For example daily candle close and open, should it be GMT time, 8pm GMT candle close and candle open on the daily, or should it be eastern time ( where I live ) at 12 am EST candle close and candle open on the daily chart?
Curios and if there are any different results/major differences overall?
Thanks! :43:
Most of the largest markets operate: London (GMT) or New York (EST), some brokers choose other time zones, like GMT+2, +3 etc… Well the few ones I know use GMT, now to the different results question asked , Yes they are different results driven from the time zones. One citing example is When you switch over from a GMT+0 Metatrader 4 platform to another one with offset like GMT+1 or GMT+2 , your decisions are likely to be affected as Daily and weekly charts can easily have different values and price ranges if a new daily candle on one trading platform appears at 00:00 GMT, on another platform 2 hours later at 00:00 GMT+2, and on the third platform 5 hours earlier at 00:00 GMT-5 (EST).I personally think the major difference is the different ways the candlesticks are displayed using different time offset.
So gmt is probably the best time zone for my charts for open and close?
Hi Jayboii,
The MT4 platform has a limitation that daily chart bars must begin at midnight server time. Therefore, in order to have charts in sync with the New York Close (which occurs daily at 5pm New York Time), the MT4 server time must be set to GMT+3 when the US is on Daylight Savings Time, and GMT+2 when the US is on Standard Time.
The reason many traders prefer New York Close charts is because it means that every week you are looking at 5 daily candles, each of which is 24 hours in length. This allows you to make an apples to apples comparison when you apply indicators to your charts such as the 50-day moving average, because each daily candle represents the same amount of time.
With charts that are not set to the New York Close, you can have 6 uneven daily candles per week. The Sunday candle might only be 2 hours long, while the Friday candle is 22 hours long, with the other 4 candles being 24 hours long. This can throw off the signals from indicators such as the 50-day moving average which work on the assumption that each daily candle should be given the same weight.
FXCM has many MT4 servers. Some are New York Close (GMT+3) and some are set to GMT, so you can use whichever setting you prefer.
Thank you that makes sense to me, So if I use GMT timezone I will get 6 candles, but will the accuracy be effected of the candles?
The price data used to construct the candles is identical regardless of the timezone. You can confirm this by comparing 1-hour charts that are GMT to those on New York Close (GMT+3).
However, since the daily candles (and 4-hour candles) will begin at different times, and there will be 6 daily candles on GMT charts, this will affect the calculations for moving average type indicators.
The best time to trade Forex Spot Currency is doing the most liquid Forex session which is the European/New York session. That is the hottest time to trade hands down.
Hi FXAlTareeq,
I believe the OP was asking about the best time zone setting for an MT4 server: GMT or GMT+2/3 (AKA New York Close).
However, since you brought it up, there are many different styles of trading. Some may tend to perform better at times of day when others struggle. That said, if you want overall view ignoring the particular strategies used, the table below is from a series of studies on trader profitability conducted by DailyFX. They analyzed over 12 million real trades conducted by FXCM clients, and found that trader profits and losses could vary significantly by time of day.
That data show that most traders are what are called “Range Traders”, and their successes and failures very much depend on market conditions. In fact, this trading style means that many of them have trouble being successful in forex because they are trading during the wrong time of day.
Most forex traders are more successful during the late US, Asian or early European trading sessions – essentially 2 PM to 6 AM Eastern Time (New York), which is 7 PM to 11 AM UK time.
The best time to day trade the forex market is dependent on the forex pair you are trading; certain pairs are more heavily traded at different times around the globe based on which markets are open.
I think there is no best time for trading zone because each session and each condition has its own advantages and disadvantages. It’s back to your strategy and your capability to control money management. Some traders prefer to trade in volatile market because they could gain more profits when the analysis could be good but in the other hand, volatile market could cause bigger loss too if you don’t have good money management. Some other traders prefer to trade in slow market movement because it will be easier to control emotion and it will be safer in trading.
But me personally, I suggested to enter trading in London session, New York session or using both London and New York session when you had more time for trading. Usually opening London or New York session will move price in high number of pips quickly and you can take advantages on it.
I prefer to do my trading when the London markets are open. This is also because at these times i find that the Liquidity in the markets is at its best 
It is the best to pay attention to GMT+1 which is London time and start from there.