Market Hours: Forex, Gold, Oil, Indices and Crypto
See which forex sessions are open right now, when gold takes its daily break, when oil, silver, the stock exchanges and index futures open and close, and how the hours move when Europe and the US change their clocks, in your own time zone.
The three times of year, in UTC
| Event | Summer timenowEurope and the US both on summer time: last Sunday of March to last Sunday of October. | Between the changesnowOnly the US on summer time: one week from the last Sunday of October, and two or three weeks in March. | Winter timenowBoth on standard time: first Sunday of November to second Sunday of March. |
|---|---|---|---|
| London session | 07:00–16:00 | 08:00–17:00 | 08:00–17:00 |
| New York session | 12:00–21:00 | 12:00–21:00 | 13:00–22:00 |
| London and New York overlap | 12:00–16:00 4 hours | 12:00–17:00 5 hours | 13:00–17:00 4 hours |
| US 8:30 reports (jobs, inflation, retail sales) | 12:30 | 12:30 | 13:30 |
| Fed rate decision (2:00 p.m. New York) | 18:00 | 18:00 | 19:00 |
| Forex opens for the week (Sunday 17:00 New York) | 21:00 | 21:00 | 22:00 |
| Forex closes for the week (Friday 17:00 New York) | 21:00 | 21:00 | 22:00 |
| Daily CME break (gold, silver, WTI oil, US index futures) | 21:00–22:00 | 21:00–22:00 | 22:00–23:00 |
| Daily Brent oil break (ICE) | 22:00–00:00 | 23:00–01:00 | 23:00–01:00 |
| New York stock exchanges (9:30 to 16:00) | 13:30–20:00 | 13:30–20:00 | 14:30–21:00 |
| London Stock Exchange (8:00 to 16:30) | 07:00–15:30 | 08:00–16:30 | 08:00–16:30 |
| Frankfurt Xetra (9:00 to 17:30) | 07:00–15:30 | 08:00–16:30 | 08:00–16:30 |
| Midnight on many brokers’ servers | 21:00 | 21:00 | 22:00 |
Tokyo has no summer time: 00:00–09:00 UTC. Sydney is in the southern hemisphere and is on summer time from early October to early April, so its session is 20:00–05:00 or 21:00–06:00 UTC depending on the season. The live part above shows today’s exact hours. The Tokyo Stock Exchange trades 00:00–02:30 and 03:30–06:30 UTC all year. Crypto trades around the clock, seven days a week.
Session hours are a common convention (8:00 to 17:00 in each city), not an official timetable. Gold, silver, WTI oil and US index futures follow CME Globex hours, Brent follows ICE, and the stock exchanges their own official hours; your broker’s hours can differ slightly, so check the symbol’s specification in your platform. Public holidays are not included.
Why session times move during the year
The UK and most of Europe move their clocks forward on the last Sunday of March and back on the last Sunday of October. The US does it on different days: forward on the second Sunday of March and back on the first Sunday of November. So for anyone whose own clock does not change on the same days, there are three times of year:
- Summer time: both are on summer time. London opens at 07:00 UTC and New York at 12:00 UTC.
- Between the changes: Europe has changed and the US has not. London opens at 08:00 UTC, New York still at 12:00 UTC, and the overlap of the two markets grows to five hours. This lasts one week in autumn and two or three weeks in March.
- Winter time: both are on standard time. London opens at 08:00 UTC and New York at 13:00 UTC.
The table above shows all three side by side and marks the one that applies today. The “Next clock changes” part shows the exact date of the next change and what it moves on your clock.
Gold trading hours
Gold futures on CME trade from Sunday to Friday, 18:00 to 17:00 New York time the next day, with a one-hour break each day from 17:00. In UTC the break is 21:00 to 22:00 in summer and 22:00 to 23:00 in winter, and no trades happen during it.
Gold CFDs at brokers (symbol XAUUSD) take their price from the same global market, but each broker sets its own exact hours. Vantage’s help center, for example, says to check a symbol’s trading hours by right-clicking it and choosing Specification in MetaTrader. Do the same at your broker before trading close to the break.
Other markets: oil, silver, stock indices and crypto
Silver, WTI crude oil and US index futures (S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and the Dow) trade on CME like gold and keep the same hours: Sunday to Friday, 18:00 to 17:00 New York time the next day, with a one-hour daily break. Brent crude trades on ICE from 01:00 to 23:00 London time, Monday to Friday, and its week opens on Sunday at 23:00 London time, so Brent’s daily break lasts two hours.
Stock indices have two sets of hours. The exchanges themselves are open only part of the day:
- New York (NYSE and Nasdaq): 9:30 to 16:00 New York time; 13:30 to 20:00 UTC in summer and 14:30 to 21:00 UTC in winter.
- London Stock Exchange (FTSE 100): 8:00 to 16:30 London time.
- Frankfurt, Xetra (DAX): 9:00 to 17:30 Frankfurt time, the same UTC hours as London.
- Tokyo Stock Exchange (Nikkei 225): 9:00 to 11:30 and 12:30 to 15:30 Tokyo time; 00:00 to 02:30 and 03:30 to 06:30 UTC all year.
Index CFDs at brokers (symbols such as US500, NAS100, GER40, UK100 and JP225) usually trade almost around the clock like the futures, but the big moves come when the exchange itself opens. Crypto such as bitcoin has no central exchange and trades around the clock, seven days a week. Check each symbol’s exact hours in its specification in your broker’s platform.
Your broker’s server clock is not your clock
The time MetaTrader shows next to the chart is the broker’s server time. Many brokers set their servers so that midnight on the server matches the New York close at 17:00 New York time. Vantage’s help center, for example, says its server runs on GMT+2 and on GMT+3 during daylight saving time.
So the gap between your clock and the server clock changes during the year too. Check your broker’s server time in MetaTrader’s Market Watch window, and keep that gap in mind when you compare candle times with the times in the economic calendar.
The London and New York overlap, and US report times
The hours when London and New York are both open are usually the busiest of the day for the euro, the pound and gold. The main US economic reports come out at 8:30 a.m. New York time, inside that window: 12:30 UTC in summer and 13:30 UTC in winter. CPI inflation, jobs and retail sales are among them. The Fed’s rate decision comes at 2:00 p.m. New York time: 18:00 UTC in summer and 19:00 UTC in winter.
To see which reports are due this week and how much gold has moved on each in the past, open the Fundora economic calendar.
Public holidays
This tool does not include public holidays. On days such as Christmas and New Year, US Thanksgiving or UK bank holidays, markets close early or trade thinly. CME publishes the exact hours for those days on its holiday and trading hours page, and your broker announces them a few days before.
Are these hours official?
No. The forex market has no central exchange and no official hours; a “session” is just the business day of a main trading centre. Here London and New York run from 8:00 to 17:00 local time, Tokyo from 9:00 to 18:00 and Sydney from 7:00 to 16:00. Some sites put these an hour or two apart. What is official is your broker’s trading schedule, the CME and ICE trading hours and the exchanges’ own hours.
Before you trade in these hours, work out the right size with the position size calculator.
Sources
- UK government: When do the clocks change
- US law on daylight saving time: 15 U.S.C. § 260a
- CME Group: Gold futures contract specs (GC)
- CME Group: contract specs for silver (SI), WTI crude (CL) and E-mini S&P 500
- ICE: Brent crude futures
- Exchange hours: NYSE, Xetra (Deutsche Börse), Tokyo Stock Exchange (JPX), and the London Stock Exchange as reported by Börsen-Zeitung
- Vantage: server time and trading hours per symbol
Sources checked on 23 October 2026.