Forex Trading Hours: The Busiest and Slowest Hours to Trade

Success in forex trading is not based solely on the best forex trading system. You should also know when is the best time to place a trade. You need to know which forex trading hours are the busiest and which are the slowest.

The trading hours when the market is most active are definitely when the European and US markets are open and overlap each other. This time is from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC or from 8:00 to 11:00 EST. If you are looking for liquidity and volatility in the market, this is definitely your peak time.

This is when most short-term traders or forex scalpers enter and exit their trades. There is enough volume in the market, there is enough news, and quite frankly, there are enough traders to move the market in a solid way. Almost all big moves happen during these hours. This is because the US and UK markets account for more than 50% of all transactions in the market.

The slowest periods in the market are naturally after the European and US markets close and before the Asian and Australian markets open. Asian markets are open at 8:00 pm EST and Australian markets are open at 7:00 pm EST.

So from when the markets close in the US at 4:00 pm EST until the Asian markets open at 8:00 pm EST, the market is very slow. This could be a good time to enter if you are more of a position trader, wanting to trade and then trade from a longer time perspective.