The forex market opens at 22:00 UK time on Sunday and closes at 22:00 UK time on Friday. Both times are set in New York, where the week runs from 17:00 on Sunday to 17:00 on Friday, and in between the market trades through the night with no daily close. In UK time the London session runs from 08:00 to 17:00 and New York from 13:00 to 22:00, so the busiest stretch of the day is 13:00 to 17:00, when both are open.
One week this autumn is different. From 25 to 31 October 2026 the UK has changed its clocks and the US has not, so everything New York sets reaches a UK trader an hour early, starting with the open at 21:00 on Sunday 25 October.
The four sessions in UK time
Sessions are conventions, not official hours. This page uses local business hours in each centre: Sydney 07:00 to 16:00, Tokyo 09:00 to 18:00, London 08:00 to 17:00 and New York 08:00 to 17:00. In UK time that gives:
| Session | Local hours | UK, winter (Nov to March) | UK, summer (April to October) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 07:00 to 16:00 | 20:00 to 05:00 | 22:00 to 07:00 |
| Tokyo | 09:00 to 18:00 | 00:00 to 09:00 | 01:00 to 10:00 |
| London | 08:00 to 17:00 | 08:00 to 17:00 | 08:00 to 17:00 |
| New York | 08:00 to 17:00 | 13:00 to 22:00 | 13:00 to 22:00 |
London and New York sit still in UK time for most of the year, because the UK and the US both change their clocks. Tokyo and Sydney move by an hour when the UK changes. Sydney also changes its own clocks, on 4 October 2026 and 4 April 2027, and in the weeks when only one of Sydney and the UK has changed, it sits halfway between the two columns: on 21 October 2026 the Sydney session is 21:00 to 06:00 UK.
What each session tends to do to a trade that is already open is in the sessions and news guide, which uses 08:00 to 16:30 for London and 13:00 to 21:00 for New York rather than business hours. This page is the clock.
The fixed times, in UK time
Session edges are soft. The scheduled times are not, and every one in this table is set in New York.
| Event | New York | UK, normally | UK, 25 to 31 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market opens, Sunday | 17:00 | 22:00 | 21:00 |
| New York session | 08:00 to 17:00 | 13:00 to 22:00 | 12:00 to 21:00 |
| US data, early slot | 08:30 | 13:30 | 12:30 |
| Stock market opens | 09:30 | 14:30 | 13:30 |
| US data, later slot | 10:00 | 15:00 | 14:00 |
| Federal Reserve decisions | 14:00 | 19:00 | 18:00 |
| Rollover, and Friday close | 17:00 | 22:00 | 21:00 |
The rollover is the one pause in a market that never closes: a few quiet minutes and wider spreads while the trading day turns over at 17:00 New York. Gold's own hours, with a full one-hour break from that moment, are in gold market hours, and why gold's spread jumps at night covers what the wider spread does to a stop.
The clock change week: 25 to 31 October 2026
The UK puts its clocks back on Sunday 25 October 2026. The US waits a week, until Sunday 1 November. For the seven days between, New York is four hours behind London instead of five, so everything New York sets lands an hour earlier in UK time.
London's own hours do not move for a UK trader: the London session is still 08:00 to 17:00. The afternoon is what changes. The last column of the table above is that week: New York starts at 12:00 UK, so the overlap with London becomes 12:00 to 17:00, and everything from the 12:30 data to the 21:00 rollover comes an hour early.
Tokyo and Sydney move with the UK instead. From 25 October they are on the winter column of the session table: Tokyo 00:00 to 09:00 UK, Sydney 20:00 to 05:00.
A Fed decision in the middle of it
This year the week holds a Federal Reserve decision. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets on 27 and 28 October 2026, and the statement is due at 2:00 pm New York on Wednesday 28 October: 18:00 UK that week, not 19:00. The press conference follows at 2:30 pm New York, 18:30 UK. Both times are on the Federal Reserve's own calendar for October 2026, in New York time.
Spring 2027
It happens again next spring, for two weeks. The US puts its clocks forward on 14 March 2027 and the UK on 28 March, so from 14 to 27 March New York is again four hours behind London, and the same one-hour shift applies: US data at 12:30 UK, the rollover at 21:00.
How not to be an hour late
A calendar app, or an economic calendar set to your own time zone, handles all of this for you. The risk is anything set by hand: an alert typed in as 13:30 for US data goes off an hour after the release in the week of 25 October, and again from 14 to 27 March.
Signal times carry the same trap. A time posted in a channel is usually in the channel's own time zone, so find out which zone that is, and convert again in the clock change weeks rather than reusing last month's offset. Your trading platform keeps a third clock, the broker's server time, so check that offset too after each change.
The short version
- Forex opens at 22:00 UK on Sunday and closes at 22:00 UK on Friday, with no daily close in between.
- London is 08:00 to 17:00 UK, New York 13:00 to 22:00 UK, and the overlap 13:00 to 17:00.
- From 25 to 31 October 2026, everything New York sets is an hour earlier in the UK: the open at 21:00, US data at 12:30, the Fed statement on 28 October at 18:00, the rollover at 21:00.
- The same shift applies from 14 to 27 March 2027.
- Keep events in a calendar that uses your own time zone, and re-check any alert or signal time you convert by hand.
Our signals in the clock change week
Our signals go out in the London and New York hours: in the replayed month of 24 August to 21 September 2026, the 79 resolved signals split 38 London and 41 New York. To see where they fall on your own clock before you trade any of them, watch the free channel for a week.
Every closed signal is on the record
The results page lists each closed VIP signal with its entry, stop, targets and outcome, stops included.
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