Market hours, confused

[Skydaemon]

Ok I don't get it.

Came back from an extended lunch and everything is like halted or something.

Charts aren't being updated, no apparent trades or price changes reported, it's like the market is closed or something... It all just stopped 4pm est.

I can think of several reasons this might be happening.

1) This broker is lazy and turned their charts/feeds off and left me in the dark!

2) The market is really closed for the weekend and I missed the memo. Even though my demo account claims to be letting me place trades....

I obviously missed something important here. What's goin on? What happened to forex being 24/7 and all that, or is a slow period more like a graveyard with crickets.

Surely even if the price was flat the charts should be updating as flat?

Also, a definition question. I see listed for each currency something called Roll S or Roll B, as in

EUR/JPY Roll S -16 .00
EUR/JPY Roll B 12.30

I gather S and B stand for Sell or Buy positions. Is that the interest rate paid out for holding a position overnight? And if so, is it just $100,000 times roll divided by 365?

// edit, I was reading something that said wednesday afternoon gets 3 times the interest other days do?

This totally sucks I had a whole new strategy to play with!

[Skydaemon]

"The trading desk closes at 4:00PM ET Friday and reopens at 5:15PM ET on Sunday."

Found this nice quote in the help section of the broker tool. I'm wondering if they mean the whole forex market is stopped or it's just this broker?

I checked my first demo software again and it's dead in the water too.

[ForexWolf]

Originally Posted by Skydaemon

"The trading desk closes at 4:00PM ET Friday and reopens at 5:15PM ET on Sunday."

Found this nice quote in the help section of the broker tool. I'm wondering if they mean the whole forex market is stopped or it's just this broker?

I checked my first demo software again and it's dead in the water too.

Hmm...I thought you said you had checked and read up on the basics of Forex at babypips? While the Forex markets "technically" from an economic vantage and banking vantage point stay 'open' 24/7 just like a government is 'open' 24/7, nearly every brokerage for trading closes up for the weekend..albeit a short weekend. The whole of economic markets are typically active and "open" and brokers are online and trading from Sunday nite around 5pmEST to Friday at 4pmEST in Forex. Closed on Saturday--even the financial markets need a break one day a week to tally and do accounting and rest up. But the rest of the time during the week between sunday and friday--yes its 24hrs...

There are a few brokers who let you enter trades on weekends--but remember that volume and actual moves are so insiginifcant that it will be virtually "flatline" on a chart for any fluctuation.. Folks forget this is a GLOBAL market and is beyond HUGE in size--not like the US stock market--the US stock market is a tiny pea compared to the boulder known as Forex markets. Any trades entered over the weekends just pile up and (generally speaking) activate all at once on Sunday Open.. Which leads to my next point---As for entering order--sure you can enter all the orders you want in your account--but they won't trigger or happen until your broker opens for business again on Sunday nite...and you have to be VERY careful about stuff like this cause when brokers and markets "reopen" on Sunday nites--you can have GAPS from previous close price. If you enter a trade at Friday close price to go long, and when markets open everyone has gone short on that pair and dropped that price 100 pips--you instantly open with a BUY at the close price, but suddenly you have a negative losing trade--and your stoploss may or may NOT be triggered because of that "gap" from open price to when you entered in your order does NOT factor into play until your order triggers... Gaps are NOT counting any price differential between friday close and sunday open for Stoploss or limit order triggering.

Check your broker TOS--they list how they view gaps and trading entries go after hours on Saturdays--and your stops are NOT honored or protected in a gap during the open to close period.. Many brokers just don't let you trade after Friday 4pm and your platform shuts down--but some do...and you have to be careful about that.

FXW

[Anne09]

We always read that market is opened for 24 hours but it does not mean the market is active for that much time. The best time to trade is from 3-4 a.m. EST when both Tokyo and London markets are open, and from 8-12 p.m. EST when both the London and U.S. markets are open. These times the market is the busiest as two market is open at single time.

If still you are confused for the timing you can visit babypips for the same.