Hey, Kyle
[B]1.[/B] The best time of day to trade, if you can do it, is 8am-noon New York time. That’s [B]noon-4pm Anchorage time[/B]. And within that 4-hour period, the sweet-spot is often 9am-11am New York time [B](1pm-3pm Anchorage time).[/B]
This time is so good because all of central Europe, Great Britain, South Africa, Ireland, and the eastern half of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are all open for business at the same time. This time period is sometimes referred to as the first half of the U.S. session, the second half of the European session, or the European/U.S. overlap.
[B]2. [/B] The second best time to trade is 1am-5am New York time [B](9pm-1am Anchorage time).[/B] This 4-hour period includes the final 2 hours of the business day in Japan and Korea; the final 3 hours of the business day in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan; the first 3 hours of the business day in central Europe; and the first 2 hours of the business day in Great Britain.
The sweet-spot in this 4-hour period is 1:30am-3:30am New York time [B](9:30pm-11:30pm Anchorage time).[/B] This period includes the beginning of the business day in central Europe at 2am New York time and the beginning of the business day in Britain at 3am New York time. Traders typically refer to these times as the European Open (or the Frankfurt Open), and the London Open.
[B]3.[/B] The third best time to trade is 5pm-9pm New York time [B](1pm-5pm Anchorage time).[/B] This 4-hour period includes the “close” of the forex trading day (5pm New York), the beginning of the new trading day in Japan at 6pm, and the morning session of the Japanese stock exchanges (Tokyo and Osaka) 7pm-9pm New York time. This is frequently the most active part of the Asian Session.
As you gain experience, you will start to memorize the times that are important to your trading. Until then, it’s nice to have a way to look them up. Here are some handy resources.
This site gives the opening and closing times for the principal trading sessions, in your time zone:
Forex Market Hours - Forex Market Time Converter
At any time of day or night, you can quickly find out what time it is in New Zealand, or Japan, or Britain, or any one of
30 different locations, at: World Clocks - Time Zones of The World
If you want to know what is going on in the major forex-trading regions, hour by hour throughout the 24-hour trading day,
here is a table which I assembled: 301 Moved Permanently
The times shown in this table are GMT. You will have to do the work of converting these times to your time zone, which is
AKST (Alaska Standard Time), GMT - 9 hours.
Now, for the bad news. All of these times will change in March, when the U.S. goes back onto Daylight Saving Time (before the rest of the northern hemisphere). It’s a mess we have to deal with twice a year, and there’s no getting around it.
But, for the next two months, the times shown above will work for you.
Clint
well I’ll see what I can do thanks.