Characteristics of the 3 Major Sessions: Asia, Europe & USA

Asian Session

During the Asian market only 8 % of total daily transactions go through Tokyo desks. This is the least active of the three major sessions. Most of this 8% only involves yen based stock indices instruments with very little transactions happening for other stock indices instruments. This is the reason why it's not suitable to trade during this period. Not trading this period will save you a lot of time and money.

European Session

The London/European market takes the lion's share of the total transactions, 34% of all transactions are carried out during this session. London time zone is also well placed in terms of business hours for both eastern and western economies, this is when there are market overlaps and this results in high number of transactions during the this period. This time is most liquid and most volatile session for all the stock indices instruments.

The Europe time zone also includes the EUR zone member countries. The EUR zone has 17 members and major banks of these countries are open and there is a lot of liquidity as many transactions are being executed.

US Session

The US market takes up 20% of all transactions. The most active time for trading is approximately from 8 am to 12 pm when both London and New York dealing desks are open. This is when there is generally the highest volatility as it is also when the majority of the major US economic announcements are released.

European US Session Overlap

There are periods which have a greater volume of trades, thereby increasing the opportunities to make a profit.

For day traders the most productive hours are the London and the US session overlaps and this is the peak for stock index trades is when these two overlap when there is a large volume of transactions and the stock indices market is most active.

During this overlap a significant amount of fundamental news is released generating a lot of volatility and the stock indices prices move fast and there is plenty of opportunities to trade, this overlap offers the best opportunity for those wanting to maximize profit.

The best hours for trading, are during this overlap because the stock indices prices really move and the moves are decisive and offer the best chance to make profits

This is also why Asian traders, Japan will wait until afternoon to start executing their stock indices orders, this is the period that will coincide with the Europe and USA sessions.

Asian investors will not open stock indices transactions during the Asian time, therefore as an investor from anywhere in the world it is best stay away also, after all even the hedge funds and other pro investors from Asia will avoid this time and wait for until afternoon when it is much easier because of the liquidity during the US and UK overlaps.

Therefore to come up with the best hours using based on these three sessions as shown below:

Market Hours and Overlaps

The chart above shows the timetable of when each session starts and when it ends. The chart also shows when there are overlaps and also shows the best hours based on these overlaps.

Summary:

Determine Your Schedule

The type of trader you are determines your schedule. If you don't have a lot of time then a longer term strategy would suit you best. If on the other hand you have a lot of time then you might decide to set a day trading schedule where you open stock indices transactions during the most active market hours. The above chart shows the best GMT times to be in the stock indices market - from around 800 GMT and 1800 GMT.

Determine your time frame

To set up a schedule you need to determine your chart time frame. Try using different chart time frames until you find the most suitable and comfortable to use in accordance with your schedule.

Test your stock indices strategy

Test your stock indices strategy on a practice demo stock indices account for a period of time. Keep track of every transaction and monitor the progress of your schedule. Try to analyze what times are most profitable for your stock indices strategy.

Your strategy should be specified on the trading plan that you use.

To learn more about how to specify this in your plan, read the tutorial about Stock Indices Trading plan. This learn stock indices tutorial will show you an example of a format that you can use to specify your schedule.