The four hours when the two largest centres are quoting at once. The longest overlap of the trading day.
| Hours | Roughly 13:00 – 17:00 London time, 08:00 – 12:00 New York time |
|---|---|
| Time zone | Both centres observe daylight saving, on different dates |
| Daylight saving | For about two weeks each spring and autumn the two are out of step, and the overlap shifts by an hour. The clock above computes it rather than assuming. |
| Currencies at home here | USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, CHF |
| Overlaps | Nothing else — this is itself the overlap. |
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.
Two sessions open at the same time. London runs until 17:00 its own time, New York opens at 08:00 its own time, and the hours where both are true is the overlap. That is around four hours, and it is where most United States data lands while Europe is still trading.
Both centres observe daylight saving but change on different dates. For two weeks in March and one in autumn the gap between them is four hours instead of five, and the overlap moves with it. This is why a fixed table of overlap times is wrong several times a year, and why the clock on this page works it out live.
A busier market is not automatically a better one to trade. More participants means tighter spreads and faster fills, and it also means faster moves against a position. Whether that suits you is a question about your strategy, not about the clock.
Roughly 13:00 to 17:00 London time, which is 08:00 to 12:00 in New York. The exact window moves for a few weeks each year while the two are out of step on daylight saving, and the clock above computes it rather than assuming.
Two of the largest centres are quoting at the same time, so spreads are usually at their tightest and fills at their fastest. It is also when most United States data is released while Europe is still trading.
That is a question about your strategy, not about the clock. Faster markets mean faster fills and faster moves against a position too. This page tells you when it is; whether it suits you is what a journal answers.
About four hours, which is the longest overlap of the trading day.
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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