Forex Market Sessions: Clock Times, Overlaps and Daylight Saving

Forex market sessions are the business hours of the main currency trading centres, usually labelled Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York, that the over-the-counter market passes through each weekday. They are conventions, not exchange hours. Using 08:00 to 17:00 local time, London runs 07:00 to 16:00 UTC and New York 12:00 to 21:00 UTC in late September 2026, so they overlap from 12:00 to 16:00 UTC. Clock changes move these UTC times.

For an automated strategy, the hours that bind an order are your broker's: the trading sessions of each symbol in MetaTrader 5. This page belongs to the trading mechanics library and does not suggest when to trade.

Forex market sessions at a glance

Scroll horizontally to read every column.

• Overlaps that day: London and New York 12:00–16:00 UTC; Tokyo and London 07:00–08:00 UTC; Sydney and Tokyo 23:00–07:00 UTC.
• Daily rollover: 17:00 New York time in one broker's documented schedule,^[1] which is 21:00 UTC until 1 November 2026 and 22:00 UTC from then. Check your own broker's cut-off.
• In Pine Script v6: time(timeframe, session, timezone) returns na for bars outside the session.

Why are there no official forex session times?

Spot foreign exchange has no single exchange with an opening bell. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York describes FX trades as taking place "across dozens of scattered trading venues, rather than over one central exchange".^[2] A session name describes where activity is concentrated, not a timetable anyone enforces.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) measured OTC FX turnover of $9.6 trillion per day in April 2025. Sales desks in the United Kingdom (about 38%), the United States (about 19%), Singapore (11.8%) and Hong Kong SAR (7.0%) intermediated three quarters of it.^[3] The survey records where trades are booked, not the hour they happen. Singapore and Hong Kong both sit at UTC+8,^[4] so "Tokyo session" is shorthand for a wider Asian trading day.

This page uses one stated convention: each session runs from 08:00 to 17:00 local time at its centre. Other session charts shift some sessions by an hour, often Tokyo. Change the local hours if yours differ; the method below stays the same.

How do you convert a session to UTC and find an overlap?

UTC time = local clock time − the centre's UTC offset on that date

Overlap = from the later start to the earlier end, both in UTC (none if the later start is not before the earlier end)

Use the offset in force on that calendar date. For example, 08:00 in New York on daylight saving time (UTC−4) is 08:00 − (−4 hours) = 12:00 UTC. The offsets below come from the IANA time zone list that TradingView's Pine documentation links to.^[5][4]

• Europe/London: UTC+0 (GMT) or UTC+1 (BST). Clocks go forward on the last Sunday in March and back on the last Sunday in October: 29 March and 25 October in 2026.^[6]
• America/New_York: UTC−5 (EST) or UTC−4 (EDT). Daylight saving time runs from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November: 8 March to 1 November in 2026.^[7]
• Australia/Sydney: UTC+10 (AEST) or UTC+11 (AEDT). In New South Wales, daylight saving starts on Sunday 4 October 2026 and ends on Sunday 4 April 2027.^[8]
• Asia/Tokyo: UTC+9 all year, so Tokyo never shifts.^[4]

Sydney changes in the opposite season. From 4 October 2026 its session starts at 21:00 UTC, an hour earlier, while London and New York later move an hour later in UTC.

Worked example: the London–New York overlap in autumn 2026

Illustrative example, not a recommendation. Take both cities as 08:00 to 17:00 local time and apply the two formulas across the autumn 2026 clock changes.

In New York time the overlap reads 08:00–12:00, then 08:00–13:00, then 08:00–12:00. A filter fixed at 12:00–16:00 UTC would miss the fifth hour in late October. From 1 November it would include 12:00–13:00 UTC, before New York opens, and miss 16:00–17:00 UTC.

The same five-hour pattern ran from 8 to 28 March 2026. Under this convention Tokyo and London stop overlapping from 25 October, because London then opens at 08:00 UTC, as Tokyo closes.

When is forex liquidity higher or lower during the day?

Liquidity patterns are averages over many days, not rules for any single day. The published evidence describes tendencies:

• Activity tends to peak near local openings. Takatoshi Ito and Yuko Hashimoto studied EBS interdealer quotes and deals in USD/JPY and EUR/USD from 1999 to 2001. Activity was high in the opening hours of Tokyo, London and New York, and low in the Tokyo and London lunch hours and the late New York afternoon.^[9]
• New York afternoons stay quiet. Activity does "not increase toward the end of business hours in the New York market, even on Fridays".^[10]
• Spreads tend to narrow as activity rises. The study's summary states: "A negative correlation is observed between the number of deals and the width of bid-ask spread during business hours."^[10]
• Thin hours can amplify moves. The BIS Markets Committee's report on the sterling flash event of 7 October 2016, "during early Asian trading hours", placed significant weight on the time of day.^[11]

The EBS data are more than two decades old, and today's market spreads across many more venues.^[2] Scheduled news can outweigh any session pattern, and none of these sources shows that a session suits a particular strategy. Compare spreads on your own broker's symbol at the times your rules act; the bid-ask spread guide explains how to read them.

What happens at the 17:00 New York rollover and the weekend close?

Rollover is the daily cut-off at which an open position is extended to the next settlement date and financing is charged or credited. One US broker's financing page says an account "will be charged every day the position is held beyond 5pm ET". At that broker, a position held past 5pm ET on Wednesday receives three days of financing to cover the weekend.^[1]

In UTC, 17:00 New York is 21:00 until 1 November 2026 and 22:00 from then. MetaTrader 5's symbol specification shows the swap type, swap long, swap short and a "swap multiplier for each day of the week", the ratio applied when each day's swap is charged.^[12] The swap and rollover guide covers the calculation.

Each broker sets its own weekend closure. As one published example, a US broker lists forex hours of "Sun-Fri: 17:05 - 16:59" New York time, with forex closed from 16:59 to 17:05 each day.^[13] Holidays and session breaks change hours too.^[14] The MT5 specification lists the "quoting and trading sessions of the symbol" for every day of the week.^[12] For what the weekly open can mean for stops, see weekend gaps at the market open.

How do you write a forex session filter in Pine Script?

In Pine Script v6, time(timeframe, session, timezone) returns a timestamp when a bar is inside the session and na when it is outside.^[5] The session string uses 24-hour "HHmm-HHmm" times with optional days after a colon, where 1 is Sunday and 7 is Saturday.^[15] The test uses each bar's opening time: "1100-1300" matches bars that open "at or after 11:00 and before 13:00".^[5]

The timezone argument decides whose clock reads the session string. Without it, time() uses the chart symbol's exchange time zone, syminfo.timezone, which may not be the centre you mean. The chart's time zone setting changes only the display.^[5] TradingView notes that forex trading hours "might also vary depending on the provider".^[16] It recommends IANA names such as "America/New_York", which follow daylight saving changes, over fixed offsets such as "UTC-4".^[5]

Illustrative sketch; not compiled or tested.

//@version=6
indicator("London and New York overlap filter", overlay = true)
string ldnInput = input.session("0800-1700:23456", "London session, London time")
string nyInput = input.session("0800-1700:23456", "New York session, New York time")
bool inLondon = not na(time(timeframe.period, ldnInput, "Europe/London"))
bool inNewYork = not na(time(timeframe.period, nyInput, "America/New_York"))
bool inOverlap = inLondon and inNewYork
bgcolor(inOverlap ? color.new(color.blue, 80) : na)

Each session is read in its own centre's zone, so the combined condition follows both clock-change calendars. By the documented rules it should mark 12:00 to 17:00 UTC in the week of 26 October 2026 without an edit. The ":23456" suffix limits each session to Monday to Friday.^[15] Every function was checked against the Pine Script v6 reference.

Align sessions with your chart's bars, as TradingView advises.^[15] On an H1 chart, "0800-1700" covers bars that open from 08:00 to 16:00, and an alert on the 16:00 bar's close fires at 17:00, after the session. Record such boundary cases when you turn a setup into measurable conditions. PineConnector's docs include a lesson on adding a trading-session filter, and the Pine Script guide covers the language.

Where else can a trading-hours rule act between TradingView and MT5?

A Pine filter is one layer. On the path from rule to TradingView alert to MT5 order, five more layers act on time, and each reads its own clock.

• TradingView notification schedule. Webhooks are blocked outside the schedule, but "The schedule only controls notification delivery, not alert triggering". Its times follow your TradingView account time zone.^[17] The alert log shows your operating-system time zone; its CSV export uses UTC.^[18]
• PineConnector Trading Time Limit. This Portal task processes signals inside a window and halts them outside it. The end time is excluded, the tile shows its timezone, and it is not a scheduled close.^[19] The docs do not say whether closing commands are exempt; test on demo.
• PineConnector EA Active hours. Start Time and End Time use "the broker's server time shown on the chart".^[20] The docs warn against copying a time between Portal Tasks and EA settings without checking timezones.^[19] See broker server time vs UTC vs TradingView.
• Broker symbol sessions. PineConnector's error guide says a market-closed error (MT4 error 132) means the symbol is outside its trading session.^[14] MT5 shows order and deal times in the broker's trade-server time zone.^[21]
• Positions already open. No entry filter closes them, and MT5 stop loss and take profit levels "are stored and executed on the broker's server".^[21] For a timed closure, PineConnector documents the weekly Close All Trades task.^[19]

Demo test only. Confirm every account sharing the selected License ID is a demo account before creating an alert with the message below, because it requests a broker order.^[22] Choose your own symbol, size and rules; the example is not an instruction to place a live trade.

A chart that trades at the weekend, such as a crypto pair, can trigger an alert while your broker's EURUSD session is closed; a complete test needs both.^[22] PineConnector's spread= parameter sets a maximum entry spread in PineConnector pips at arrival, and a spread equal to the limit passes.^[23] In the illustrative message below, for the TradingView alert's Message field, vol_lots=0.01 requests a fixed 0.01 lot, sl_pips=20 a stop 20 PineConnector pips from entry and spread=2 a 2-pip maximum. The values are not recommendations, and EURUSD must match your broker's symbol.

LicenseID,buy,EURUSD,vol_lots=0.01,sl_pips=20,spread=2

Passing the spread filter is not a confirmed order; the broker's checks still apply.^[23]

Common mistakes with forex session times

• Treating a label as official hours. Session charts differ, and none binds your broker.
• Hard-coding an offset. "UTC-4" matches New York only during daylight saving time.^[5]
• Omitting the timezone argument. The session is then read in the chart symbol's exchange time zone.^[5]
• Forgetting mismatch weeks. In 2026 they are 8 to 28 March and 25 to 31 October; Sydney also changes on 4 October.
• Copying a time between clocks. Pine, the TradingView schedule, Portal Tasks, EA Active hours and MT5 can each use a different time zone.
• Reading a liquidity pattern as an edge. Averages describe the market, not your strategy. Automation executes the rules you define, including session rules; it does not create an edge.

Frequently asked questions

What are the forex trading hours?

Spot forex has no central exchange, so no official trading hours exist. Each retail broker publishes its own weekly schedule and holiday changes; one US broker lists Sunday 17:05 to Friday 16:59 New York time. The hours that apply to your orders are the trading sessions shown for each symbol in your broker's MetaTrader 5 specification.

When is the London–New York overlap?

Using 08:00 to 17:00 local time in both cities, the London–New York overlap is 08:00 to 12:00 New York time when both are on summer time or both on standard time: 12:00–16:00 UTC in summer, 13:00–17:00 UTC in winter. When only one city has changed its clocks, it runs 12:00–17:00 UTC.

What are the forex session times in GMT?

With 08:00 to 17:00 local hours, from 1 November 2026 the forex sessions in GMT are Sydney 21:00–06:00, Tokyo 23:00–08:00, London 08:00–17:00 and New York 13:00–22:00. Sydney is then on daylight saving time while London and New York are on standard time. Other sources use slightly different local hours.

Which time zone does Pine Script use for a session?

Pine Script's time() function reads a session string in the time zone given by its timezone argument. Without that argument it uses the chart symbol's exchange time zone, syminfo.timezone, not the chart's display setting. TradingView recommends IANA names such as America/New_York because they follow daylight saving changes.

Reviewed 25 September 2026. Facts were checked against the linked sources on that date. Nothing in this article was tested on a trading account and no code was compiled.

Related reading

• Trading mechanics: orders, lots, margin and costs
• Broker server time vs UTC vs TradingView time
• Swap and rollover: how overnight fees work
• Weekend gaps at the forex market open
• Bid-ask spread explained

Sources

1. OANDA – Financing costs for forex trading, accessed 25 September 2026.
2. Federal Reserve Bank of New York – Foreign Exchange Market Structure: The Land of a Thousand Lakes (19 November 2024), accessed 25 September 2026.
3. Bank for International Settlements – OTC foreign exchange turnover in April 2025, accessed 25 September 2026.
4. Wikipedia – List of tz database time zones (the IANA list linked from TradingView's Time page), accessed 25 September 2026.
5. TradingView – Pine Script v6 User Manual: Time, accessed 25 September 2026.
6. GOV.UK – When do the clocks change?, accessed 25 September 2026.
7. NIST – Daylight Saving Time Rules, accessed 25 September 2026.
8. NSW Government – Daylight saving in NSW, accessed 25 September 2026.
9. Ito and Hashimoto – Intra-day Seasonality in Activities of the Foreign Exchange Markets (2005 conference draft, PDF), accessed 25 September 2026.
10. NBER – Intra-Day Seasonality in Activities of the Foreign Exchange Markets, Working Paper 12413 (2006), accessed 25 September 2026.
11. BIS Markets Committee – The sterling 'flash event' of 7 October 2016, accessed 25 September 2026.
12. MetaQuotes – MetaTrader 5 Help: Market Watch and symbol specification, accessed 25 September 2026.
13. OANDA – Trading hours of operation (US), accessed 25 September 2026.
14. PineConnector – EA errors, accessed 25 September 2026.
15. TradingView – Pine Script v6 User Manual: Sessions, accessed 25 September 2026.
16. TradingView – What is the difference between ICE and other forex providers?, accessed 25 September 2026.
17. TradingView – Notification schedule for alerts, accessed 25 September 2026.
18. TradingView – What timezone is displayed in alerts?, accessed 25 September 2026.
19. PineConnector – Tasks and notifications, accessed 25 September 2026.
20. PineConnector – EA settings: Active hours, accessed 25 September 2026.
21. MetaQuotes – MetaTrader 5 Help: Performing deals, accessed 25 September 2026.
22. PineConnector – Test your setup, accessed 25 September 2026.
23. PineConnector – Syntax: spread=, accessed 25 September 2026.

PineConnector executes the instructions you send it. It does not select trades, manage money, or hold funds. Trading carries risk, and past performance of any strategy does not indicate future results.