I wanted to post this as I get PM's and see many questions about this. It has been posted in this Forum, but I wanted to post this important information again. Print it out! The three major market centers for forex are Asia (Tokyo), Europe (London) and North America (New York). 8:00pm EST, the Asian market opens (although New Zealand and Australia open about 1 hr earlier). 2:00am EST, the European market opens. 3:00am EST, London, the most active center for forex, opens. 8:00am EST, the North American market becomes active. The most liquidity and turnover occurs when London and New York overlap, which occurs between 8:00am and 12:00pm EST. The least liquid period occurs when London finishes and before Asia opens.
Always wondered about the European open ES. 2am ET (7am GMT) is sometimes a tad late I find - I like to hit the decks an hour earlier as the moves often start between 1-1.45 ET (6-6.45am GMT). Remember that at 1 am ET it is 2 pm in Tokyo and 3 pm in Sydney - traders have come back from "lunch" and are waiting to put in a position before going home or squaring up. This is more the case with yen and aussie. PS ever noticed the 5-5.30am (GMT) bar on swissy 30 min. charts - very often a doji cross; I think that friar fritz from fribourg Switzerland logs on at 6.30 am (Central European Time) just after morning prayers and looks for that cross first thing, truely... :eek:
NZD, Good point (s). Folks, keep in mind the Banks open their dealing departments earlier and about one hour before the above times their action starts. The banks are what really move this market. Retail traders are growing at exponetial rates but we are not able to effect liquidity. Other interesting times are at 5pm est when swaps are performed (interest paymt's) and the London "Fixing"... Then their is Fridays and the EOM. New traders: watch those news events, especially that NFP...they can be real doosey's. There are calendars throughout the google search and print them out weekly! Michael B. P.S. You can use a ROC indicator and do your analysis to discover other times to "add to" your calendars..(notice that there are other uses for indicators than red light...green light...