In the world of forex trading, timing is a crucial factor that can significantly influence a trader’s success.
While the forex market operates 24 hours a day, five days a week, not all trading days are created equal.
Each day of the trading week presents its own unique characteristics, influenced by market liquidity, volatility, and economic data releases.
Understanding these daily nuances can be a game-changer for newcomers to the currency markets.
So now we know that the London session is the busiest out of all the other sessions, but there are also certain days in the week when all the markets tend to show more movement.
What are the best days of the week to trade forex?
Below is a chart of the average pip range for the major pairs for each day of the week:
| Pair | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 49 | 63 | 64 | 72 | 65 |
| GBP/USD | 65 | 80 | 85 | 90 | 86 |
| USD/JPY | 95 | 110 | 118 | 130 | 120 |
| AUD/USD | 45 | 60 | 62 | 61 | 67 |
| NZD/USD | 41 | 52 | 59 | 54 | 57 |
| USD/CAD | 55 | 71 | 68 | 69 | 73 |
| USD/CHF | 45 | 56 | 58 | 70 | 60 |
| EUR/JPY | 114 | 113 | 114 | 140 | 126 |
| GBP/JPY | 137 | 132 | 146 | 165 | 152 |
| EUR/GBP | 29 | 33 | 34 | 34 | 33 |
| EUR/CHF | 42 | 44 | 45 | 53 | 50 |
If your eyes are getting heavy trying to scan the data, here’s a prettier chart:
As you can see from the chart above, it’s best to trade during the middle of the week, since this is when the most action happens.
Fridays are usually busy until 12:00 pm EST and then the market pretty much drops dead until it closes at 5:00 pm EST.This means we only work half-days on Fridays.
The weekend always starts early! Yippee!
So based on all these, we’ve learned when the busiest and best days of the week to trade forex are.
The busiest times are usually the best times to trade since high volatility tends to present more opportunities.
How to find a currency pair’s volatility per day
While we don’t know exactly how much currency pair will move on a given day, we can use historical data to give us a good idea of how much it’s likely to move.
To find a currency pair’s historical volatility per day, you can use our MarketMilk™ tool!
1. Visit MarketMilk™
Visit MarketMilk™ and type the symbol you’d like to see in the search box:
2. Click on “Volatility”
On the left side of the screen, you’ll see a menu of different options on analyzing EUR/USD, click on “Volatility“.
3. View “Volatility Per Day”
When you scroll down, you’ll see “Volatility Per Day“.
You can view volatility measured by percentage or in pips.
You can also change the amount of historical data, and filter by specific days.
Managing Yo Time Wisely
Unless you’re Edward Cullen, who does not sleep, there is no way you can trade all trading sessions. Even if you could, why would you?
While the forex market is open 24 hours daily, it doesn’t mean that action happens all the time!
Besides, sleep is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle!
You need sleep to recharge and have energy so that you can do even the most mundane tasks like mowing the lawn, talking to your spouse, taking the dog for a walk, or organizing your stamp collection.You’ll definitely need your rest if you plan on becoming a hotshot currency trader. 😴
Every trader should learn when to trade.
Actually, scratch that.
Every trader should know when to trade and when NOT to trade.
Knowing the optimal times you should trade and the times when you should sit out and just play some Fortnite instead.
Unless you play Fortnite a little too much already.
Here’s a quick cheat sheet of the best and worst times to trade:
Best Times to Trade:
- When two sessions are overlapping of course! These are also the times when major news events come out to potentially spark some volatility and directional movements.
- Make sure you bookmark the Market Hours cheat sheet to take note of the Opening and Closing times.
- You can also use our Forex Market Time Zone Converter which automatically displays which trading session(s) is open in your current local time.
- The European session tends to be the busiest out of the three.
- The middle of the week typically shows the most movement, as the pip range widens for most of the major currency pairs.
Worst Times to Trade:
- Sundays – everyone is sleeping or enjoying their weekend!
- Fridays – liquidity dies down during the latter part of the U.S. session.
- Holidays – everybody is taking a break.
- Major news events – you don’t want to get whipsawed!
- When you just broke up with your significant other because you chose forex trading over him or her. Wait until the next London session instead.
Can’t seem to trade during the optimal sessions? Don’t fret.
You can always be a swing or position trader. We’ll get back to that later.
Meanwhile, let’s move on to how you actually make money trading currencies. Excited? You should be!
