In late September, we will begin the semi-annual silliness of Daylight Saving Time changes. Every spring and every fall, these changes are spread out over a period of several weeks, as various countries go onto or off of Daylight Saving Time.
These changes upset our trading, by altering the opening and closing times of the various forex markets.
Depending on your location and the markets that you trade, you may be faced with up to 7 different changes each year in the opening and closing times of your markets.
Here are the changes in Daylight Saving Time and Standard Time scheduled to occur in 5 of the 7 principal forex trading centers this fall and next spring:
[U]Fall of 2011:[/U]
Sep 25 --- New Zealand will go onto DST
Oct 2 ---- south-eastern Australia will go onto DST
Oct 30 --- the U.K. and Europe will return to standard time
Nov 6 ---- the U.S. and Canada will return to standard time
[U]Spring of 2012:[/U]
Mar 11 --- the U.S. and Canada will go onto DST
Mar 25 --- the U.K. and Europe will go onto DST
Mar 31 --- New Zealand and south-eastern Australia will return to standard time
In the past, I have posted lengthy descriptions of the time changes (ahead one hour, or back one hour) occurring in the principal forex trading markets, and how those changes would affect traders in various parts of the world. For example, this series of posts attempted to explain the time changes last spring — 301 Moved Permanently
I think there’s a much better way to do it.
This time, I’m going to post a [B]Table of Forex Trading Sessions[/B]. The Table will show the opening and closing times of the normal 9-hour business day (8am-5pm, local time) in each of the 7 principal forex trading markets. For each of the 7 markets, opening and closing times will be shown in each of 26 time zones around the world.
You will be able to locate your particular GMT time zone in this Table, and read the current opening and closing times ([I]local time in your time zone[/I]) for each of the 7 markets, without worrying about Daylight Saving Time changes.
As Daylight Saving Time changes occur, I will update the Table, highlighting the changes, so that the Table will always be current. Beginning next month, for example, the table will be updated on Friday, September 23 (ahead of the September 25 time changes), on Friday, September 30 (ahead of the October 2 time changes), on Friday, October 28 (ahead of the October 30 time changes), and on Friday, November 4 (ahead of the November 6 time changes).
I hope that this way of doing it will be a lot easier and less confusing for [I]you.[/I] It will save[I] me[/I] from trying to describe in words all the changes, and how traders in various places will be affected by them.
Later today or tomorrow, I will post the Table of Forex Trading Sessions showing [I]current[/I] times.
We have 5 weeks until Daylight Saving Time changes begin (on September 25). So, I’m hoping that, between now and then, anyone wanting to make use of this Table will have plenty of time to get comfortable with the format of the Table (and, if you so desire, double-check the times I have posted).
Then, beginning on September 23, as Daylight Saving Time changes begin to occur, I will post updates to the Table, on the schedule outlined above.