The London session runs 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM London time, Tokyo 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Japan time, and New York 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern. Those local hours never change. What changes through the year is the gap between them, because Japan does not observe daylight saving while the United Kingdom and the United States do, on different weekends.
By Jonathan Jean-Philippe, founder of DealPropFirm · 18 September 2026
The London session opens at 8:00 AM London time and closes at 5:00 PM London time. In UTC that is 08:00 – 17:00 from late October to late March, when London is on GMT, and 07:00 – 16:00 for the rest of the year, when it is on BST.
It is the largest session by volume and usually sets the direction of the day on the European pairs. If you trade EUR/USD or GBP/USD, this is the window where your spread is tightest and your stop is least likely to be taken by thin-book noise.
The Tokyo session runs from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Japan time, which is 00:00 – 09:00 UTC all year round. Japan is the only one of the three centres that never changes its clock, so its UTC offset is fixed at +9 in January and in July alike.
That fixed offset is exactly why the Tokyo open appears to move when you express it in Eastern time. It does not move: New York does. The open falls at 7:00 PM Eastern between early November and early March, and at 8:00 PM Eastern for the other eight months of the year.
Volume is thinner than London or New York on the major pairs, which is why the session is often described as range-bound. It is the main window for USD/JPY, AUD/USD and NZD/USD.
The New York session runs from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern, matching the US equity market. In UTC that is 13:30 – 20:00 during daylight saving and 14:30 – 21:00 in winter.
This is where the US index futures live. If you are on a futures evaluation with a firm such as Apex or Topstep, ES and NQ do most of their daily range in the first ninety minutes after this open, and the US data releases that move every market land inside it.
Hours shown in UTC, winter (standard time). In summer London and New York both shift one hour earlier on this scale; Tokyo does not move. Where two bars overlap, both centres are open and spreads are at their tightest.
| Session | Local hours | UTC (winter) | UTC (summer) |
|---|---|---|---|
| TokyoJST all year | 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM | 00:00 – 09:00 | 00:00 – 09:00 |
| LondonGMT / BST | 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM | 08:00 – 17:00 | 07:00 – 16:00 |
| New YorkEST / EDT | 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM | 14:30 – 21:00 | 13:30 – 20:00 |
In plain text: Tokyo trades 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM local time, which is 00:00 – 09:00 UTC in winter and the same in summer. London trades 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM local time, which is 08:00 – 17:00 UTC in winter and 07:00 – 16:00 UTC in summer. New York trades 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM local time, which is 14:30 – 21:00 UTC in winter and 13:30 – 20:00 UTC in summer. Only Tokyo keeps the same UTC window all year.
The London and New York overlap. It begins at the New York open, 9:30 AM Eastern, and ends at the London close, 5:00 PM London time. Both centres are open at once, spreads on EUR/USD and GBP/USD are at their tightest, and most of the daily range is built inside it.
You will see this window described as anything from two and a half to four hours. The spread of answers is not carelessness: it depends on whether you count from the equity open at 9:30 or the currency-market convention of 8:00 AM Eastern, and on the weeks when the US and the UK have not yet changed their clocks together.
Most session tables are written once, in a single timezone, and never recalculated. A page that states the Tokyo open as 7:00 PM Eastern is right only between early November and early March. For the other eight months of the year it is an hour early, and nothing on the page says so.
The same applies to any London table labelled GMT between late March and late October, when London is actually on BST. And there are two short windows each year — the United States changes clocks on the second Sunday in March, the United Kingdom on the last Sunday — when the gap between London and New York is not the one everybody assumes.
We had this bug in our own session clock until 17 September 2026: its boundaries were stored as fixed Eastern-time integers, so it announced the Asian session an hour early for two thirds of the year. The table above is generated from timezone data rather than typed in, which is the only way a session table stays true through a clock change.
Trading an instrument outside its session costs you spread, and spread comes straight out of a drawdown allowance you did not choose. On a personal account a wide fill is an annoyance; on an evaluation with a fixed dollar cushion it is a measurable share of your remaining room.
There is a second effect that catches traders out. Some futures firms recalculate a trailing drawdown intraday, on unrealised profit. A thin, volatile hour can lift your threshold on a spike you never banked, and the floor stays up when the price comes back. Firms that recalculate at the session close do not behave this way.
Which model your firm uses is published in its own documentation, and we list it firm by firm on the challenge tracker, with the source and the date we read it.
This page gives the hours. For which session is open right now, and how long until the next one, use the live session clock. It converts for the current date rather than assuming a fixed offset, so it stays correct through both clock changes.
The London session opens at 8:00 AM London time and closes at 5:00 PM London time. That local time never changes. What changes is its equivalent elsewhere: London runs on GMT from late October to late March and on BST the rest of the year, so the session opens at 08:00 UTC in winter and 07:00 UTC in summer. In New York terms it is 3:00 AM Eastern for most of the year.
The Tokyo session runs from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Japan time, which is 00:00 to 09:00 UTC all year round. Japan does not observe daylight saving, so unlike London and New York its UTC offset never moves. In Eastern time the open falls at 7:00 PM in winter and 8:00 PM in summer, because it is New York that shifts, not Tokyo.
The New York session runs from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern, matching the equity market hours. That is 13:30 to 20:00 UTC during daylight saving and 14:30 to 21:00 UTC in winter. Most US index futures traders treat the first ninety minutes after the open as the highest-volume window of their day.
The London and New York overlap. It runs from the New York open at 9:30 AM Eastern until the London close at 5:00 PM London time, roughly two and a half to four hours depending on the convention you use and the time of year. Both centres are open at once, which tightens spreads on EUR/USD and GBP/USD and concentrates most of the daily range.
Because most of them are written as a fixed table in one timezone and never recalculated. A page that states the Tokyo open as 7:00 PM Eastern is correct only between early November and early March: for the other eight months New York is on daylight saving and the correct answer is 8:00 PM. The same applies to any London table labelled GMT between late March and late October, when London is actually on BST.
No. Forex trades continuously from Sunday evening to Friday evening. The sessions describe where the volume is, not when trading is possible. Outside the main sessions the market still moves, but with thinner books, wider spreads and more slippage, which matters more on a funded account than on a personal one.
The one that matches your instrument rather than your convenience. EUR/USD and GBP/USD are most active in the London session and its New York overlap. US index futures such as ES and NQ are most active in the New York session. USD/JPY and AUD/USD see their cleanest moves during Tokyo. Trading an instrument outside its session means wider spreads, which eat directly into a drawdown allowance.
It can matter a great deal. A firm that recalculates a trailing drawdown on unrealised profit intraday moves your floor as the market moves, so a thin, volatile hour can raise your threshold on a spike you never banked. Firms that recalculate at the session close do not. Check which model your firm uses before deciding to trade illiquid hours.
Session hours are the local trading hours of each financial centre, generated from IANA timezone data so they stay correct through daylight saving changes. Forex trades continuously from Sunday evening to Friday evening: the sessions describe where the volume is, not when trading is possible.