Forex Market Hours: The Four Sessions in Pakistan Time

The forex market is open 24 hours a day from Sunday 17:00 to Friday 17:00 New York time, which in Pakistan is from about 02:00 or 03:00 on Monday morning to the same time on Saturday. Trading moves around the world through four main sessions, Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York, and the busiest hours are when London and New York overlap, roughly 17:00 to 21:00 PKT in the northern summer and 18:00 to 22:00 PKT in winter. Because Pakistan does not use daylight saving but the UK, US and Australia do, these times shift by an hour at different points in the year.

Why forex never sleeps on weekdays

There is no central exchange with an opening bell. As one financial centre closes, the next one is already trading. Banks in Sydney and Wellington start the week, Tokyo follows, then London and the rest of Europe, then New York. The market's daily "close" is a convention: 17:00 New York time, when most brokers roll positions to the next value date and charge or pay swaps.

On weekends the interbank market is closed. Your broker's platform will not fill orders, although a few offer weekend quotes on synthetic products.

The four sessions

Session hours are not official, and different sources draw them slightly differently. This course uses the local hours below, the same ones shown by the live session clock on the DanioX forex market page:

Session	Local hours	Time zone
Sydney	07:00 to 16:00	Australia/Sydney
Tokyo	09:00 to 18:00	Asia/Tokyo
London	08:00 to 17:00	Europe/London
New York	08:00 to 17:00	America/New_York

Sessions in Pakistan time (PKT, UTC+5)

Pakistan Standard Time is UTC+5 all year. Japan has no daylight saving either, so Tokyo is always 05:00 to 14:00 PKT. The other three move:

Session	Northern summer (UK and US on summer time; Sydney on standard time)	Northern winter (UK and US on standard time; Sydney on summer time)
Sydney	02:00 to 11:00 PKT	01:00 to 10:00 PKT
Tokyo	05:00 to 14:00 PKT	05:00 to 14:00 PKT
London	12:00 to 21:00 PKT	13:00 to 22:00 PKT
New York	17:00 to 02:00 PKT	18:00 to 03:00 PKT
London + New York overlap	17:00 to 21:00 PKT	18:00 to 22:00 PKT

The daylight-saving shift weeks

The three countries do not change their clocks on the same day:

• United States: summer time from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
• United Kingdom (and the EU): from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.
• Australia (Sydney): summer time from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April, the opposite half of the year.

For 2026 that means Sydney moved on 4 October, the UK moves back on 25 October and the US moves back on 1 November. In the gaps between those dates, the sessions overlap differently. For example, between 25 October and 1 November 2026, London runs 13:00 to 22:00 PKT while New York still runs 17:00 to 02:00 PKT, so the overlap is five hours long instead of four. A similar two- to three-week mismatch happens every March.

What each session is like

• Sydney and Tokyo (Asian session): often calmer for EUR/USD and GBP/USD. The yen, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar are most active. Data from Japan, Australia, New Zealand and China lands here.
• London: the biggest forex centre in the world by turnover. Volume and volatility jump at the open. Many trends of the day begin or reverse here. UK and euro-area data are released in this session.
• New York: US data such as jobs and inflation reports usually come out at 08:30 New York time, which is 17:30 PKT in the US summer and 18:30 PKT in winter. US central bank decisions come later in the US afternoon.
• London and New York overlap: usually the deepest liquidity of the day and the tightest spreads on the majors.
• Late New York to the rollover: liquidity thins out. Around 17:00 New York time (02:00 or 03:00 PKT) spreads can widen sharply for a few minutes.

Choosing your trading hours from Pakistan

For many people in Pakistan, the London session (around midday to evening PKT) and the London and New York overlap (evening PKT) fit well around work and are when the majors move most. The US data releases fall in the evening, so plan for them. The New York afternoon runs past midnight PKT; if you trade it, you are trading tired, which hurts decisions. Our psychology lesson covers this.

Holidays also matter. When London or New York is closed for a public holiday, the market stays open but trades thinly, spreads widen and moves can be erratic.

Daily candles and broker server time

A "daily" candle in forex normally runs from 17:00 New York to 17:00 New York. Many brokers set their server clock to UTC+2 in winter and UTC+3 in summer so that each daily candle matches this close and there are five daily candles a week, not six. If your chart shows a small Sunday candle, your platform uses a different day boundary, and indicators based on daily candles will give slightly different readings. Daily-close strategies, such as those tested on the forex backtest page, depend on a consistent definition of the close.

Next: how to pick a broker you can trust in How to Choose a Forex Broker.