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Forex trading is an altogether a totally different beast as compared to stock trading. One of the major differences between the forex and stock markets is that forex markets are open 24 hour, 5 days a week while stock markets have fixed timings. For example New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is open from 9:00 AM to 4:00 Pm. You can only trade stocks at NYSE during this time.

Continuous 24 hour action at the forex markets baffles many new traders. Forex markets have no central exchange. It is an Over the Counter (OTC) market that is spread over various locations in the world.

For a new forex trader, it becomes very difficult to understand when to trade and when not to trade as there is no formal open and close of the market. Many exhaust themselves by sitting in front of their computers all day. Fatigue them and make wrong decisions. An easy way is to divide the day between three 8 hour sessions.

Further divide each 8 hour session into two 4 hour sessions using a 4 hour chart. This division of 24 hours is logical as there are only three major money centers in the world that have the capacity to move the forex markets.

The three major money centers that affect the forex markets everyday are namely: Asia, London and New York. We will call our three trading sessions, the Asian, the London and the New York Session.

Asian Session: Most of the turnover in this market session is handled by Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. Main players are the commercial exporters and the respective central banks. Since most of these central banks are in competition with one other, the price action during this session is jumpy and unsustainable.

London Session: London is still the forex capital of the world with deep and highly liquid forex market. Paris, Geneva and Frankfurt also are players in this session. The moves that originate in this session are very important keeping in view the amount of money needed to move a market this deep. These moves give you a lot of information about the market sentiments and positions.

New York Market Session: New York is second to London. Both New York and London overlap in the morning when New York is opening and London is closing. This is the best time of the day for savvy traders to trade as there is a lot of price action during this time.

The following table gives important times of the day that any forex trader needs to know: 00:00 GMT-Sydney Opens. 11:00 GMT-London opens. 15:00 GMT- London becomes very active. 17:00 GMT- London is active and New York opens. 18:00 GMT- London and Europe closes. 19:00 GMT- New York and Chicago getting ready for a close!

This overlapping between London and New York is when major price action takes place and new trends are formed or old trends are reversed. London is the market trend setter in fashion as well as forex.