The forex day has three overlapping sessions. Signal traders need to know two things about each: whether a signal is likely to be posted in it, and what it does to a trade that is already open.
The three sessions, in UK time
Asia (roughly 00:00 to 08:00). Tokyo and Sydney. Ranges are narrow on the majors, and the moves that do happen often set the levels London will trade against. Gold is the exception; it can move properly in Asia on physical demand. Few intraday desks post much in this session; ours posts little.
London (08:00 to 16:30). Where most intraday forex signals from most providers are placed, ours included. In the first two hours the levels from Asia get tested, broken or rejected, which is why desks watch that window most closely. Spreads are tightest here. If you can be available for one window a day, this is it.
New York (13:00 to 21:00). The overlap with London, 13:00 to 16:30, is the most liquid part of the day and the part that produces the biggest moves, because US data lands at 13:30 and 15:00. After London closes, volume thins and trends stall or reverse. We rarely post new forex entries late in New York; trades opened earlier are managed into the close.
Clocks shift with daylight saving in the UK and the US on different dates, so for two or three weeks a year the overlap moves by an hour. Check it in March and November.
What each session does to an open trade
A trade placed at London open with a stop behind the Asian low is designed for London's push. If it has not reached TP1 by the New York overlap, US data will decide it, in either direction. If it is still open when London closes, its odds have changed: the push that justified it is over, and a thin market drifts. This is why our management updates cluster in two places, the New York overlap and the London close, and why the VIP channel sometimes closes a trade at entry in the afternoon rather than carry it into nothing. The stop loss guide covers what those updates mean.
Why the calendar changes the stop
High-impact releases (US inflation, jobs, central bank decisions) move the majors by several times their normal minute range in seconds. A stop that is safely behind structure at 13:00 is inside the release's range at 13:30. Two consequences:
- A careful desk does not post new entries into the minutes before a scheduled release, because the stop would be in the wrong place. If your provider does, skip those.
- A trade already open into a release either has its stop where structure puts it, and the release decides it, or gets closed at entry before, with the update posted. The desk makes that call trade by trade and posts it.
This is also why some days have no signal at all from a good provider. On days when the dollar has already moved in Asia or early London, the entries are behind price and the stops would be wrong; a desk that posts nothing on those days is doing you a favour. The article on those days explains how ours decides.
Fitting your clock to the desk's
If you can be online 08:00 to 10:00 UK: trade by hand. Most forex entries are in or near that window, and you will see the first target hit or fail before lunch.
If you can be online 13:00 to 16:30 UK: you see the New York overlap, which is when open trades resolve and gold moves most. Entries are fewer; management matters more.
If you cannot be online in either window: trade by hand and you will be late to most entries, which is the case that costs money in the signal-reading guide. The honest options are the copier, which places the trade when the message arrives at whatever hour, at the market price then, and skips it if price is already more than its deviation guard (10 pips by default) from the entry, or trading by hand with the same filter and skipping the rest without regret.
A time-zone example. For a member in Sydney, 08:00 London is 17:00 Sydney from April to early October and 19:00 from November to March, with 18:00 in the weeks when only one side is on summer time; New York's 13:30 data lands between 22:30 and 00:30 Sydney depending on the date. Use a date-aware converter rather than a fixed offset, because both places change their clocks on different dates. The London window is an evening that can be kept; the New York overlap is the awkward part, and it is what the management updates or the copier are for.
Fridays and Mondays
Friday afternoons in New York are thin and prone to position squaring; most desks, ours included, rarely post new entries after the London close on a Friday. Monday's open can gap on weekend news, and a gap through a stop fills at the open, not at the stop. If you cannot hold over a weekend (a funded account may not allow it), switch Friday off in the copier's day settings and close by hand before the cut-off; the funded account guide covers the rule reading.
The short version
Be there for London open if you can. Expect trades to resolve in the New York overlap. Do not expect entries late in New York or in Asia, and do not take an entry into a release. If your hours do not fit, let the copier keep the desk's clock for you.
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