Best Time to Day Trade the GBP/USD Forex Pair

Best Time to Day Trade the GBP/USD Forex Pair explained by professional forex trading experts the “ForexSQ” FX trading team.

Best Time to Day Trade the GBP/USD Forex Pair

Just because the forex market is open 24-hours a day, doesn’t mean every one of those hours is worth trading. The GBP/USD has certain hours which are acceptable for day trading because there is enough volatility to generate profits which are likely greater than the cost of the spread and/or commission. To be efficient and capture the largest moves of the day, day traders hone in even further, only trading during specific hours of the day.
Day Trading Sessions and Impact on Volatility

Due to global time zone differences, during the week there is always a market open for business somewhere. This is what makes forex trading available 24-hours a day. Not all markets actively trade all forex pairs, though. Therefore, different forex pairs are actively traded at different times of the day.

When London (and Europe) are open for business, pairs that involve the Euro (EUR), British Pound (GBP) and Swiss Franc (CHF) are more actively traded. When New York (U.S. and Canada) are open for business, pairs that involve the U.S. dollar (USD) and Canadian dollar (CAD) are more active.

If trading the GBP/USD, the times that are likely to be most active for the pair, on average, will be when London and New York are open, according to the times on the attached chart. These times are GMT. To convert to your own time zone (or your forex broker’s time zone)

Acceptable Times to Day Trade GBP/USD

The hourly volatility chart shows how many pips the GBP/USD moves each hour of the day. Times are in GMT.

There is an increase in the amount of movement starting at 0600, which continues through to 1600. After this, movement each hour begins to taper off, so there are likely to be fewer big price moves day traders can participate in.

Day traders should ideally trade between 0600 and 1600 GMT. Trading outside of these hours the pip movement may not be large enough to compensate for the spread and/or commissions.

Volatility changes over time. For example, daily average volatility at the time of writing is 78 pips per day. Daily average movement could increase to 100 pip per day, which means each hour is likely to see slightly higher pip movement. Which hours are most volatile generally do not change, though. 0600 to 1600 GMT will continue to be the most acceptable time to day trade, regardless of whether daily volatility increases or decreases.

As a general rule, only day trade during hours where the price is moving at least 15 pips or more (preferably more).

Ideal Times to Day Trade GBP/USD

0600 to 1600 is an acceptable time to day trade the GBP/USD. There is adequate movement to potentially extract a profit and cover spread and commission costs.

If you are able to, though, day trade the GBP/USD only between 0800 and 1000, and/or 1200 and 1500 GMT. This will maximize efficiency. During these periods you’ll see the biggest moves of the day, which means greater profit potential, and the spread and commissions will have the least impact relative to potential profit.

Also, London and New York are both open during these time frames. That means a lot of volume coming in from two major markets so spreads are typically tightest during this time.