Sessions & Timing

Forex is sold as the market that never sleeps. Technically that is true - somewhere in the world a bank is quoting a price at any hour from Sunday evening to Friday night. Practically, it is misleading, and beginners lose money to that gap between technically and practically.

Being open is not the same as being liquid. At 2am UK time the market is open, the spread on your pair is wider than usual, the moves are small and directionless, and the participants are not the ones setting the day's tone. You can trade then. Your setup will look identical on the chart. It will just work considerably less often.

The market has a rhythm, and it follows the working hours of the people with the largest orders. When London desks arrive, volume steps up sharply and the day's real range usually begins. When New York joins a few hours later, you get the busiest and most volatile window of the day. When London goes home, things thin out again.

For a UK trader this is genuinely good news, because the two most active sessions in the world land inside your waking day. You do not need to be awake at strange hours. You need to know which hours are worth your attention and, just as importantly, which ones to leave alone.

The next chapter walks through each session in turn: when it runs in UK time, which pairs come alive, and what its typical behaviour looks like.