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This is basically the European Session. Translate that to 8:00 AM GMT - 4:00 PM GMT and you get the London session with the London / New York overlap included. This is a good time to trade EURUSD and GBPUSD.
Last week and this week the time difference between London and New York wass only 4 hours, so the times should be 4:00 AM EST to 12:00 AM EST.
I think the timeframe you should trade depends entirely on your trading style. If you prefer to fade, then you probably should think about trading the slow hours of Asian, since it ranges a lot. I like to trade continuations and breakouts so I trade the first hours of NY open. And love news days. For my style, I prefer explosive movements, hence the opening hours and news releases.
As for your questions, "Do you forex traders have times of day that you just don't trade?
And what do you think of not trading the Australia and Asia sessions?"
I only trade 5am - 7:30am PST and once in a while the first two hours of Asian open. I would trade the Euro open but it's too late. Other than those, I won't trade any other time.
Choosing not to trade Australia or Asia is again, dependent on your style and personality.
I guess like all answers, it depends. I've been trading an algo on the EURUSD for some time now and have done extensive backtests. What it really comes down to is the liquidity in the marketplace. The more volume, the tighter the spreads and the more fluid the movements. For the EURUSD, the system I have trades two times, 3AM to 6AM ET and 8AM to 12PM ET. I'm all about managing risk and risk seems easier to manage during these times.
good question that started this thread ... something i have pondered myself.
when it comes to forex, the problem i have found in identifying best volume/liquidity has to do with the data that comes from many forex brokers/dealers. volume doesn't always mean volume, but can instead simply mean ticks. furthermore, you're likely only be seeing your broker/dealer's volume (or ticks) not the entire market (since there is no singular exchange for each forex pair).
i have noticed that the overlap between london and new york has good liquidity for EURUSD and GBPUSD. if you like the early times, you could check out EURJPY during the overlap between asia and london (generally the 3-4 hours preceding new york open).
like others said -- identify a good market time to trade may depend on your style/setup (scalp vs swing, etc.). if you're looking for bigger moves, those can sometimes happen after-hours; whereas, if you're looking to scalp out a few pips here and there, you may prefer the heavy volume of the asian-london overlap or the london-new york overlap.
You don't want to be in the market, or, at least, don't use the same rules, between 2 pm and 8 pm eastern time ( New-York). The big players have finished their day. Only remain is the little "guppy" like us. We don't drive the market, they do.
Our business is to grab a portion of the fluctuation. No volatility, no business. Also, these periods tend to produce a lot mores of false entries.
Best way to see for your own time frame, Take a complete week on lower scale and determine where is the fluctuation. Step back and look at your display with 500 to 1000 bars or more on your screen .
The 24h market is a lure for the shark to grab some of our money while they rest. They know how to play with us. We have to play with them. Not being their prays, but be a little fish that clean the tooth of a big sharks.
If we could follow their steps, we will be able to eat, If we play where they want us to play, well, we will be eated.
Look, it really depends on the times that you find yourself awake and ready. Volume counts for a lot. But if a high volume hour comes when you've just gotten out of bed and are not fully awake it really is useless. If it comes after a long day it is also useless.
My suggestion is: find the time when you're consistently at full alert level. Get into the habit of getting into the zone at the same time every day (Including weekends). That way you'll be controlling for the variables that you can actually control.
The best and worst times to trade really depend on yourself.
