00 ) :

New Zealand –> Australia –> Japan –> Singapore –> Europe –> US

It is essential to establish this because seemingly more volume switches hands during these periods when traders of both sides of the currency pair ( institutional as well as retail traders ) are wide awake and actively trading.

With increased volume, the trading opportunities that might arise will increase correspondingly as well.

One peculiar thing that I observed but have no idea why it happens is that most currency traders have the biased tendency to trade their own native currency, it’s like a show of patriotism or something, all I do know is that it increases volatility, great for catching pips nevertheless.

In a nutshell, if you are a Forex trader staying in the GMT +8:00 time zone, like myself residing in Singapore or in countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong etc, perhaps you can schedule your trading time frames and currency pairs like this.

MORNING  SESSION

• Let’s say you are a “Morning” person and prefer to trade in the morning, perhaps before leaving for work or during work when your Boss is not looking.
• During this time ( 7 to 12 noon ), the foreign exchanges for New Zealand, Australia and Japan have began operations.
• This means that the currency pairs like NZD/USD, AUD/USD, USD/JPY, AUD/NZD,  AUD/JPY,  NZD/JPY etc are more active.

TEA BREAK SESSION

• Let’s say during your usual late afternoon tea-break at work, you like to squeeze in a little trading.
• During this time ( 3 to 4 pm ), the foreign exchanges for Europe are starting operations and the Asian exchanges are in their last leg of the race.
• This means that the currency pairs like  EUR/GBP, EUR/USD,  GBP/USD, EUR/CHF, GBP/CHF etc are more active.

EVENING SESSION

• Let’s say after a hard day’s work at the office, you prefer to trade in the comfort of your home after a good home made dinner.
• During this time ( 8 to 12 midnight ), the foreign exchanges for US are starting operations and the European exchanges are still in operation.
• This means that the most of the major currency pairs like EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, AUD/USD etc are more active. 

Notice that certain currency pairs pop up at different sessions of the day.

The most commonly traded pairs are of course the majors like the EUR/USD & USD/JPY, they are constantly actively traded all day long, something you might take note of.

In my book, there isn’t a “Best” time to trade Forex, but once you know the opening and closing hours of the foreign exchanges of certain currency pairs, you are now better aware of the “Better” trading times for certain currency pairs where there are more opportunities to catch the volatility of these more active currency exchanges.

Have a safe and profitable trading day ahead.