london session open
Also called London open, London session start, London market open, London opening hour
The London session open is the hour London's forex desks start trading: 08:00 London time, which is 07:00 UTC in summer and 08:00 UTC in winter. Volume and price movement usually pick up from this point.
Forex has no opening bell, so nothing on your chart announces this hour. What changes is the speed of price. A stop or lot size that suited the quiet hours before can be too tight an hour later.
What time the London session opens and closes
The session that starts at the London session open is usually counted until about 17:00 London time. These are conventions, not exchange rules, so sources differ by an hour at the close.
On a London clock the open never moves. In UTC it does, because the UK changes its clocks. The New York column assumes both cities are on the same seasonal clock.
| Season | London time | UTC | New York time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summer | 08:00 | 07:00 | 03:00 |
| Winter | 08:00 | 08:00 | 03:00 |
The chart below puts the three main sessions on a London clock. Tokyo is drawn for winter. In summer it sits one hour later on a London clock, because Japan does not change its clocks.
To answer "what session is open now", read your London time off this chart. Before 08:00 it is Asia. For the first hour after London opens (two hours in summer), Tokyo is still open alongside it. Then London trades alone until 13:00. From 13:00 to 17:00 London and New York overlap, and New York then trades alone until 22:00. From 22:00 to midnight no bar is drawn: New York has closed and Tokyo has not opened yet, so it is a quiet gap between trading days.
How much price speeds up after London opens
The IndicatorFree Lab measured the average size of a 1-hour candle on EURUSD, by session, from 2023-01-02 to 2023-06-08 on broker demo data. This is past data, not a forecast.
The average candle went from 10.6 pips in Asian hours to 18.6 pips in the London morning. The open was a step up, not the peak. The widest candles came later, in the overlap.
A common misread is to assume every market wakes up at London. On XAUUSD 1-hour candles from 2025-10-02 to 2026-10-02, the average candle was $21.3 in Asian hours and $18.9 in the London morning (past data, not a forecast). In that sample, gold did not get busier at the London open.
Sizing a trade for the London open: a worked example
The figures here are an illustrative example. You have a $5,000 account and risk 1% per trade. EURUSD spent the night between 1.0820 and 1.0850. You plan to buy a break at 1.0855 with a stop at 1.0835, which is 20 pips. One standard lot on EURUSD is worth $10 per pip.
The chart below shows the setup: quiet overnight candles inside the range, then a wider candle at the London open that breaks above it, with the entry and stop marked.
The lot size follows from the stop distance:
To complete the trade, set a target at a round 1.0895, which is 40 pips above the entry. At 0.25 lots that is 40 × $10 × 0.25 = $100 if price reaches it.
Now compare a 10-pip stop, sized for the quiet hours. The maths gives $50 ÷ (10 × $10) = 0.50 lots. Both trades lose $50 if stopped.
The difference is how easily the stop is reached. In the Lab sample above, an average London-morning candle covered 18.6 pips. A 10-pip stop sits inside one ordinary candle; a 20-pip stop does not.
The rule to copy: if your stop is smaller than the average 1-hour range for the session you are entering, widen the stop and cut the lots, or skip the trade. The margin here is thin: 20 pips clears the 18.6-pip average by only 1.4 pips, and an average means many candles are wider, so do not treat 20 pips as safe.
Finding the London open on your platform's clock
Your chart's time axis shows your broker's server time, not London time and not your local time. This is the most common reason traders mark the open on the wrong candle.
- Read the server time on your platform's price list or newest candle.
- Compare it with the current time in London and note the gap in hours.
- Add that gap to 08:00 (subtract it if the server clock is behind London). The result is the London open on your chart. For example, a server 2 hours ahead of London puts the open at 10:00 on your chart.
In the Lab's EURUSD data, the London morning started at 10:00 on the server clock. Your broker may differ.
Mark that candle with a vertical line. If you use a session tool or an Expert Advisor, its open-hour setting expects server time as well.
Checks before you trade the London session open
- Confirm the server-time gap again after any clock change. The UK and the US switch on different dates, so for a few weeks New York opens an hour off its usual London time.
- Mark the high and low of the hours before the open. These are levels many traders watch at the open.
- Look at the live spread before you place the order, not the spread you saw earlier.
- Check the calendar for UK and European data due around the open.
- Wait for a candle to close beyond the level if early spikes keep stopping you out.
- Size the lot from the stop distance, as in the example, never the other way round.
FAQ
Which pairs move most at the London session open?
It depends on the pair, so measure it instead of assuming. In the Lab samples above, EURUSD's average 1-hour candle stepped from 10.6 to 18.6 pips, while gold's did not rise. Compare your own pair's hourly ranges before and after the open.
Does the London session open on UK bank holidays?
Forex still trades, because other European centres are open. With London desks away, the open is often quieter, so a normal breakout plan may not fit that day.
Can I trade the London session open if I live in Asia or the Americas?
The open falls in the afternoon in much of Asia and in the middle of the night in the Americas, so many traders there use pending orders. A pending order left overnight fills with no one watching, so set the stop and the lot size before you leave the screen.