Gold trades nearly around the clock, but not quite. Most brokers close it for an hour each day, and the exact times are set by your broker.
| Hours | Sunday 18:00 to Friday 17:00, New York time, with a daily break |
|---|---|
| Time zone | Set by the exchange behind the contract, in New York time |
| Daylight saving | The break moves with New York’s clock changes, so its local time shifts by an hour twice a year. |
| Currencies at home here | XAU, USD |
| Overlaps | London and New York, where most gold volume sits. |
Hours are the conventional business hours of the financial centre. The clock above converts them into your own time zone and follows daylight saving, so it does not go stale twice a year.
The full session clock shows all four at once with a timeline.
Unlike forex, spot gold has a short daily halt at most brokers — commonly an hour around 17:00 New York time, when the contract rolls over. Orders cannot be placed during it and a position left open is carried through. The exact window differs by broker, so check yours rather than assuming.
Gold is priced in dollars, so United States releases move it whatever the hour. In practice the London and New York sessions carry most of the activity, and the largest moves cluster around inflation figures and Federal Reserve decisions, which land in the New York morning.
A standard lot of XAU/USD is 100 ounces, not 100,000 units, and a pip is normally taken as 0.10. That is a different arithmetic from any currency pair, and sizing gold as though it were one is a common and expensive mistake.
The box at the top of this page answers that live, in your own time zone. The market runs from Sunday 17:00 to Friday 17:00, New York time.
17:00 New York time, which is when Sydney reaches Monday morning. In Dhaka that is early Monday morning; the clock above converts it for wherever you are.
No. Retail forex is closed from Friday 17:00 New York time until Sunday 17:00. Prices you see quoted at the weekend are last week’s close, not a live market.
Rarely completely, but liquidity thins badly around Christmas, New Year and major public holidays in a currency’s home country. Spreads widen at those times even while the market is technically open.
The session a trade was taken in is recorded in the journal, and the analytics break results down by session, so you can see which of these hours actually works for you rather than guessing.
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