The Three Forex Sessions, Explained

📅 Page reviewed: 11 August 2026 · Reading the Market

The FX market runs continuously from Sydney's Monday morning to New York's Friday close, but it doesn't behave uniformly. Liquidity, volatility and even which pairs lead all rotate through three overlapping sessions. Knowing the rhythm tells you when your pair is likely to move — and when a quiet chart is just the clock, not the story.

Asia (roughly 00:00–08:00 UTC)

Tokyo anchors the session, with Sydney and Singapore alongside. Yen pairs and the Aussie are most active — Japanese data lands here, as do Chinese releases that drive AUD. Liquidity in European pairs is thinner, which can exaggerate moves on stray headlines. Historically, several Japanese intervention episodes have used this window.

London (roughly 07:00–16:00 UTC)

The heavyweight: London handles more FX volume than any other centre. European data arrives through the morning (UK releases at 06:00 UTC often front-run it), spreads compress, and trends that began in Asia are either confirmed or unwound. The first two London hours frequently set the day's direction for EUR, GBP and CHF pairs.

New York and the overlap (12:00–21:00 UTC)

The London–New York overlap (roughly 12:00–16:00 UTC) is the deepest liquidity window of the day, and it hosts the heavyweight US data — CPI, NFP, Fed decisions all land in or near it. After London closes, the tape thins noticeably; late New York afternoon is prone to drifts and position squaring rather than fresh trends.

Session opens as information

Each open brings a fresh wave of participants who react to everything that happened since their last close — which is why the tone going into a session matters. We publish a news-tone read for all 11 major pairs at each session open (Asia, London, New York) and score it at the next session, so you can see both today's leaning and how past readings have fared: the session bias scorecard.