For Business

Market Basics

What Is the New York Session

The New York session is the part of the day when the United States is trading. This paper shows you which hours it covers in New York and on the clock under your own chart, what those hours looked like on one real day, the two things only this session brings — the American calendar and the American stock market — and where its timetable is on your platform.

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

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Two cities, one afternoon

It is one in the afternoon in London and eight in the morning in New York, and both cities are trading. The New York session is the part of the day when the banks and funds of the United States are at their desks: eight in the morning to five in the afternoon, New York time. For its first four hours London is still open, so the two largest markets in the world are awake at once; after London goes home, New York trades on alone into the evening.

Which hours, on the feed's clock

Eight to five in New York is a different set of numbers on the clock under your chart. That clock is the broker's feed, and on most brokers it runs seven hours ahead of New York in summer, so the session begins when it reads 15:00 and ends at midnight. The candles and the orders are stamped with that clock, not with New York's. One wrinkle: American clocks change to and from summer time on different dates from European ones, so for a few weeks each spring and autumn the session sits an hour earlier or later on the feed.

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