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Forex Market Hours & ICT Kill Zone Times
Every major session and kill zone in New York time, converted to your timezone automatically, with a live countdown to the next one.
The sessions and kill zones, explained
A trading “session” is simply the part of the day when a particular financial centre is active. A kill zone is narrower: a window inside that session where ICT-style traders expect the cleanest setups, because liquidity and volatility concentrate there rather than spreading evenly through the day.
- London Open (02:00–05:00 NY) — the first major volatility of the day. Europe comes online and frequently sweeps the range built overnight.
- New York AM (07:00–10:00 NY) — the highest-participation window, with London and New York both active. Most US data lands here.
- London Close (10:00–12:00 NY) — European desks square up, which often produces a reversal or retracement against the morning move.
- New York PM (13:30–16:00 NY) — the afternoon session, quieter but with its own repeatable behaviour into the close.
- Asian Range (20:00–00:00 NY) — usually consolidation. The high and low it builds become reference levels for the sessions that follow.
Why timezone conversion causes so many errors
Almost all ICT and smart-money material quotes times in New York, which is sensible — it keeps everyone referring to the same window. The mistake happens at conversion, and it happens twice a year for a specific reason: the US and Europe change their clocks on different dates. For a couple of weeks each spring and autumn the usual gap between London and New York shifts by an hour, and a trader working from a memorised offset turns up to the London open sixty minutes late.
The clock above avoids that by converting from real timezone data rather than a fixed offset, so the numbers stay right through every transition without you adjusting anything.
Using session times in a strategy
Knowing the windows is the easy part. The useful question is whether your setup actually performs better inside one of them — and that is measurable rather than a matter of belief. Tag every trade you test with the session it formed in, and after a large enough sample you will know whether your edge is genuinely session-dependent or whether you have simply inherited someone else's assumption.
That is what replay is for: step through historical price one candle at a time with the session context visible, and log the outcome. The CRTLAB simulator does exactly that across eight markets, and how to backtest ICT concepts walks the process end to end.
Frequently asked questions
What time does the London session open?
The London open kill zone runs 02:00–05:00 New York time. The clock on this page converts that to your own timezone automatically, including through daylight saving changes.
What are ICT kill zones?
Kill zones are specific windows within the trading day where ICT-style traders expect the highest-quality setups, because that is when liquidity and volatility concentrate. The four commonly used windows are London open, New York AM, London close, and New York PM.
Why are trading sessions quoted in New York time?
New York time is the reference most ICT and smart-money material uses, so quoting sessions in it keeps everyone talking about the same window regardless of where they live. Converting to local time is the step traders most often get wrong, especially in March and November when the US and Europe change clocks on different dates.
When is the forex market open?
The spot forex week runs from Sunday 17:00 New York time to Friday 17:00 New York time. The clock shows a closed banner outside those hours with a countdown to the reopen.
What is the Asian range?
The Asian range is the 20:00–00:00 New York window, where price often consolidates into a defined high and low. Traders use that range as reference for the sessions that follow, since its edges frequently become the liquidity that later gets swept.
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<iframe src="https://crtlab.pro/embed/trading-session-times" width="100%" height="640" style="border:0;max-width:720px" title="Forex Session & Kill Zone Clock by CRTLAB" loading="lazy"></iframe>Knowing the window isn't the same as having an edge in it.
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