Trading Session - Forexfactory

Interface Overview

See Sessions in Action

Session Times

The Sessions timeline shows the Forex market's 24-hour trip around the world. It gives you an at-a-glance feel of which sessions are active, which sessions are coming up, and when they will begin and end.

The begin/end times of each session are as follows (displayed in your time):

	Begin	End
Sydney	4:00am	1:00pm
Tokyo	6:00am	4:00pm
London	2:00pm	11:00pm
New York	7:00pm	4:00am

Please note that session times will shift by one hour in the Spring and Fall due to daylight saving time.

Forex is an over-the-counter international market with no central exchange, and therefore has no official market hours. The sessions defined (Sydney, Tokyo, London, New York), and the begin/end times of each session, are based on Oanda's FXMarketHours tool. Oanda is sourced primarily because they're the only major broker to publish such data, and their breakdown of the session times is roughly the generally accepted view.


Liquidity Gauge

The liquidity gauge estimates the relative level of trading activity in the Forex market. In other words, it indicates how much buying and selling is taking place. means liquidity is lower than average, means liquidity is near the average, and means liquidity is higher than average.

When clicked, the liquidity gauge will display the percentage by which liquidity is above or below the average. For example, a reading of 'Liquidity is 28% < Avg' means the liquidity of the last ten minutes is 28% less than the average liquidity in the past thirty days.

The liquidity gauge is based on the number of price ticks and the average spread on all included currenciesincluded brokers. Ticks and spreads are sampled every ten minutes, then the number of ticks is divided by the average spread to come up with a 'ten minute liquidity' (10ML) reading. 10ML is then compared to the average 10ML over the past thirty days (30DL) to determine if liquidity is low, moderate, or high. Below are the exact formulas used to calculate liquidity:
from all

AvgSpread = Average spread for all currencies from all brokers during the past 10 minutes
NumTicks = Number of ticks for all currencies from all brokers during the past 10 minutes

10ML = 10 minute liquidity = NumTicks / AvgSpread
30DL = 30 day liquidity = Average 10ML over past 30 days

If 10ML < 30DL * 0.75 then
Liquidity = Low ;

If 10ML > 30DL * 1.25 then
Liquidity = High ;

Else
Liquidity = Moderate ;

In exchange-traded markets, liquidity can be directly observed via volume and open interest data provided by the exchange. However, in an over-the-counter market like Forex there's no such information provided. In the absence of volume and open interest, the liquidity gauge is derived by dividing NumTicks by AvgSpread because tight spreads signify high liquidity, as does a high number of ticks. Likewise, wide spreads and low tick counts both signify low liquidity. By dividing ticks by spread, both metrics are reflected in 10ML.


Importance of Sessions

The Sessions timeline presents information that can help traders better understand the Forex market. It's an indicator, but since it's not based on price (most indicators are just a math formula applied to price history) it can offer valuable insights into market dynamics. With the liquidity gauge estimating how active the market is, and the timeline displaying the time position of the market, traders can identify activity patterns and get a better feel for how the market behaves at certain times.

There are hundreds of questions that Sessions can help answer, here's a few:

Does the first hour in London set the session's trend?
How does the New York session react to high liquidity in London?
Does the trend in Tokyo carry into London?
Does low liquidity in Sydney predict liquidity levels for the rest of the day?
In what part of the day is the Forex market most active?
Does low liquidity tend to produce a choppy market?