For Business

Market Basics

What Is the London Session

The London session is the part of the day when the banks of London and the rest of Europe are at their desks. This paper shows you which hours it covers on London's clock and on the clock under your own chart, what those hours looked like on one real day, who is trading in them, and where to read the feed's clock on your platform.

Difficulty
Intermediate
Reading time
6 min
Pages
8
Reviewed by
Saman Rahbar

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London wakes up

The currency market is open around the clock, but it is not equally awake around the clock. It has a working day, and the busiest part of that day begins when London sits down. At eight in the morning in London the banks and funds of Europe are at their desks, and they stay there until about five in the afternoon. Those nine hours are the London session. What makes them London's is not the city itself but the crowd: while London is open, Tokyo is finishing its day and, from early afternoon, New York is starting its own.

The same moment, four clocks

Eight in the morning in London is a different hour everywhere else, and the hour that matters is the one under your own chart. That clock is the broker's feed, and on most brokers it runs two hours ahead of London, so London opens when it reads 10:00 and closes when it reads 19:00. In New York it is three in the morning at that moment, and in Singapore mid-afternoon. Read sessions on the feed's clock rather than your wristwatch, because the candles and the orders are stamped with the feed.

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