In forex trading, liquidity, volume and high quality trades are the keys to success. Trading during high volume times in the day will make trades more much likely to play out in your favour, with less random moves and consolidation. Knowing when the London, New York and Asian trading sessions open is incredibly important, to ensure you’re on the right side of the market. So, what is the best time to trade forex in India?
The best time to trade forex in India is 12:30pm IST, as this is when the London market opens. At 5:30pm IST, the New York market will open and there will be another flood of volume in the forex market. The Asian session starts at 5:30am IST, but the volume will not be enough to trade forex using price action.
What Time Should You Trade Forex, In India?
The forex market, unlike all other markets (besides cryptocurrency), is open 24 hours a day. This doesn’t mean that we should be trading forex for 24 hours per day, however. There are realistically only a few good hours in the markets everyday where there is actually enough trading volume to make price action trading styles worth doing.
Price action
(drawing analysis on charts, using patterns), requires a huge amount of volume in the markets and clean moves. To get these ‘clean moves’ in the forex market, you need the kind of volume that only happens in the first few hours of a forex trading session.
Although institutional forex trading isn’t big in India, yet, traders in India can still trade the London, New York and Asian sessions throughout the day. This is very much recommended as you’ll be able to trade when the institutional players are trading, meaning there will be less price consolidation. If you’re unsure on timings and time zones, using a forex world map is a great way to see exactly when sessions are opening.
| Forex Trading Session | Time Of Open (IST) |
| London Session | 12:30pm IST |
| New York Session | 5:30pm IST |
| Asian Session | 5:30am IST |
| Pacific Session | 5:30am IST |
Trading The London Session In India
For forex traders around the world, the London session is the best time of the day to trade. During the first few hours of the London session, the volume is going to be at an all time high, consolidation will be broken and there will be a huge amount of opportunities to capitalise on.
This means that the best time to trade forex in India is 12:30pm IST. This is when the London forex markets open. You could also try to trade the pre London market volume spikes, which will happen around 11:30am IST as traders in the U.K are starting to get positions into the market ahead of the session open.
At 12:30pm IST you’ll notice that spreads on Major and Minor currency pairs all decrease massively and execution speed will increase. For traders that use over 100 lots per trade, you’ll also notice that positions are getting filled much faster and at better prices.
I have recently published an article breaking down the best forex pairs to trade during the London session, which may be of interest if this is a session you’re looking to trade.
Trading The New York Session In India
The second best forex session to trade is the New York trading session. During the New York session, volume is still going to be extremely high and the crossover with the London session usually provides a huge amount of volatility for forex traders to capitalise on.
The US Trading session starts at 5:30pm IST, making this a great time to trade forex if you’re in India. The New York volatility tends to last for the first few hours of the session, until the London markets close for the day. I would recommend trading the first 3 hours of this session, until 8:30pm IST. I would observe how the markets are moving this far into the session to decide whether it’s worth taking a risk on the lower volatility.
I would recommend having a read of a recent article we published, diving into the best forex pairs to trade during the New York trading hours.
Trading The Asian Session In India
The Asian trading session begins at 5:30am IST. This forex session is the slowest of the day, meaning the volume is low and the majority of forex currency pairs are going to be moving sideways. In a sideways market it’s very hard to consistently win trades and pull profits out of the market, hence why most forex traders try to avoid a ranging market.
If you’re looking to try to maximise your exposure to the forex markets and be involved with every trading session then it may be worth trying to trade the Asian session on a relevant forex pair. This may be something involving JPY, AUD or NZD as the main currency involved. Personally, I have always tried to avoid trading forex during the Asian session just because there are plenty more opportunities throughout the day, when volume is much better.
As you can see in the screenshot above from Tradingview, the arrow on the left indicates a move that took place during the New York and London session. The arrow further to the right is showing the move during the whole of the Asian session – the difference in volume is clear.
In Summary, When Is The Best Time For Indian Forex Traders To Trade?
In conclusion, the best time for forex trading in India is 12:30pm IST, due to the London markets opening. At 5:30pm IST the New York markets will open, which will provide low spreads, high volume and a lot of great trading opportunities.
If you have any questions or experience from forex trading in India, please do let me know in the comments down below!
