Gold Market Hours and the 3 Major Gold Trading Sessions

Online gold trading runs 24 hours. It starts Sunday night at 5 p.m. EST and ends Friday at 4 p.m. EST, open five and a half days.

Although the gold market operates around the clock, gold traders must recognize that certain times of day present more advantageous trading windows than others to effectively develop an efficient and timely XAUUSD trading plan.

To maximize the No. of trading opportunities during these market times, it's important to be aware of the times when the online trading market is busiest. This is the time which most financial trading transactions activity is carried out.

Even though there is no official open & close time during the week, the trading day can be broken up in to 3 major market sessions - Tokyo, London and New York sessions.

However, although it seems not to be very crucial at the starting, the right time to trade is one of the most important points required to be a successful trader.

The best time to trade Gold is when lots of buying and selling happens, meaning there are many financial trades. An active online market makes it easier to potentially earn money, but a slow market is a waste of time, so close your computer and don't trade XAUUSD then.

Not all hours of the market are equally suitable, as volatility fluctuates significantly across the 24-hour market cycle. A guide detailing the schedule of the Trading Sessions is provided below, using GMT 0 as the reference time.

Gold Market Hours and the 3 Major Gold Trading Sessions - XAUUSD Gold Trading Market Sessions

Online Financial Market Hours

These are the busiest trading times in trading financial instruments because these are the times when the major financial institutions and major banks in these large cities are open for business. Because of major financial transactions carried out by these major financial trading institutions the online trading markets also becomes very busy because of this huge turnover of trades.

As a gold trader trading during this time is the best option because there is a lot of movement in the price of financial instruments.

The three major trading sessions are:

Asia Market Session Hours (Tokyo): 00:00 - 9:00 GMT

European Session Hours (London): 7:00 - 17:00 GMT

U.S. Market Session Hours (New York): 13:00 - 22:00 GMT

Market Sessions Overlaps - Best Trade Times

There are hours when 2 sessions are overlapped:

London + Tokyo overlap - 7:00 - 9:00 GMTNew York + London overlap - 13:00 & 17:00 GMT

During these times when markets overlap, trading happens the most, and you have better chances to make successful trades.

For example, XAUUSD trades well from 13:00 to 17:00 GMT when European and US markets overlap.

This means that the lion share of financial transactions is happening between the London session and US sessions. Naturally this is the best time to earn profits trading the online gold markets.

Gold prices change a lot during the New York and London times because big companies, investment groups, managed accounts, and banks are ready to trade things like gold, currencies, and CFDs.

Multinationals will transact currencies during this time to facilitate international business transactions and commerce, hedge funds and managed funds will trade currencies, Gold metal, Oil and CFDs for investment purposes, banks on the other hand will exchange lots of money on behalf of their clients, and also trade financial instruments like currencies, Gold metal, Oil and CFDs for investment purposes or for speculation purposes.

Furthermore, financial institutions facilitate currency exchanges for tourists planning international travel or for any individual needing to convert funds to purchase goods abroad or conduct cross-border commercial transactions.

The online market stays very liquid then. High trade volume moves gold prices a lot. Prices often trend short-term in one direction.

As a trader, you should look to participate during high-order periods when liquidity is abundant, as it offers better opportunities to profit from trading XAU/USD. During such times, market movements tend to be more predictable compared to periods of low liquidity when prices are more erratic and range-bound without any clear direction.

After trading XAUUSD for some time, you will realize that it is easier to generate profits when the market is trending upward or downward, as opposed to when it is moving sideways. The market tends to trend during peak trading hours, making these periods the most advantageous for trading XAUUSD.

Asian Session Characteristics:

Least volatile of the 3 sessions
Account for 15 % of daily trade turnover
Typical 20 -30 pip(point) moves

European Session Characteristics:

Most volatile of the 3 market sessions
35 % of daily trade volume
Typical 90 -150 pip(point) moves

US Market Session Characteristics:

2nd most volatile of the 3 sessions
Accounts for 25 % of daily trade turnover
Focuses on AUS economic news

US and Europe Session Over-laps Characteristics:

Combines the two most volatile market sessions

Accounts for 60 % of total daily financial trading transactions turnover

Focuses on US and European economic/fundamental news

Fast moving XAUUSD prices & XAUUSD pair trends in a particular direction

Typical 100 - 150 pip moves for major Gold pair

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