For an average trader, Forex Trading time zones can be intimidating and difficult . Just like many other traders, when I first got involved in this cash 24 hour global market , the time zones issue never made a whole lot of sense to me . That changed over time however and in this article I will share some basic insights on how the 24 hour market is handled by me and when you prepare for your next trading day, it will help you out .
The first thing you need to consider is where you live , or where you plan to do most of your automatic forex trading trading from. This is the most important factor that affects how you look at this 24 hour market . For example, let’s say that California is where you life on the West Coast of the United States in the Pacific Standard Time (PST) zone which happens to be three hours behind the time on the East Coast .
Now that we know the trading will be done in California, and we know it’s three hours behind East Coast time, we can begin to plan our automatic forex trading trading day. In this 24 hour market that never sleeps ( while it quiets down on weekends and big international holidays) the day is rest and stops when the financial centers in New York close at about 5pm Eastern Standard Time and then banking centers like Hong Kong etc in the Far East opening, starting their new day, at about that same time . Taking this into consideration it is best to set your trading charts up so that the daily bar or candle use use closes each day at 5pm EST .
Now that we have figured out we’re trading from the United States West Coast which is three hours behond New York’s EST and we’re aware of when the 24-hour market will stop and rest for another day. The next thing to consider is when you will get ready and plan for the next day . If you happen to be in California , as in our example here , and you like staying up late then perhaps you’d like to get ready to trade the London session from about 1am PST (4am EST) to 4am PST (7am EST) . Perhaps you like sleeping and you want to sleep through the session in London but have no problem getting up early , at about 4am Pacific Time so you get a look at the end of the London session and get prepared for the session in New York which gets going about 5:30am Pacific Standard Time, or 8:30am Eastern Time . Maybe you don’t like to get up early and you prefer to trade in the middle of the day ; this is not a problem. Simply wait until about 2pm Pacific Standard Time when the day begins in Tokyo and this session is when you can do your trading.
Now you clearly have knowledge of the major forex trading time zones and your days can be planned accordingly. And remember , planning and preparation are perhaps the two most over-looked, yet important factors of success in any business , including this one . So this is how you plan out your automatic forex trading day.
