Trading Sessions

Stock exchanges and the indices built on them still keep fixed trading hours, a direct hangover from the physical floor era covered in History of Trading, even though almost everything is electronic now. Forex trades close to 24 hours a day instead, because no single exchange owns a currency, but the open and close of the major regional sessions still shape how price behaves. Why the open is different Price closes one session, then opens the next well away from that level, a gap, before continuing. ...

Forex and index trading is usually split into three broad regional sessions, Asian, London, and New York, and each has its own personality once you’ve watched it enough times: a typical volume, a typical mood, a shortlist of instruments that tend to wake up during it. Asian, London, and New York sessions (UTC). The boxed section is the London/New York overlap, the highest-volume window of the day. ...