Forex market hours, what time they open

Forex market hours, what time they open. Foreign Exchange, or simply FOREX, is known as the largest foreign exchange market in the world, where millions of transactions are made daily for the purchase and sale of currencies. The amount traded day after day in FOREX is weighted over 6 trillion dollars, an amount that exceeds the stock exchanges worldwide.

Forex operations are possible thanks to the global interbank network, which consists of four financial hubs located in Tokyo, London, Sydney and New York. All Forex transactions are made, in this way, in the interbank market, operating 5 days a week for 24 continuous hours.

Previously, the Forex market only operated for very specific concepts such as investment funds, large companies, etc. Today, through online trading, anyone can make investments in the foreign exchange market without major complications or requirements themselves.

Next, we will know the different Forex schedules for different countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, etc. The idea is that the reader can know the most convenient time blocks to perform their operations.

To begin with, we must know how the Forex market works, because not for any reason it is one of the most powerful markets in the world. The first step is to understand what currency pairs are, and how these units of value become our first element for transactions.

How does the Forex market work?

Currencies are the central element for the exchange of values. In this sense, they are negotiated as an exchange between peers. In other words, Forex trading consists of the sale of one currency in exchange for the acquisition of another, or vice versa.

A currency pair is nothing more than the conjugation of two currencies, which is used as a reference for the type of operation that will be carried out, valuing, precisely, the currencies that are going to be exchanged. For example, when we talk about Eurodollar (EUR/USD), we are referring to an exchange in which the currency on the left is sold to receive its value expressed in the second.

In other words, the Eurodollar tells us that we are selling euros to be able to acquire dollars respectively. This is how we can find another variety of pairs in Forex, all available to users of this market.

Forex Market Hours

Each country has an hour block in which the largest amount of currency exchange takes place. In other words, there are more opportune times than others to make transactions in Forex. For this reason, a greater activity is observed in these, being the maximum points of concurrence.

The schedules may vary according to the case of the country, and, therefore, it is important to specify those presented below.

Spain

Its opening is on Sundays at 23 hours, closing on Fridays at 22 hours specifically.

Colombia: Forex Market Hours

Colombia uses the same schedules as the four benchmarks New York, Sydney, Tokyo and London. In the respective order, we will then have the following schedules:

• London and New York: From 1 PM to 4 PM.
• Tokyo and London: 8 AM to 9 AM.
• Tokyo and Sydney: From 12 AM to 7 AM.

Mexico

For Mexico, the working hours are included from Sunday at 5 pm, to close on Friday at 4 pm specifically.

Argentina

From 09:00 to 13 hours; from 04:00 to 05:00 and from 20 hours to 5 hours specifically.

Chile

As in the case of Colombia, Chile uses the same references for the concurrence of its Forex markets. They correspond, in this case, London, New York, Tokyo and Sydney. These time blocks are distributed, in this sense, as follows:

• London: With a volume of 35%, its opening is at 3:00 and closes at 12:00
• Tokyo: With a volume of 6%, opens its windows at 20:00, to close precisely at 4:00.
• New York: Registers a volume of 20%, opens at 8:00 and then closes at 17:00 respectively.
• Sydney: Its volume of 4% and opens at 19:00, closing at 03:00.

Global holidays

In addition to these schedules, it is important to take into account that there are holidays globally, so it is not possible to carry out operations during these. If you want to make operations in the Forex market, you should know that, they are global holidays:

• December 24
• December 31
• July 4 in the United States
• New Year’s Day
• Moon celebration.

These are, at least, the most important days that qualify as holidays in the Forex market. Although not all countries celebrate them at the same time, it is very possible to notice that those that carry out operations for differences in their dates, probably do not offer the best profitability of the moment.

Simply put, while some trades may hold, you are likely to notice that their value and profitability may suffer.

Conclusion

The Forex market is one of the most important global financial centers, where millions of operations are made daily for the exchange of different currencies. Learning to trade during these hours can help us find more profitable transactions, as well as with better liquidity.

The references, for most countries, must be the same (New York, Sydney, Tokyo and London). This does not mean that we cannot operate outside the time blocks specified for each country on our list. It means, specifically, that volume and profitability will be more opportune at such times.

A person can develop their buying and selling strategy outside these hours and find profitability. It will be at the discretion of each operator, to determine the profitability they want to obtain, as well as the volume they find most convenient for their transactions. The profitability will be timely as long as it supposes an addition to each operation, regardless of its margin.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_exchange_market

Read also: Business Intelligence Examples; What is a business model?; Business Intelligence Meaning

Editions 2014-20-21-22. External resource used planeteforex

This post is also available in: English Español (Spanish)