One of the great advantages of trading currencies is in the forex market hourswhich allows anyone from any country to start in Forex and combine it with any other activity, such as their regular job.
The Forex currency market, unlike the rest of the financial markets, is a market with continuous schedule from sunday to friday. The opening takes place on Sunday at 11:00 p.m. (Spanish time) and is operational until closing on Friday at 10:00 p.m. (Spanish time).
During the indicated hours you can carry out all those operations that you consider appropriate, howeverTrading volumes and opportunities are not always the same but they are higher at certain times of the day, coinciding with the participation of the majority of investors worldwide.
Best hours to trade Forex
The best hours in Spain to invest in Forex are linked to the sessions of the markets of Europe, Asia and the United States:
European Session
London represents the largest financial center in that region. The opening hours of the European market are from 9:00 AM to 5:40 PM. Other active markets at that time include Frankfurt, France and Switzerland among others. Note that it is a session of high liquidity in the market since the Asian markets are closing and in Europe they are starting their trading day.
Asian Session
In turn, the asian session includes the Tokyo market and other stock markets that also have a significant effect on Forex trading such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia (Sydney), Russia, China and New Zealand. The opening hours of the Asian market are from 1:00AM to 9:00AM.
North American Session
Lastly, the north american session It is linked to the New York stock market and other markets that also provide liquidity, including Canada, Mexico and Brazil. The peculiarity of this session is that it overlaps with the European session and this overlap allows to operate in the time of greatest liquidity in the markets. The opening hours of the American market are from 3:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Those of you who are already students of Traders Business School can write to the email tutorias@tbsweb.es and ask the operating time that you should use depending on the country in which you are going to operate.
Schedules in Spain to operate in Forex: Selection of assets to operate
There are numerous features that we can look at. These can be descriptive, fundamental or technical. Depending on the type of system, its characteristics, the investment time horizon and the selected family of assets, we will make the selection according to some factors or others.
For Foreign Exchange and Raw Materials we must take into account the economic calendar where the relevant economic news by currency and time slot that can notoriously affect our operations, these news can be found on web pages:
investment: https://es.investing.com/economic-calendar/
FxStreet: https://www.fxstreet.es/calendario-economico
ForexFactory: https://www.forexfactory.com/calendar.php
Each session has a closely related currency pairs and in the minutes following the opening of each session there is greater volatility in these pairs.
- If we operate in european market We must select currency pairs that have as their main currency the Euro, the Pound or the Swiss franc. If we select Stock Market Indices, they must be those that are European indices because they are the ones that are operational at that time, for example the german index (DAX30) or the Spanish index (IBEX 35).
- If we operate in american market We must operate with currency pairs that contain as the main currency the US Dollar, Canadian Dollar or Mexican Peso among others. As for the Indices, they will be tradable for example S&P500, NASDAQ and DOW JONES.
- If we operate in Asian market We must select currency pairs that contain as the main currency the Japanese Yen, Chinese Yuan or New Zealand Pound among others. For the indices we can select the Japanese stock index (NIKKEI225)
The opening that produces the greatest volatility is that of the session in Europe. The moments of greatest oscillations generally occur between 30 minutes before the opening and 2 hours and a half after it.
The higher trading volumes coincide with the overlap between the American session and the European session.
It is not usually advisable to keep positions open during the weekend. The Friday are usually the right days to close open positions during the week and thus avoid important and unexpected oscillations during the weekend.
On Sundays or during holiday periods, the trading volume is usually low, so the market is more manipulable. Most traders choose to invest in Forex avoiding these times of lower volume.
In our Advanced Trading Course the selection of assets in the operational process will be seen in more detail.
What is the best time to invest in Forex?
The best time to invest in Forex occurs between 08:00 GMT and 16:59 GMT (09:00 and 17:59 Spanish time) coinciding with a greater number of traders operating in the foreign exchange market and therefore with a large trading volume. During this time, most of the daily operations of the entire Forex market take place.
The session that undoubtedly moves the most volume of money is the European. Of this indicated time, the largest number of operations is concentrated in the opening.
Traders from half the world operate the opening of the European session, some even change their lifestyle to be present and operational at that time. The opening of the European session can concentrate 35% of the total movement of the Forex market.
In order of importance, the other time slot with the highest volume is the opening of the American sessionwhich overlaps with the close of the European session, generating another good trading volume.
Many times the market seems to have stopped from 11:00 or 12:00 (Spanish time) to reactivate at 14:00 or 15:00, when the American Forex market opens and the NYSE. During the American session there may be sharp movements if there is any kind of announcement regarding the American economy.
The Asian session is characterized by being a session with little movement and volatility. Many opportunities do not usually arise and on many occasions, the market usually corrects part of the rise or fall, during the European and American sessions.