Sessions??? Explain please!

Hi all,

Just a quick question really, I often see references made on here to the "US session" or the "when Asia closes" etc etc. this may sound stupid and I aplogise in advance if it is but i though Forex was 24hr market.? If someone could explain all this to me i'd be very grateful. Thanks.

Forex is 24 hr as you say...so sessions refers to Asia open close Europe open close and finally US open close which brings us full circle back to Asia.

There is no One central exchange for Forex dealing.

counter_violent said:

Forex is 24 hr as you say...so sessions refers to Asia open close Europe open close and finally US open close which brings us full circle back to Asia.

There is no One central exchange for Forex dealing.

Click to expand...

C_V,

Thanks for the reply, thats great, now i get it. and is there a rule of thumb that says certain currency pairs are more active/volitile during certain sessions??

The ones where the country involved is awake.

ton22 said:

C_V,

Thanks for the reply, thats great, now i get it. and is there a rule of thumb that says certain currency pairs are more active/volitile during certain sessions??

Click to expand...

YES

foredog said:

The ones where the country involved is awake.

Click to expand...

then ~

they like to move to a new location while your asleep so you don"t get bored with the same old scenery

Not really foredog. Some currencies trade like that, but some trade when the people with VOLUME to trade are awake. usd/jpy for example. No-one can tell me it trades more in Asia than in Europe / US

For the original poster, bear in mind the fact that while FX markets are 24h, human beings aren't. So there are broadly three major natural working days that dominate. People based in London live in the most propitious timezone for FX trading (as they come in while Asia are still awake and see NY people getting up at lunchtime). This is a key reason (although not the only one) why London has always traditionally been the world leader in interbank FX trading, even though the US dominates in equities, fixed income etc.

So when a report refers to the Asian 'session' it merely means the sorts of times when Asia are awake. No hard and fast exact times, but you get the general idea. The trading moves in waves around the world, and naturally, as a given set of people wake up and come into the ofice the natural instinct is to review and then to trade. So the opens and closes, while not 100% set in stone time wise, are still significant.

Make sense?

GJ