Digital nomads are incredibly flexible and free; they can work from a beach in Bali, a cafe in Lisbon, or a co-working space in Mexico City. However, the same freedom also brings its unique challenges, like syncing your work-life balance with the world’s markets. For traders, especially those trading Forex, time zones can be both a blessing and a nightmare. The forex market never sleeps and it allows traders from every corner of the world to buy and sell currencies. However, not all trading sessions and hours are equal and factors like liquidity, volatility, and potential gains play a crucial role in becoming a consistently profitable digital nomad.
Forex market hours explained
Unlike stock markets which operate on strict time restrictions, forex operates around the clock, 5 days a week. This is because it moves through four major forex market trading sessions: Sydney, Tokyo, London, and New York. When one region closes, another wakes up, creating a continuous global flow of Forex exchange.
Each session has its own GMT hours and character. The Sydney session is usually quiet, providing a calm start to the trading week. As the Tokyo session opens, Asian currencies like yen and Aussie become very active and tradable. Then comes the London session which is accompanied by major liquidity and activity. These are the trading hours when most of the world’s large financial institutions are active. Finally, the New York session brings the U.S. market participation and makes the London Session even more volatile and liquid. When two sessions overlap, the activity is usually higher than when there is only one session active. London-New York overlap which occurs roughly around 8 a.m. to noon EST is when the trading volume is highest on the FX market.
For digital nomads, this knowledge is critical as you can plan your work hours to match these overlaps, no matter where you are in the world.
Benefits of being a digital nomad – Trading across time zones
Digital nomads love to work remotely from various places across the globe and their love for technology makes them very good candidates for profitable forex trading. This is because forex trading requires basic understanding of technology and ability to conduct both technical and fundamental analysis. For example, a digital nomad trader based in Bali can benefit greatly from early access to the Asian and European sessions. Asian sessions are great to catch price movements of major Asian pairs like USD/JPY or EUR/JPY. Meanwhile, a digital nomad living in Lisbon can enjoy a relaxed morning and then join the markets through London and NY trading sessions. This flexibility can improve your trading performance and trading mindset as well. Nomads can structure their day around times that suit both their lifestyle and the market’s rhythm, which is a rare luxury in the modern world.
Digital nomad edge – Volatility equals opportunity
Typically, the London and New York session overall delivers the most volatility and trading volume. This can easily be translated into many trading opportunities, depending on the strategy of course. Pairs like EUR/USD and GBP/USD often see the biggest price swings here. For traders who are based in EU active day time zones, can enjoy this luxury while traders who are from Asia can speculate during Tokyo season, which is also active. However, there are trading systems which prefer lower volatility markets and nomads based in timezones which coincides with Sydney or Tokyo sessions can deploy them while maintaining their life balance without the need to wake up at night for more active sessions.
In the end, volatility is not something to fear, it is something to understand , manage and build your trading life around.
Best trading hours by regions
There are four sessions and they overlap and certain hours are more beneficial to catch major movements. Let’s list the best hours into each session to trade.
Asia-Pacific (Sydney & Tokyo Sessions)
Here are best hours for high activity relative to other hours in the same timezone:
- Best hours: 7 a.m. – 4 p.m. Tokyo time
- Top pairs: AUD/USD, NZD/USD, USD/JPY
Europe (London Session)
- Best hours: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. London time
- Top pairs: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, EUR/GBP
North America (New York Session)
- Best hours: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. EST (or 3 p.m. – midnight in Europe)
- Top pairs: USD/CAD, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY
