Trade Forex Trading

Market Hours and The 3 Major XAUUSD Trading Sessions

Tokyo Close Charts

To maximize the number of trading opportunities during these Gold hours, it's important to be aware of the times when the market is busiest. This is the time that most xauusd transaction activity occurs.

Although there isn't a set time for when trading starts and ends each day, the week can be divided into three main XAUUSD trading periods, which are the Tokyo, London, and New York sessions.

Even though it might not seem super important at first, knowing when to trade is a very key thing you must know to trade successfully.

The best time is when the market is most active and thence has the biggest volume of transactions. A more active market creates a good chance to make some profits while a calm and slow one is literally a waste of your time - turn off your computer PC & do not even bother trading at this time.

Not all the times are suitable, that is because the volatility keeps changing. Below is a guide outlining the schedule of XAUUSD Sessions. The time used is GMT 0

XAU USD Session Time - Best Session to Trade XAUUSD - Gold Session Times - Gold Times

The three major sessions are:

  1. Asia Session Hours( Tokyo ): 00:00 - 9:00 GMT
  2. Europe Session Hours( London ): 7:00 to 17:00 GMT
  3. U.S. Market Session Hours( New York ): 13:00 - 22:00 GMT

Best Times

There are hours when 2 sessions are overlapped:

London + Tokyo over-lap - 7:00 - 9:00 GMT

New York + London overlap - 13:00 - 17:00 GMT

During overlapping market hours, XAUUSD sees the most volume. This boosts win chances.

This means that the lion share of xauusd transactions is happening between the London session and US sessions. Naturally this is the best time to make profits.

The trading prices moves a lot during the New York and London Market Sessions because Multinational companies, hedge funds, managed funds & banks are open for trading.

During this time, multinational corporations transact XAU/USD for international business and commerce purposes. Hedge funds and investment funds trade XAU/USD for profit generation, while banks engage in large-scale currency exchanges on behalf of clients. These transactions may involve tourists preparing for travel or individuals looking to conduct international purchases or financial transactions.

This makes the market very liquid at this time and the high volume of transactions means that prices move a lot. At this time the charts will in general move in a given direction and form a shortterm trend.

As a trader, it's beneficial to participate during peak ordering times, as this is when liquidity is abundant and trading opportunities for profit are optimal. Increased liquidity tends to make price movements more predictable, in contrast to periods of low liquidity where price actions can be erratic and range-bound without a clear direction.

Once you trade for a while you will get to know that is easier to make money when the market is moving up or moving down, unlike when it is in a range.

Asian Session Characteristics:

  1. Least volatile of the three sessions
  2. Account for 15% of daily transaction turnover
  3. Typical 20 -30 pip(point) moves

European Market Session Characteristics:

  1. Most volatile of the three markets sessions
  2. 35 % of daily transaction volume
  3. Typical 90 -150 pip moves

USA Session Characteristics:

  1. 2nd most volatile of the three markets sessions
  2. Accounts for 25% of daily trade turnover
  3. Focuses on US economic news

US & Europe Session Over-laps Characteristics:

  1. Combines the two most volatile sessions
  2. Accounts for 60% of the total daily trade transaction turnover
  3. Focuses on USAUS and European economic news
  4. Fast moving trading prices and xauusd instrument trends in a particular direction
  5. Typical 100 -150 pip moves for major xauusd

More Courses:

XAUUSD Broker