Forex Trading Hours UK Guide 2021

Forex Trading Hours In The UK (British Standard Time [BST])

The forex trading hours in the United Kingdom (UK) correspond to the normal business hours in London. Based on the British Standard Time BST, the London session starts at 8:00 AM BST and closes at 4:00 PM BST. But, since the forex market opens with the Tokyo opening session at 1:00 AM BST and carries through until the New York session closes at 10:00 PM BST.

Please use the exclusive Forex Time Convertor below, if you live in a different time zone.

Forex Trading Sessions

As a general rule, the Pound crosses will usually be most active during the regular London trading hours. While the GBP crosses are actively traded around the clock, they tend to be traded more during the hours when the UK market is open.

The reason behind this trading phenomenon is that the economic data relevant and more impactful for the Sterling are released during the UK business hours.

The chart below outlines the forex market hours of all the major trading sessions using the UK BST as the base time.

These are the most important trading hours and the most important times to trade in the foreign exchange market:

• Sydney session starts at 10:00 PM BST and ends at 7:00 AM BST
• Tokyo session starts at 1:00 AM BST and ends at 10:00 AM BST
• London session starts at 8:00 AM BST and ends at 4:00 PM BST
• New York session starts at 1:00 PM BST and ends at 10:00 PM BST

The market is constantly open for business from Sunday to Friday evening. There is always going to be a financial centre open around the world.

The UK session overlaps the USA session for about four hours, between 1:00 PM BST and 4:00 PM BST. During this trading time slot, liquidity tends to increase a lot, providing more trading opportunities. There is no assurance that this time slot will produce the same type of trades regularly.

It’s important to note that the UK Daylight Saving Time enters into effect on the last Sunday in January. The UK clock goes back 1 hour when the DST goes into effect.

Countries around the world shift to the daylight saving time on different days, which will cause a misalignment between the major trading sessions

A volatile market where trading activity abounds will give you a good opportunity to spot profitable trading signals that can’t be noticed in slow trading sessions, which can waste your time and efforts.

Bank Holidays

The trading activity can be interrupted during the weekdays only by a bank holiday or national holidays, in which case all business operations are partially suspended or suspended.

Due to the lack of liquidity available on a bank holiday, it’s recommended to not get involved in currency trading.  Most major currency pairs can experience erratic behaviour, price whipsaws, and inconsistent price movements which are unpredictable.

Are Multiple Brokers Needed To Trade Across Hours?

The straightforward answer is that you don’t need multiple UK Forex brokers to trade across the 24-hours FX market. The retail forex trading brokers are open for business at any time during the day or night, 24 hours a day, five days a week. From the Wellington opening in New Zealand until the North America market closes on Friday, the forex market is continuously operating without any interruptions.

The sustained liquidity of the Forex market is established on the grounds that there’s always a financial centre open somewhere around the world. The forex market operates through computer-based networks known as the Electronic Communication Network (ECN), which facilitates forex brokers and currency traders to trade with each other without a middleman and from different geographical regions of the world.

What Period Has The Highest Currency Volume?

1) What time do forex markets open in UK

The forex markets open at 8:00 AM UK time, one hour after the Frankfurt financial centre opens.

2) What time do forex markets close in the UK?

The forex markets close at 4:00 PM UK time, when the London Stock Exchange (LSE) closes.

3) Does forex trade on weekends?

Due to the over-the-counter environment in which currencies are traded, Forex transactions can also be conducted over the weekend. However, this is limited and exclusive to the big banks and institutions. The currency trading operations conducted through the retail Forex brokers are usually suspended over the weekend.

Knowing the right time to trade is one of the most important factors in becoming a successful forex trader. Although the forex market trades around the clock 24-hours a day, not all trading sessions and hours of the day provide the same amount of quality trade signals.

The best time to trade currencies is the time when the market is experiencing the highest currency volume. For example, during the Asia trading hours, there is less currency volume and subsequently, the Forex exchange rates tend to move in very narrow trading ranges. So, trading the Asia session requires a short-term focus.

On the other hand, during the London trading hours, the currency pairs are more actively traded and the trading volume starts to pick up. According to the BIS data, the London New York session gathers most of the daily volume.

The Bank for International Settlement survey shows that more than 30% of all forex transactions happen during the London session. The banks and major FX players are very active during this session, which leads to a lot of trading activities in most currency pairs.

The forex currency pairs can experience the highest FX volume activity during:

1) Central Banks Interest Rate Decision

Central bank interest rate decisions such as the BOE rate decision can have an extreme impact on the GBP currency trend. These are long-lasting macro forces that motivate big investors to either dump or buy one particular currency pair. It’s paramount to know when the key interest rate announcements are scheduled, as this will generate above-average FX volume activity.

2) Government Reports

Other trading hours traders must keep an eye on for generating significant trading volume are:

• Release time of government reports
• Release of economic news

National governments have a big impact on the currency market since they are the ones who establish monetary policies and can even intervene in the market by manipulating their currency exchange rate.

The economic factors that make the government take certain actions are important to pay attention to them because they may alter the FX currency trends.

3) Open/Close of Major Trading Sessions

While each trading session has their own hours of operations, during the open and the close of these trading sessions we can notice the market is having greater volatility, especially during the opening of the London trading session and New York trading session. UK bank traders have a big inventory of large orders that they need to execute for their clients.

Because the first half of the US session overlaps with the European session this period is usually the most liquid time of the day when trading opportunities abound.

What Forex Broker In UK Best Suits Traders?

You should start trading the currency markets with FCA regulated UK forex brokers that are open for business around the clock when the forex market is open. Here is a breakdown of the most essential features the UK forex trading brokers must offer:

a) Platforms

The most important feature of a Forex broker is its trading platform. The world’s best Forex trading platform is the well-known MetaTrader 4 platform or MT4 trading platform. The MT4 user-friendly interface offers an abundant range of technical tools that can satisfy all your trading needs. When you open a live forex trading account, the broker need to offer you access to a user-friendly trading platform.

b) Trading Costs

A good forex broker offers its clients reasonable trading costs. To have the privilege of conducting business in the foreign exchange market, most forex trading brokers will charge their clients a commission or the spread. A forex broker will make money through these two methods (commission and spread) or a combination of the two. A well-respected forex broker will offer its customers low spreads and sometimes even commission-free trading.

c) Customer Service

A reputable forex broker needs to be recognised as placing high value over their client satisfaction. When you open a new trading account, make sure it’s fairly easy to reach your broker. While the customer support service is supported in the mother tongue English, being available in multiple languages, highlights the value they put on their clients. Additionally, the customer service needs to have multiple channels of communications like phone, email and live chat.

d) Risk Management

Trading high leverage products such as Forex and CFDs involves high-risk and substantial danger of losing your account balance. A well-respected UK Forex broker should offer in terms of risk management tools the following trading features:

– Guaranteed Stop Loss Orders (GSLOs)
– Negative Balance

Like with all investment products, minimizing the risk should be your number one priority. This will guarantee you’ll minimize the Forex risk and subsequently you’ll protect your trading account from a potential blowout.

e) Regulation

The UK enjoys the most powerful regulatory bodies in the world. When trading through a UK regulated broker, you have the protection of trading under the umbrella of a top-tier regulatory body. All brokers trading in the UK such as CMC Markets or Oanda is regulated by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority). The protection offered to client money is up to £85000 and additionally, all FCA regulated brokers must keep client funds in segregated accounts.

f) Minimum Deposits

There is no standard minimum deposit required by the UK forex trading brokers. You can start trading with as low as $100, but it’s recommended to be well-capitalised so you can face the up and down swings in the currency exchange rate. The FCA regulated brokers are fairly accessible to the UK retail traders, and the bar to entry in the forex market is very low.

g) Education Resources

To find the best forex broker in the UK, you need to pick a broker that offers its customers a broad range of products and services, including educational resources that can teach you advanced trading concepts. To enhance your learning curve, you need to have access to various educational tools that can place you ahead of the crowd. The Swissquote learning centre consists of a wealth of educational tools that can boost your trading education. Make sure you open a demo trading account before you risk any of your hard-earned money.

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