Forex Market Hours Australia (AEST and AEDT, 2026)

Summary

• Forex opens Monday 7am AEST in Sydney and runs continuously to Saturday 7am AEST.
• Four sessions matter: Sydney (7am to 4pm AEST), Tokyo (9am to 6pm AEST), London (5pm to 2am AEST), New York (11pm to 8am AEST).
• The London open at 5pm AEST and the London/NY overlap from 11pm to 2am AEST are the highest-volume windows for AU traders.
• AUD/USD, AUD/JPY and AUD/NZD are most active during the Sydney and Tokyo sessions.
• Australian Daylight Saving (October to April) shifts US and European session start times by one hour. Sydney and Melbourne move to AEDT (UTC+11), while London and New York shift in their own DST cycles.
• All ASIC-regulated brokers in our reviews list align platform server time to either GMT, broker server GMT+2/+3, or local NY close. Confirm with your broker.

The four major forex sessions in AEST

The forex market is decentralised and runs across the world’s main financial centres. Liquidity rotates with the sun, and the four sessions overlap in pairs to create the highest-volume windows.

Times approximate and shift by one hour during each region’s daylight saving cycle. Australian DST runs roughly October to April. London’s BST runs late March to late October. US daylight saving runs early March to early November. The misalignments mean the schedule looks slightly different in five distinct windows across the year.

Sydney session (7am to 4pm AEST)

The Sydney session is the official forex week opener. Liquidity isn’t at its deepest, but the AUD pairs and NZD crosses see their most direct flows during this window. RBA cash rate announcements, ABS labour data, and Chinese economic releases all hit during Sydney hours and move AUD/USD and AUD/JPY directly.

If you trade AUD/USD or AUD/NZD as your main pair, the Sydney session is where you’ll see the cleanest moves. Spreads are typically tight on these crosses through Sydney/Tokyo overlap. Spreads on EUR/USD, GBP/USD and other European pairs are usually wider until London opens at 5pm AEST.

The Wellington open at 5am AEST technically beats Sydney by a couple of hours but New Zealand liquidity is thin on its own. Most Australian brokers consider the trading week to begin from 7am Monday Sydney time.

Tokyo session (10am to 7pm AEST)

Tokyo overlaps with Sydney from 10am to 4pm AEST. This overlap is the busiest part of the Asia-Pacific trading day. JPY pairs (USD/JPY, AUD/JPY, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY) see their most active movement during Tokyo hours. Yen carry trade flows, Bank of Japan interventions, and Japanese economic data all happen in this window.

For Australian traders, the Tokyo session is convenient. You can trade major JPY pairs on your morning coffee. Liquidity is good but not at its peak. EUR/USD typically sleeps through Tokyo and wakes up at the London open.

Public holidays on the Japanese calendar (Showa Day, Marine Day, Mountain Day) thin out Tokyo liquidity noticeably. Check the Japanese holiday calendar if you trade JPY pairs around late April, mid-July or mid-August.

London session (5pm to 2am AEST)

London opens at 5pm AEST and is where the trading day really starts for most active traders. London handles roughly 40% of global forex turnover. The opening hour (5pm to 6pm AEST) is one of the most volatile of the day on EUR pairs, GBP pairs, and gold.

For Australian traders this is convenient. London opens just after dinner Sydney time and runs through the evening. The session covers the European economic calendar (German IFO, UK CPI, ECB decisions) and overlaps with the New York open from 11pm AEST.

Most active retail traders we surveyed in 2025 do their primary trading during London hours. Liquidity is deep, spreads on EUR/USD, GBP/USD and AUD/USD are typically at their tightest, and the price action is cleaner than the Asia-only sessions.

New York session (11pm to 8am AEST)

New York opens at 11pm AEST and runs overnight to 8am. The first three hours (11pm to 2am AEST) overlap with London and produce the highest single liquidity window of the entire forex week. After 2am AEST when London closes, New York continues solo with thinner liquidity until the Sydney/Tokyo opens roll back round.

US data releases (Non-Farm Payrolls, CPI, FOMC decisions) hit during New York hours. NFP is the classic example. Released on the first Friday of each month at 8:30am EST, that’s 11:30pm AEST or 12:30am AEDT in Australia. Volatility around NFP can move EUR/USD 80 to 150 pips in a 30-minute window.

For Australian traders willing to stay up late, the London/NY overlap from 11pm to 2am AEST is the prime time. If you can’t trade through the night, the London session covers most of the same opportunities.

Best times to trade for Australian traders

Three windows stand out.

London open (5pm to 6pm AEST). The single highest-volatility hour of the trading day on EUR/USD, GBP/USD and AUD/USD. Tight spreads, clean trends, and breakout setups are common. If you only have an hour to trade, this is it.

London/NY overlap (11pm to 2am AEST). Deepest liquidity of the week. Best for longer scalping and swing entries. Major US data lands in this window. If you trade USD pairs, you want to be live during this overlap.

Sydney/Tokyo overlap (10am to 4pm AEST). Best for AUD pairs, JPY pairs, and Asia-focused crosses. Less volatile than London but more predictable. Ideal for AU traders who prefer to trade during the day.

The slowest window is the Sydney close to London open gap (4pm to 5pm AEST), and the New York close to Sydney open gap (8am to whenever liquidity returns the next morning, around 7am AEST Monday). Spreads widen, gaps appear on Monday open, and most active traders avoid these periods.

AUD pair high-volume hours

Different AUD pairs peak at different times. Here’s the rough heat map for the most active AUD crosses on our 30 ASIC-regulated brokers.

Spreads on AUD/USD on a RAW account at IC Markets or Pepperstone typically tighten to 0.0 to 0.2 pips during the London/NY overlap. The same pair can sit at 0.3 to 0.6 pips during the Sydney session and widen further around the daily rollover at 7am AEST.

Australian DST and the schedule shift

Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) runs from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April. Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart and the ACT shift to UTC+11 during these months. Brisbane stays on AEST year-round. Perth is AWST (UTC+8) year-round. Adelaide is ACDT (UTC+10:30) on DST and ACST (UTC+9:30) otherwise.

Because Australia, the UK and the US run their DST cycles on different dates, the forex schedule has roughly five distinct configurations across a typical year:

1. AEST + GMT + EST (early April to late October, before AU DST): UK and US on standard time, AU on standard time. London opens 6pm Sydney, NY opens midnight Sydney.
2. AEST + BST + EDT (late March to early April, gap window): UK in BST, US in EDT, AU still on AEST.
3. AEDT + BST + EDT (early October to late October, AU starts DST): all three regions on summer time. London opens 5pm Sydney, NY opens 11pm Sydney.
4. AEDT + GMT + EST (late October to early March, AU in summer, UK and US on winter): London opens 7pm Sydney, NY opens 1am Sydney.
5. AEDT + GMT + EDT (early March to late March, US enters DST first): mid-window oddity.

If your strategy depends on session opens, build a calendar that tracks all three DST cycles. Most charting platforms (TradingView, MT4/MT5, cTrader) display server time, not local time. Pepperstone and IC Markets MT4 servers run on GMT+2/+3 (broker server time, Cyprus). cTrader at IC Markets runs on UTC. Your local Sydney time conversion depends on the platform.

Australian public holidays and forex hours

The forex market itself doesn’t observe Australian public holidays. EUR/USD trades on Australia Day, ANZAC Day and Easter Monday. But three things change on Australian public holidays:

• Broker support hours are reduced. Most ASIC-regulated brokers maintain trading but support phones go to email-only.
• AUD pair liquidity thins during the Sydney session if the local holiday is observed across major banks. AUD/USD spreads can sit slightly wider through Sydney hours.
• Bank settlement delays apply to deposits and withdrawals. PayID typically still clears, BPAY does not, and bank EFTs can take an extra day.

The forex market closes globally for Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. It also runs reduced hours on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve in most markets. Easter Friday closes most major markets. Confirm your broker’s published holiday hours before planning trades around these dates.

Broker server times and platform clocks

Most MT4 and MT5 servers run on broker time (typically GMT+2 in winter, GMT+3 in summer for Cyprus-hosted servers, which is where most ASIC brokers’ MT4 infrastructure sits). cTrader is more often on UTC. Proprietary platforms (CMC’s Next Generation, IG’s web platform, Plus500) usually display local time.

To convert MT4 broker time to AEST:

• Add 8 hours to broker GMT+2 winter time
• Add 7 hours to broker GMT+3 summer time

To convert UTC (cTrader) to AEST: add 10 hours (AEST) or 11 hours (AEDT).

For traders running EAs, the server time matters because most strategies have hard-coded session filters. If your EA is set to “trade only during London session”, confirm whether that means London local, server time, or your local AEST. We’ve seen traders run an EA for months on the wrong session because the time zone wasn’t set correctly.