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When does Forex Market Close on Friday ?

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Answer : Forex market close at 22:00 GMT winter and 21:00 GMT in summer time (New York forex close time) on Friday for most forex brokers. It is NY session close time. There are difference in 1 hours for some brokers.

Trader need to know trading server (for example Metatrader platform ) time. For Metatrader in left up corner we can see time :
metatrader server time

Than we need to know our country time and to know that market will close till 22 hours GMT time. The best thing is to think and work based on trader country time. On that case you will always know.

The Forex market trades currencies, which is currently in high demand. Therefore, the market opens at 5pm Sunday (EST) and closes at 4pm Friday (EST). As currency trading has a large international scope, there is a constant demand of a specific currency to meet trader requirements all over the world.

What time does forex close on friday

Region Open and Close Times
Sydney Open 10 PM GMT (summer) / 9 PM GMT (winter)
Sydney Close 7 AM GMT (summer) / 6 AM GMT (winter)
Tokyo Open 11 PM GMT (summer) / 11 PM GMT (winter)
Tokyo Close 8 AM GMT (summer) / 8 AM GMT (winter)
London Open 7 AM GMT (summer) / 8 AM GMT (winter)
London Close 4 PM GMT (summer) / 5 PM GMT (winter)
NY Open 12 PM GMT (summer) / 1 PM GMT (winter)
NY Close 9 PM GMT (summer) / 10 PM GMT (winter)

The largest worldwide financial market is the Forex, trading nearly $1.5 trillion daily. However, unlike other financial markets, the Forex trading is conducted from many global markets through a networks and phones.

Forex markets have three key regions: North America, Europe, and Australasia. Every region has multiple financial centers. For instance, the European region includes key financial centers located in Frankfurt, London, Pairs, and Zurich. Dealers, institutions, and banks conduct their own forex trading while also conducting trades for clients.

Forex trading opens with the Australasia region first, then Europe and North America in rotation. The cycle is designed for one market to open as another closes, ensuring consistent trading throughout the week. It is common for markets to overlap frequently for several hours, resulting in peak Forex market activity. For instance, an Australian trader decides to make a currency trade at 3am, the Australasia market would be closed, however the North American and European markets will be open allowing for the trader to conduct unlimited trades through foreign dealers.

As we covered the time zone structure (GMT), we can now cover Forex market session availability. There are four market sessions, depending on the time period they are referred to as the Sydney Session, Tokyo Session, New York Session and London Session. As markets are democratic, the session has been divided to a single session per continent: Australia, Asia, North America, and Europe. The Sydney Session starts at 10pm GMT from April to October (summer) and 9pm GMT (winter). The Tokyo Session starts at 11pm GMT, closing at 8am GMT (all year) The New York Session starts at 12pm GMT, closing at 9pm GMT (summer), There is a 1-hour delay during winter. The London Session starts at 7am GMT, closing at 4pm GMT (summer). There is a 1-hour delay during winter.

Additionally, traders include global corporations, centralized banks, and others who require currency for international trades. Since 1971, centralized banks have greatly depended on markets for trading foreign-currencies once the gold standard ended, this was the end of the fixed-currency market. Ever since, the majority of international currencies are considered “floating”, instead of being linked to gold value.

The currency market is affected by many factors, including political and economic instabilities, among others. Therefore, in an effort to stabilize domestic currency, central banks trade in the open Forex market, maintaining relative value in compression with foreign currencies. Meanwhile, businesses that conduct business within various countries hedge their currency risks in an attempt to mitigate their risks within foreign markets.

To hedge their risks, a business may enter currency swaps, providing the right to purchase a determined amount of foreign currency at a determined future pricing of other currencies. However, the business is not obligated to do so. Therefore, this strategy limits overall exposure to potentially large variations in the valuation of a currency.
The Forex market is available for 24-hour trading in part because of international time zone differences, but also due to trades being made through a worldwide network, not a centralized location that has a set closing time (i.e. the United States Stock Market). For example, the term “USD closed at X rate” refers to the rate of the US dollar when the New York market closes. However, unlike with securities the currencies get traded globally well after the New York market closes.
The need of securities, including domestic bonds, stocks, or commodities is not as high demand internationally, therefore, trading past standard business hours is not needed domestically. The demand is too low for the domestic market to remain open 24 hours and be justified, as the chance of large numbers of shares trading at 2am are unlikely.

To have a complete understanding, most traders require several passes through the timings several times. The reason being, it can be difficult for new traders to fully understand the multiple factors right away, as four sessions and open/close times must be converted into the traders’ local time zone, adjusting for daylight savings time (DST). Although, after trading for a while it will become easier to remember.

Best Time for Forex Trading

At Friday, forex market will be closed and during weekend there are no trading.

Think of the Forex market as a working clock system, with its own hours. When do you trade? Between sessions, the volatility and liquidity vary, starting as the market opens in Sydney, then Tokyo. As London markets open, Sydney is closed, but major hedge funds and banks are active, but the peak occurs after New York markets open.

For example the best time to trade USD pairs is during Euro and USA session. JPY is the best to trade during Asia and USA session etc.

Plan your trades based on location. For instance, if you’re in South Africa, you would benefit from avoiding periods of lower liquidity because prices are commonly too volatile or not volatile enough, making any technical or fundamental analysis useless. Additionally, understanding weekend hours is important because starting at open on Monday, liquidity tends to be low, while it’s higher as currencies are impacted by weekend news.

Traders need to know when liquidity and volatility are good, generally during London or New York session is open, preferably overlapping. This offers the most balanced combination of volatility and liquidity. Meanwhile, the worst periods to trade is after the New York session closes, and the opening of the Sydney session.

What are the best forecast sites for forex trading?

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Forex trading is a big business. It has a large market of websites, but how do you know which one will be best for you. I took some time and gathered plenty of research on the top websites that provide the best Forex information.

DailyFX Analyst picks

Daily FX is the most popular place that you can go to for free market research and news sources is DailyFX.com. This website was developed by FXCM, and it is one of the biggest Forex brokers within the U.S. DailyFX is gaining a lot of popularity among traders due to being able to offer various Forex articles, informative and timely newsfeeds that keeps you informed on any developments that have happened within the Forex market recently and fundamental and technical analysis. I reviewed DailyFX and below are all the things you are looking for. If you are a less experienced trader, DailyFX can give you live trading rooms that allow you watch the market being analyzed by experts as well as having access to daily webinars that will cover a variety of subjects that range from strategy sessions, educational webinars to fundamental and technical forecasts and even Q & A sessions that will help to make your experience better.

Another reason that this website is so popular for all traders is because it is able to address various needs of fundamental and technical traders. The expert team at DailyFX are big into social media and their presence on social media is because of their experience levels. It does not matter what experience level you have, DailyFX is able to give you information as well as education that will exceed the needs you have and help you own the Forex market. I happened to like that they have 24/7 coverage for all of the big trading sessions.

DailyFX has a large product that can be found on the site to be experience enhancing. All of this can help you to focus all of your attention on all the areas that you are interested in. For instance, if you are technical trader, then you are able to fully bypass the section for fundamental trading which allows you to only pay attention to the area for technical analysis.
The last feature that I found to be amazing about DailyFX was that it can provide you with a way to see how other people are positioned within the markets. The Speculative Sentiment Index provides you with a look into how a trader may feel when it comes to certain pairs within the Forex market.

Eido Search

Edio Search is a great search engine that can help any financial professional to analyze the market with time-series pattern samples. The example patterns are proprietary factors, housing starts, interest rates, and dynamic securities prices. The patterns are complex to describe, yet when used with content-based searches, the patterns are able to quickly look for any related occurrences within a big database. Then it will test your investment hypotheses and strategic methods with these situations.

Basically, Edio search will utilize a technology that recognizes patterns which can show how an investor may respond as their behavior is studied through previous trading and market environments. All of this is done without you having to code one line. For instance, if you take the previous three months of price patterns of the Dollar Yen, it is possible to identify instances of the pattern which is most similar throughout history and capture how the investors traded within a week and the project return results. All of this can be done using Eido Search and it is done within seconds.
Edio Search will let you search and then understand the links in asset classes. When you go a step further with that example of the Dollar Yen, you can look at recent trends in prices of crude oil or even U.S. Treasury rates and then compare them to similar instances of the patterns throughout history. You can then see how it was traded during similar markets within the past. However, the studies are common, thus, being able to offer the ability to complete them with speed and statistical information provides a lot of value for a user.

Edio Search uses a method that is able to scale down and then provide an analysis of thousands of portfolio stocks and watch lists. It can even help you with understanding and predicting behaviors of futures, currencies, even macro and micro-economic time series. Meanwhile, the main benefit to using this search is allowing you to generate increased revenue through investments by greatly growing numerous tested investment hypotheses, while improving research quality.
Trading Central
If you are wanting the best research possible then Trading Central is a great place. It is the biggest place to get any investment research. The technical strategies that it covers include fixed income, commodities, forex, index, and equity markets. There are well over 200 financial institutions located in 45 different countries as well as an unmeasurable number of traders that utilize Trading Central to help manage risks as well as locate various investment opportunities that are original.

Recognia and Trading Central

Recognia is a big deal for those who are looking for automated quantitative analysis as well as solutions for engagement for online retail institutions and brokers. They have over 20 million traders and investors. They offer a product suite that can help to increase the engagement of the user by providing action oriented and dynamic training ideas that come with daily updates on over 800,000 optional contracts and 72,000 instruments for investments. This site can analyze the 85 exchanges all over the globe in multiple languages and currencies which do include fundamental and technical research on commodities, options, Forex, indices, ETFs, and equities.

Autochartist

If you are looking for an analytical tool that can provide a way to automatically scan the market and is able to cover the whole spectrum of assets that are traded within the financial market such as futures, indices, commodities, currency pairs, stocks, etc. then Autochartist is what you need. This software will allow you to become successful and it is able to cater to all the needs of someone in the financial market.

Pre IPO Stocks

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IPO stocks have become highly popular, especially since the Silicon Valley has started to produce some of the best and most profitable startups as compared to anywhere on Earth. However, it can be a tantalizing prospect to buy a pre IPO stock. Think about Peter Theil and Sheryl Sandberg who had invested in Facebook before it even got listed on the NASDAQ in 2012. Or consider Bobby Murphy and Evan Spiegel who went public with Snapchat in 2017 and ended up raising $30 Billion.

Finding companies which are best in place of initial public offering could be something that could turn you into an overnight millionaire. It is risky and difficult to do so. It might not turn out to be successful or glamorous as you once thought it would be. Here is just what one needs to know about pre-IPO stocks.

What is a pre-IPO stock?

A pre-IPO stock provides investors with the opportunity to list on the stock market. Their goal is to buy in while the stock is privately-held and relatively small. Once, the shares get listed, the investors would sell the shares of the business in a large stock exchange such as the NASDAQ and end up making a fortune. The return on investment on pre-IPO stock is huge as long as you do your homework well.

Now, it can be hard to tell if a stock is pre-IPO until it gets listed and by that time it would have been too late already. There a two characteristics which can be found in such a company, namely a great story and the potential to grow exponentially. The following questions should be asked if you want to determine whether a business could someday actually go public.
• Would there be a demand for this type of investment?
• Could the company have thousands or even millions of customers?
• Is it possible for the business to become a billion dollar corporation?
• Does the company have a story which would make investors want to buy into it?
• Is the industry in which the business operates growing significantly?
• Could the company become an international corporation?
• Does the business offer a unique solution which could turn it into a Unicorn?
A few of the websites which you should check out to see if there are any shares being sold in the companies before they trade publicly. Examples of these websites include Seed Ups, Our Crowd, Equidate, Share Post, and Equity Zen.

Pre-IPO Stock Misconceptions and Risks
There are certain misconceptions that many aren’t aware of when it comes to pre-IPO stock. And, plenty of risks can also be found when we look at investing into it.
No. 1: Any Corporation Can Be Pre-IPO
Any company can be made into a pre-IPO stock with the help of a good promoter. He could easily entice investors with the prospect of investing in the stock before anyone does. Generally, the promoter isn’t wrong either as it would be to your advantage. Now, even the local corner store could become pre-IPO. However, that’s all there would be to it.
It is important for one to be cautious about companies that market themselves as pre-IPO. They could even be a scam.
No. 2: Listing on the Stock Market is Quite Easy
It has become quite easy to list a company on the stock market due to the lax laws in place. A small fee is just what would be needed in different parts of the world to allow for the public listing of the business. However, these markets are considered to be less liquid as compared to FTSE, ASX, TSX and NYSE.
Simply going public doesn’t mean that it would cash out. One needs to have a market for people to buy into their stock.
No. 3: IPOs Aren’t Necessarily Lucrative
Not all IPOs turn out to be a huge success, even if they end up listing on a huge market. No matter where the stock is listed, if there is no demand for it, people would just not buy the stock.
No 4: Until the IPO Shares Are Illiquid
Sometimes, it can be impossible to sell shares in a privately-held firm. One should be prepared to make a long term investment when investing in pre-IPO stock as the company might not go public as planned before and you might have your capital tied up for an extended period of time. It might sound unfair but it is the bitter truth about investing in pre-IPO stock.
No. 5: Regulatory Concerns
There are laws which are in place that govern if and how pre-IPO stocks are sold. One needs to have received a private placement memorandum or an offering in order to invest in it. A subscription agreement would also need to be signed. Or else, you would need to rely on certain exemptions from the securities act or be an accredited investor.
The most common violations of the securities act, is illegally raising money from investors. Any company that gets caught doing so would end up facing huge fines and the value of the investment would be threatened. Make sure that the company complies with the relevant laws before buying. Early issuers might be unaware of the law but it is no excuse.
No. 6: Unknown Characteristics of Shares
If you invest in a private business later on, the prior shareholders would have certain rights which you won’t. They could be entitled to receiving the earnings from IPO before you for example. Their votes could potentially carry more weight too. Yours shares might not get listed, while yours do. Ensure that you know what those prior to you were offered in order to know if you are at the back of the line or not.
No 7: Some Companies Only Go Public In Order to Survive
Sometimes, companies only go public as they have no other option to raise much needed cash. Therefore, in order to avoid a situation where your interests aren’t as protected as you thought they were, go through all of the financial statements to get an idea of the company’s performance and ask them about their reasons behind going public.

Payoff Ratio

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Profit/loss ratio or payoff ratio (pay off ratio) is the portfolio average profit per trade divided by the average loss per trade. If we have higher values – the portfolio performance is better.

Formula :

Average win = Total Gain / number of winning trades

Average loss = Total Loss / number of losing trades

Pay off ratio = Average win / Average loss = (Total Gain / number of winning trades ) / (Total Loss / number of losing trades)

Example how we can calculate payoff ratio for system or portfolio:

Our system or portfolio has :

300 winning trades
200 losing trades
Total gain is $9000
Total loss is $8000

than :

Average Win = Total Gain / number of winning trades = $9000 / 300 = 30
Average loss = Total Loss / number of losing trades = $8000 / 200 = 40
Pay off ratio = Average win / Average loss = 30/40 = 0,75

About payoff ratio formula and other formulas
In Literature payoff ratio we use when we want to calculate winning rate or win rate.

Win rate = Profit factor / (profit factor + payoff ratio)

Very similar term is Expected Payoff where

Expected Payoff = Total Net Profit / Total Number of Trades

What payoff ratio can tell us about our portfolio ?

It can tell us only about risk reward strategy but it can not give us nice explanation about our portfolio profitability.

Except this value we need to calculate average profitability per trade (APPT) or in math language Expectancy.

Average profitability per trade = (Probability of Win * Average Win) – (Probability of Loss * Average Loss).

So let we calculate Average profitability per trade for our case :

300 winning trades means that from 500 trades 300 are winning. Probability of Win = 300/500 = 60%
200 losing trades means that from 500 trades 200 are losing. Probability of loss = 200/500 = 40%
Total gain is $9000
Total loss is $8000
Average Win = Total Gain / number of winning trades = $9000 / 300 = 30
Average loss = Total Loss / number of losing trades = $8000 / 200 = 40

Average profitability per trade = (Probability of Win * Average Win) – (Probability of Loss * Average Loss) = 0.6*30 – 0.4*40 = $18 – $16 = $2

Payoff ratio vs. Profit factor

Profit factor is better signal than payoff ratio. Payoff ratio can be very low and system can be profitable. Payoff ratio without win rate can not be used as measure.

So if we know that :
Profit factor is ratio when we divide profit from winning trades by the loss of losers.
Win rate is the percentage of winning trades based on the number of total trades.
Payoff ratio is the average winning trade divided by the average losing trade.

There is rule about Profit factor and payoff ratio :

Profit factor will stay constant if we lower the payoff ratio only if we develop strategy with higher win rate.

Is Forex Trading Haram or Halal in Islam ?

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Answer is : Yes, forex is halal. But let we discuss this…

Halal or Haram for Forex Trading

Halal or Haram, Muslims choosing to do Forex Trading are constantly thinking about their Religion and what part of the Quran they should follow. There are many opinions about this issue and in this article the issues will be explained.
There are some Muslims who believe it is best for them to follow the words of the Prophet Mohammed :

Prophet Mohammed quote

If the types are different for then sell however you like, so long as it is hand to hand. Those who read these words will trade. However, there is another Islamic law that usury or any contract or business dealing that involves charging interest is strictly forbidden (Riba) and Forex trading has no interest calculations to be added or subtracted so this law does not affect the decisions made by Muslims.

Whenever, online brokers tend to charge or pay the difference between the two sides of and currency pair whose position has been held overnight there is a fee that is not permissible and there are brokers “Islamic Shariah Forex Accounts” and they do not charge or pay standard interest.

However, there are those who adhere strictly to Shariah Law and they say since the brokers are finding other ways to earn from the trade they will not be involved in Forex trading.

In a Regular Spot forex trade where traders predict an increase in the value of currencies and there is just regular trading, this could be seen as; hand to hand and there are some Muslims who won’t have a problem with this method of Forex trading.
However, with Forex trading forward, there is an element of interest involved so this is strictly forbidden.
Islamic law clearly prohibits gambling, and this causes some persons to wonder if the level of speculation that goes along with Forex trading is permissible for Muslims. However, the exchange that happens between the dealer and the broker would be hand to hand and that is allowed.

Islam understands that persons need to earn, and every trade is accompanied by some level of risk and Forex Trading is just like all the rest. When Muslims are faced with many opportunities to earn, they will look at the experiences of the persons who where involved in those opportunities in the past and do research before decisions are made.
There are some persons who say Forex trading is allowed when the correct type of analysis is used. When traders are able to predict when a currency will increase, and another will decrease and there is no speculation they are not behaving like Gamblers, so Forex Trading is a good thing for Muslims to be involved in.
However, traders who time the trade in order to get the best results, can be seen as persons who are breaking the Islamic law as there might be some speculation being done by them. This is where there is concern and some Muslims might prefer to stay away from Forex trading completely.

What islam says on online forex trading ?

With Islamic trading, Forex Trades should take effect immediately and it is seen as a natural part of commerce that is allowed by the Islamic law.

Muslims must trade with chart-based analysis or fundamental analysis this will make Forex trading permissible by Shariah law. The regular chart-based analysis can be seen as speculation and it is not allowed.
For the Muslim there needs to be a lot of research done to determine which currency will increase or decrease in value, as there can be no speculation, since gambling is totally prohibited according to the Islamic law.
Critics say it is best for Muslims to avoid Forex trading because the line between speculation and knowing how to trade can be easily blurred. Even though there are forex brokers who understand the laws, and they are willing to trade on behalf of Muslims.

Muslims can look at the lists of top Islamic Brokers whenever they want to do Forex Trading.
It seems to be possible for us to go on looking at the issues that surrounds Forex trading for many days and find it impossible to decide what position a Muslim should take when the issue of Forex Trading arises, some critics might say Muslims should not be using Brokers to trade on their Behalf because technically they are still trading and earning from gambling and it is wrong.
However, trading without speculation is possible and this makes it perfectly fine for Muslims who are willing to do research and stay within certain boundaries to do Forex trading. It can be looked at as hand to hand trade that is permissible by the Shariah Law. These Muslims would not pay Brokers to trade on their behalf, they would do their own research and stay away from everything that crosses the line, so they would not be doing anything that looks like gambling, there would be nothing like interest payments and they wouldn’t be breaking the Islamic laws.

What Islam Permits – forex halal or haram ?

Recently it was reported that Muslims who have looked at all the issues that are connected to Forex trading have decided that using a broker is allowed. This makes it easy for Muslims to put aside the statements that the critics made and start doing Forex trading as much as they want to.
Even though there are so many complications surrounding this issue, it is clear that research was done and decisions were made.
The law that involves usury and gambling are still being contemplated and Muslims are still finding ways to do Forex Trading in their own way.

The guidelines are still being used as the laws are important and Muslims are always encouraged to abide by them. The Muslim Forex account is different as all the Islamic laws are taken considered and upheld.
The Muslim Forex Brokers are persons who are determined to uphold the Islamic laws, they do all they can to avoid usury, which is defined very widely, forex forwards (which involves interest payments) and gambling or speculation and this makes it easy for other Muslims to trust them and use their services without fear.

In the middle of all the complication, it is clear, that somehow solutions were found for the many issues that seemed to stand in the way of Muslim Forex Traders and they are now trading in the markets every day.
The question as to whether Forex Trading is permissible according to the laws of Islam has been answered even though currency exchange under certain conditions is still halal. The lines are still blurred because computers and high-tech transactions were not present when hand to hand was implemented originally but it is clear, that Muslims found ways to adapt to the modern world.
A number of forex brokers have become Islamic Forex Brokers and offer Islamic forex accounts that offer standard interest payments, so they can make profits and keep on trading.

The Critics Point of View – is forex haram in Islam ?

Critics are still saying Islamic Forex trading makes this type of commerce problematic, as the lines between gambling and smart trading or speculating can be blurred easily and avoiding forex forward can be a bit difficult to avoid at times. They say it seems that though Islamic Forex Trading is just a camouflage. They believe it is impossible for Muslims to uphold the Islamic laws and do Forex trading.

However, it is clear that Muslims are not paying much attention to the critics, as they know that each trader will be guided by the laws that they hold dear and that is the most important thing to consider, in the middle of this very complicated issue. It is hard for those who have never been living according to specific laws to understand how it is possible for others to keep the laws when all the odds are stacked against them.

Forex trading in islam halal or haram – I think HALAL !

Is driving a car is halal ? Yes it is ! But if you drive your car every day 200 km/h you can hurt yourself and people, you will gamble with your life and life of other people. So decision is up to you. Is forex trading regulated business ? Yes. Do banks and biggest institutions round the world trade forex ? Yes. There are biggest chance to do insider trading in stocks market than in forex industry. In forex industry there are no loans, or market manipulation.

The good thing in forex that you can risk 1% per your equity and 99% of all your money is in your pocket.
And one more fact is : Surah Al Baqarah, verse 275: “Trade is Halal, interest is Haram”.

Forex halal

The question will always be there, but the truth about How the Islamic laws are being upheld in the Forex-Markets can only be answered by the Muslim Traders alone and critics can only speculate. They really can’t tell if the Islamic laws are being upheld or not, by Muslim traders. Eventually they might see this as an issue they should simply stop talking about, as they have no way of knowing what goes on in the mind of others.

Persons are finding more creative ways to do Forex trading, when there are complication because of Islamic laws, and where there are professional individuals who are determined to do forex trading and make profits more solutions are being found for the problems that other persons are seeing as barriers every day.

Keeping Forex Trading alive and profitable is more important than all the words the critics are using at this time and as long as Muslims are finding ways to trade and they are comfortable with their choices, there is no reason for anyone to criticize them.