Learning to trade in the Forex market

The Forex market is the largest investment market in the world, learning to trade in the forex market will aid you in your investment goals. Of course, before you can start trading currencies, you have to learn about the market, such as when it is open, what affects trades, liquidity, etc. Consider the following:

When is the Forex market open?
You can only trade when the market is open and active, which is good news because the forex market is open and active 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. It opens Monday mornings in the Asia-Pacific time zone, and stays open until Friday close of business hours in New York. Thus, no matter where you are, you can almost always find somewhere in the world where the Forex market is open and active. Various global financial centers will be open, active, and trading various currencies. Because there is really no day off, it is a bit different to trade in the Forex market, versus other investing markets. For example, there is really no such thing as a holiday in the Forex market, as what a holiday is in one country or area, may not be a holiday in another, so their financial centers will be open and trading. The only holiday it tends to close for around the world is New Year's Day.

What are the major market sessions?
There are three major sessions for forex market trading, the Asia Pacific, European/London, and the North American session. Let's take a closer look at each of these sessions, and how they impact your ability to trade in the Forex market.

Asia-Pacific:This market tends to open Monday morning when Wellington opens, as it is the first financial trading center West of the international dateline. The trading volumes in the Asia-Pacific account for 21% of the total global volume. Most of the trading action that takes place during this session has to do with Yen pairs. This is because of the size of the Japanese market and the importance of it. Yen pairs most often seen traded during this session include the yen with the US dollar, or the yen and the Euro, etc. The price movements during this session often indicate what the Japanese market is doing. When this market opens on Monday morning, it reacts to news and events that occurred over the weekend.

European/London: This is the largest of the trading sessions, and accounts for over 50% of the total daily global trading volume. This session overlaps with the Asian session and the North American session. Because of this overlap, this session is when the market as a whole sees peaks in interest and liquidity. The biggest moves, and largest trades typically occur during this session.

North America: Although this session is smaller than the European/London session, it still has significant volumes due to the overlap with the European trading session, and makes up 22% of the global daily training session.