Hello traders simple question, when looking for market time sessions I notice that the time zone is est. So my question is, do I use the universal est time clock or the est time of the country which I want to trade?
eg: Sydney est time is 07:08 and the standard est time is 17:08…
The current time zone in Sydney is actually AEST (that’s Australian Eastern Standard Time). AEST is 10 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, so we say AEST=GMT+10.
The Sydney time zone will change to AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) in October, when southeastern Australia goes onto daylight saving time. Then, Sydney time will be 11 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, and we will say AEDT=GMT+11.
The EST time zone which you referred to as the “universal est time clock” is not universal, and it is not the current time zone in the New York market.
The current New York time zone is EDT (Eastern Daylight Time), because most of the U.S. is on daylight saving time. EDT is 4 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time, so we say EDT=GMT-4.
Currently, Sydney is 14 hours ahead of New York. So, 7 am Tuesday in Sydney is 5 pm Monday in New York.
The times you showed in your post should read as follows: 07:08 AEST (Sydney) = 17:08 EDT (New York).
Regarding session times around the world, you should be aware of 2 opening times and 2 closing times for each market. For the Sydney market for example, you should be aware of the opening and closing times for the Sydney trading session in both local Sydney time (AEST) and in your time zone.
If you are in the eastern U.S., and your time zone is EDT, then currently you should know that the Sydney session opens at 8 am local time (AEST), which is 6 pm your time (EDT). And the Sydney session closes at 5 pm local time (AEST), which is 3 am your time (EDT).
There is no “universal EST time zone”, contrary to what you stated in your post.
The only universal time is GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) or UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) which is the same as GMT.
Here is a graphic showing the forex trading sessions with GMT times.
Notice that the times shown are for northern hemisphere summer time. Beginning later this month, various countries will go onto or off of daylight saving time, and the times shown in this graphic will change.
If you know the GMT times of a particular trading session, and the GMT-offset of your time zone, then you can easily convert those trading session times to your local time.
For example, if you are in the EDT time zone in the U.S., then you know that EDT=GMT-4. That is, your GMT-offset is minus 4 hours. Looking at the graphic, you see that the GMT times for the London session are 07:00 GMT to 16:00 GMT. And you can easily calculate that those times are 03:00 (3 am) to 12:00 (12 pm) EDT.
3 Likes
Great post. Thanks for that.
1 Like
Thank you very the one mistake I believe I did was forgetting to keep in mind of local times zones and my location time zone, instead I thought there is one specific time or clock that will represent the whole market.
ah yes, I sometimes get caught out by that