The forex market is known as the market that never sleeps. With over $6.6 trillion flowing
through the market each day, it’s crazy to think that this would just shut down and all the banks, institutions and money services would take a day off. However, the market isn’t actually open every day – well, not for us traders anyway. So, how many forex trading days are there each year?
There are roughly 252 forex trading days per year. This varies slightly each year depending on holidays, weekends and leap years. There is, on average, 21 forex trading days per month – although it’s not advised to make use of all of these days.
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How Many Forex Trading Days Are There Each Year?
There are 252 trading days per year for forex traders. This will of course change year by year but that’s the ballpark figure I’d recommend using. It’s worth noting that not all of these days are going to be useful – the market is simply open during these times.
We can work out how many trading days there are in each year by looking at it on a monthly basis. There are an average of 30 days per month. There is, give or take, 20 working days per month once weekends are removed. We then need to factor in public holidays where the financial markets are shut.
By looking at this very handy calendar, we can clearly see the weekends and public holidays highlighted throughout the year.
Taking these 252 days with a pinch of salt is crucial. For instance, trading around the Christmas period is useless, even though the market is technically open. If we looked at trading days where great volume and opportunities would be present, I’m sure the number would be likely sitting around 200 days.
How Many Days Can I Trade Forex Per Month?
Now we know that there are 252 days per year where the forex markets are open, let’s look at this on a monthly level.
In any given month, there are roughly 21 days where the market is open and you would be able to execute forex trades.
This figure will vary as per the months as some months have more public holidays than others.
I would also be very cautious to include days with very high impact news releases like NFP. For me, that was always a day I wouldn’t like to get involved with and I would typically stay out of positions during that day. This will occur once per month.
You will also need to bare in mind that most forex traders don’t like to trade on Fridays as the end of the week can sometimes be a messy affair. This will vary from trader to trader as everyone has their own style but I would tend avoid trading on this day for this reason.
Once you remove NFP and Friday trading, you’ll be left with roughly 16 trading days per month. This may not seem like very many, because it’s not, but traders are still able to capitalise on these opportunities to obtain great returns within the market.
Should You Be Trading Everyday The Market Is Open?
Just because the forex market is open for 21 days each month, doesn’t mean that you should be looking to take trades every single day. In fact, this is a terrible tactic to employ and can lead to some detrimental losses in the long term.
The reality is that you should only be taking trades when they present themselves. Is it possible to do this on 21 days? Sure, but then how about the other 3-4 days each month where you’re not trading and can’t take advantage of any opportunities?
As we’ve seen in the past, we wouldn’t advise this. There are just too many occasions where you’re going to be left out in the cold and an opportunity will pass you by. We like to take a more patient approach and make sure that when we do trade, it’s on days where we’re highly likely to get a good return.
This even applies to traders that use the lower time frames, like scalpers. If there is a high impact news event that day, let’s say NFP for instance, you would want to avoid that whole day. This is because price action is going to be moving differently leading up to the high impact event. Unless you’re actually a fundamental trader, I’d take the day off!
In Conclusion – How Many Forex Trading Days Are In A Year?
In summary, there are 252 days per year in which the forex market is open for business and you would be able to place trades. This will vary, but we like to take a more conservative approach and only count the days where decent volume is present and we’re not going to get caught out by high impact news releases.
Taking this into account, there are roughly 20-21 days per month where forex traders can capitalise on the opportunities that are presented. This may seem like a small figure, but there is still plenty of trading days where you can get involved with the market and make some good returns for yourself.
How many days do you trade each month? Let me know in the comments below…
