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Forex trading sessions and kill zones: when to trade

By Saad El Soussi, UAE-authorized finfluencer · Updated 2026-11-08

The forex market is open around the clock from Sunday evening to Friday evening, but it does not move evenly. The lesson's rule is simple: do not trade anywhere and anytime; trade in the two windows where volatility and liquidity arrive, the London open (08:00 to 11:00 Copenhagen time, 02:00 to 05:00 New York) and the New York open (13:00 to 15:00 Copenhagen, 07:00 to 09:00 New York), and leave the Asian hours and the late afternoon alone. Our own measurement agrees for EUR/USD: the busiest hours of the day were 14:00 to 17:00 Copenhagen (median 11.8 to 12.1 pips per hour), the quietest 22:00 to 01:00 (about 4 pips). For gold the picture is different: the hours 02:00 to 06:00 Copenhagen moved a median $37, more than the London window ($22), so "Asia is quiet" is true for the euro and false for gold.

What a session is, and what a kill zone is

Forex has no opening bell. The "sessions" are simply the business hours of the banks and funds in each financial centre: Asia (Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney), then London, then New York, overlapping as the day travels west. The market is quoted continuously from Sunday 5 p.m. to Friday 5 p.m. New York time, so there is always a price, but most of the volume arrives when London and New York are at their desks.

A kill zone, in the lesson's words, is "a specific time during the trading day where the market experiences increased volatility and liquidity". Traders use them to time entries and exits, because a stop and a target that need a $20 move in gold are far more likely to be reached in an hour that typically moves $25 than in one that moves $9. The term comes from the "ICT" school of trading; the idea behind it, trade when the market moves, is older than the name.

The typical day, according to the lesson

The lesson gives every time in Danish (Copenhagen) time. The table adds New York time and UTC for the winter clocks in force on 3 November 2026 (Copenhagen = UTC+1, New York = UTC−5). The "typical behaviour" column is the lesson's description of what usually happens in each window; the lesson itself stresses that not every day looks like this.

Window	Copenhagen	New York	UTC	Typical behaviour (lesson)
Asian session	02:00–06:00	20:00–00:00 (previous evening)	01:00–05:00	Consolidation: a range with no clear buying or selling
New York midnight open	06:00	00:00	05:00	The reference point of the new trading day
London open (kill zone)	08:00–11:00	02:00–05:00	07:00–10:00	Expansion, or a retracement of the Asian range; the first hour is often a false move
London lunch	11:00–13:00	05:00–07:00	10:00–12:00	End of the London expansion, quieter
New York open (kill zone)	13:00–15:00	07:00–09:00	12:00–14:00	Retracement, then continuation or reversal of the London move
London close	16:00–18:00	10:00–12:00	15:00–17:00	End of the day's expansion

Two clock notes. First, Copenhagen and New York are six hours apart, except for a few weeks a year when the two regions switch their clocks on different Sundays: in 2026 Europe moved on 29 March and 25 October, the United States on 8 March and 1 November, so between those dates the gap was five hours and every window in the lesson's Copenhagen times was an hour "late" against New York. Second, the lesson's London window starts at 08:00 Copenhagen = 07:00 London, an hour before the London stock market; it is defined by the New York clock (02:00 to 05:00), as is usual for kill zones.

What we measured: EUR/USD hour by hour

We took the hourly bars of EUR/USD from 1 July to 3 November 2026 (89 weekdays, data via Yahoo Finance) and computed the median high-to-low range of each hour of the day in Copenhagen time. One pip is 0.0001. The median day (highest to lowest price) was 47.3 pips.

Copenhagen	New York (winter)	Median range per hour	Copenhagen	New York (winter)	Median range per hour
00:00	18:00	3.9 pips	12:00	06:00	8.7 pips
01:00	19:00	4.0	13:00	07:00	10.0
02:00	20:00	6.5	14:00	08:00	11.8
03:00	21:00	6.7	15:00	09:00	12.0
04:00	22:00	6.3	16:00	10:00	12.1
05:00	23:00	5.3	17:00	11:00	10.5
06:00	00:00	5.2	18:00	12:00	8.1
07:00	01:00	6.5	19:00	13:00	7.6
08:00	02:00	9.0	20:00	14:00	6.4
09:00	03:00	10.6	21:00	15:00	5.4
10:00	04:00	10.0	22:00	16:00	4.1
11:00	05:00	7.9	23:00	17:00	7.5

The shape matches the lesson. The quietest hours are 22:00 to 01:00 Copenhagen (4 pips), activity doubles when London arrives at 08:00 to 10:00 (9 to 10.6 pips), dips over London lunch (7.9 pips at 11:00), and peaks from 14:00 to 17:00 Copenhagen (11.8 to 12.1 pips), the window that contains the US economic releases and the New York stock-market open at 9:30 a.m. New York time (NYSE trading hours). By window, in the lesson's Copenhagen times:

Window (Copenhagen)	EUR/USD median range	Share of the day's range (median)	Gold median range	Share of the day's range (median)
Asia 02:00–06:00	13.0 pips	30%	$37.20	47%
London open 08:00–11:00	17.3 pips	38%	$22.00	27%
London lunch 11:00–13:00	12.1 pips	26%	$17.40	19%
New York open 13:00–15:00	17.6 pips	37%	$28.40	36%
New York 13:00–16:00	21.7 pips	48%	$39.60	49%
London close 16:00–18:00	16.2 pips	35%	$29.80	32%
Whole day	47.3 pips	100%	$82.10	100%

Gold is the hourly COMEX gold future (GC=F) from 3 August to 2 November 2026, 64 complete weekdays, the same data as our gold trading strategy page, here cut by Copenhagen hours. The shares do not add up to 100% because the windows overlap in price: the same $30 can be part of the London range and the day's range.

Where gold disagrees with the lesson

For EUR/USD the Asian window really is the quiet part of the day (13 pips in four hours, 30% of the day's range). For gold it is not: 02:00 to 06:00 Copenhagen moved a median $37.20, more than the London open window ($22.00) and close to the New York open ($28.40 in two hours, $39.60 in three). The busiest single gold hours in Copenhagen time were 15:00 ($27.30), 14:00 ($23.20), 16:00 ($22.80) and, in the Asian window, 03:00 ($21.90); the quietest were 22:00 ($8.70), 00:00 ($9.90) and 06:00 ($10.80). The reason is that gold trades heavily in Asia (Shanghai and the Tokyo futures market open in that window) in a way the euro does not. If you trade gold, the lesson's advice to skip Asia is a choice about your sleep, not about the market.

The first hour is often a false move: we checked

The lesson's tip is that the first hour of a session is "typically a manipulation move": the price pushes one way, takes out the stops resting there, and then expands the other way. The advice that follows is to watch 08:00 to 09:00 and look for the trade from 09:00 to 11:00. We cannot measure intent, but we can measure one consequence: how often the first hour of the London window (08:00 to 09:00 Copenhagen) set either the high or the low of the whole 08:00 to 11:00 window.

EUR/USD: on 70 of 89 days (79%) the first hour's high or low was the high or low of the entire London window.
Gold: on 48 of 64 days (75%).

In other words, three days out of four the London window's extreme was already in place after the first hour, and the next two hours moved away from it. That is consistent with the lesson, and it is also partly a property of any random path (an extreme is likelier at the start or the end of a window than in the middle), so treat it as a reason to wait for the first hour rather than as a prediction of direction. A move that fails to follow through in the first hour and then crosses back through the Asian range is the pattern the lesson wants you to recognise.

How to use this without sitting at the screen all day

The lesson's point is as much about life as about price: "you don't have to sit and watch the screen and the charts all day". The routine it describes:

Mark the Asian range (02:00 to 06:00 Copenhagen) on your chart before 08:00. Its high and low are the first levels of the day; on our gold data the London and New York sessions broke only one side of the Asian range on most days (see the gold strategy page).
Watch the first hour of London (08:00 to 09:00) and do nothing. Note which side of the Asian range was taken.
From 09:00 to 11:00 look for one setup in the direction of the expansion: a pullback to the Asian high or low that holds, or a break of the other side with a retest. Stop behind the level, target at least twice the stop. Size the position from the stop with the lot size calculator.
If London gives nothing, close the laptop and come back at 13:00 for the New York open; apply the same first-hour rule until 14:00.
One good trade and you are done for the day. If both windows pass without a setup, that was the day; no trade is a result too.

What this is worth in money, with the lesson's own sizing rule of 1% risk: on a $5,000 account the risk is $50. In gold with a $10 stop that is 50 ÷ (10 × 100) = 0.05 lots; a 2R target is $20, well inside the New York open's median range of $28.40 and not reachable in the median 22:00 hour ($8.70). In EUR/USD with a 15-pip stop it is 50 ÷ (15 × 10) = 0.33 lots, rounded down to 0.30; a 30-pip target is 63% of the median day's 47.3 pips, which is why the lesson wants you in the busiest window and not in the quiet one.

Key points from the lesson

Time matters as much as price. Do not trade anywhere, anytime; trade in the kill zones.
Asia (02:00 to 06:00 Copenhagen) usually consolidates; the New York midnight open (06:00 Copenhagen) is the reference point of the day.
London open (08:00 to 11:00) expands or retraces; London lunch ends the move; New York open (13:00 to 15:00) continues or reverses it; London close (16:00 to 18:00) ends the day's expansion.
The first hour of a session is often a false move. Watch 08:00 to 09:00, trade 09:00 to 11:00; the same for New York.
One setup in London or New York, get in, get out, done. Two or three hours of attention, not eight.
Not every day looks like the diagram. The lesson shows a typical day, not a promise.

Previous summaries in the module: trading timeframes and common trading mistakes. Next: market structure, the lesson on reading higher highs and lower lows, which is what you look for inside the kill zone.

Want to see how we trade the sessions?

The Telegram bot answers in English, explains the VIP gold trades (entry, stop loss, targets) and shows where the weekly results are published, losing trades included. Trading is risky; most retail accounts lose money.

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Questions people ask

What is the best time to trade forex?

By our measurement of EUR/USD from July to November 2026, the hours from 14:00 to 17:00 Copenhagen time (08:00 to 11:00 New York, 13:00 to 16:00 UTC in winter) had the largest median hourly ranges, 11.8 to 12.1 pips, and 08:00 to 10:00 Copenhagen (the London open) the next largest, 9 to 10.6 pips. The quietest hours were 22:00 to 01:00 Copenhagen, about 4 pips. The lesson's advice is to trade the London open and the New York open and nothing else.

What is a kill zone in forex?

A window of the day when volatility and liquidity are reliably higher, used to time entries and exits. The lesson names four: Asia (02:00 to 06:00 Copenhagen), London open (08:00 to 11:00), New York open (13:00 to 15:00) and London close (16:00 to 18:00). The term is from the ICT school of trading; the times are defined by the New York clock (for example London open = 02:00 to 05:00 New York).

Is the Asian session good for beginners?

For EUR/USD it is the quietest part of the day (median 13 pips in four hours in our 2026 sample), which means small ranges and spreads that matter more; the lesson treats it as consolidation and not as a time to trade. For gold the same four hours moved a median $37, more than the London open, so gold in the Asian window is not quiet at all. Either way, a beginner is better served by one window a day, in daylight, with a written plan.

What times are these in my time zone?

The lesson gives Copenhagen time. Subtract one hour for UTC and six for New York in winter (five for a few weeks in March and late October to early November, when Europe and the United States change their clocks on different Sundays). Dubai is Copenhagen plus three hours in winter (London open 11:00 to 14:00 Dubai), Riyadh plus two, Lagos the same as Copenhagen in winter, Singapore plus seven.

Is this the full lesson?

No. It is a written summary with the key points and our own measurements added. The course has 87 video lessons in three modules; the bot can tell you about it.

Authorized in the UAESaad Nizar El Soussi, founder of SesTrading, is listed by the UAE Capital Market Authority as an authorized finfluencer (entry 193, added 24 September 2026). Check the official list.