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Measured data

FxPro Trading Hours in India — IST Session Times

When the market is open, when spreads are tight and when the rollover hits — all measured on FxPro’s own MetaTrader 5 server and converted to IST.

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The hour you trade is a decision most beginners never make - it gets inherited from whenever they happen to be free, and then blamed later for results it only partly caused. The market schedule above is the fixed part. The part worth working on is the line in your journal that records whether the hour was chosen or simply available, written at entry, because the order history shows the timestamp and never the reason behind it. A month of entries with that one line in them answers a question no table can: whether your trading fits your life honestly, or whether you have been practising at hours you will never actually be able to trade.

Market week in IST (from the server’s own session table)

InstrumentWeek opens (IST)Week closes (IST)
EUR/USDMon 02:30Sat 02:30
GBP/USDMon 02:30Sat 02:30
AUD/USDMon 02:30Sat 02:30
USD/CADMon 02:30Sat 02:30
USD/JPYMon 02:30Sat 02:30
XAU/USD (Gold)Mon 03:30Sat 02:30

Read straight from each instrument’s quote sessions on the MT5 server — not from a generic FX calendar.

Hour by hour: what EUR/USD costs at your local time

Your time (IST)Server timeAvg EUR/USD spread (pips)
02:0000:000.322
03:0001:000.3
04:0002:000.2
05:0003:000.2
06:0004:000.2
07:0005:000.2
08:0006:000.2
09:0007:000.2
10:0008:000.2
11:0009:000.2
12:0010:000.2
13:0011:000.2
14:0012:000.2
15:0013:000.2
16:0014:000.241
17:0015:000.2
18:0016:000.2
19:0017:000.2
20:0018:000.2
21:0019:000.2
22:0020:000.2
23:0021:000.2
00:0022:000.559 ⚠
01:0023:000.939 ⚠

⚠ marks hours where the average measured spread runs at least twice the typical hour — the daily rollover window stands out immediately.

The rollover lands in the morning here

The daily rollover (swap posting, brief spread widening) happens at 00:00 server time — which is around 02:00 IST. Positions carried through breakfast hours pay or earn the overnight swap, and tight stops around that time can be hit by the spread alone.

Swap multipliers measured from the server: Monday ×1, Tuesday ×1, Wednesday ×3, Thursday ×1, Friday ×1. The Wednesday triple swap posts at the daily rollover that follows — around 02:00 IST the next morning.

Cheapest hours to trade (measured)

Ranked by movement per pip of spread on the measured feed, the best EUR/USD hours recently were around 18:00, 19:00, 17:00 IST; the most expensive were around 00:00, 01:00 IST (rollover).

How this was measured

  • Session times: the per-instrument quote-session table published by the MT5 server itself.
  • Hourly spreads: every captured quote, bucketed by server hour over the last 24h.
  • Swap multipliers: per-weekday swap factors read from the server.
  • Times converted to IST with current daylight rules; figures refresh on a schedule.
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Practising at an hour you will not be able to trade

This is the quietest way a practice month can be wasted. Someone rehearses in the evening because that is when the practice account is convenient, learns what the market looks like at that hour, and then funds an account they can only watch at a completely different time. Everything they learned is still true and almost none of it applies.

The fix costs nothing if it is decided early: practise at the hours you will actually be able to trade, even when other hours are more convenient right now. If those hours are limited, that is information about what kind of trading is available to you, and it is far better to know it during practice.

The schedule above is where the fixed constraints live - when the week opens and closes, when the daily rollover lands locally. Read it once and let it shape the practice routine rather than discovering it during the first live week.

The journal line that separates a choice from a schedule

One word at entry: chosen, or available. That is the whole mechanism, and it takes no longer to write than the timestamp takes to record itself.

Read back a month later, the two words split the record in a way the history cannot. Entries marked chosen can be judged on whether the reasoning held. Entries marked available can be judged on something more useful - whether trading at that hour is a good idea at all, or whether you have been taking positions because you were at your desk rather than because anything was happening.

Beginners are often surprised by the ratio. A first month where nearly every entry is marked available is not a discipline problem; it is a routine problem, and the two have completely different fixes.

What a weekly pass over timing actually asks

First: did the entries cluster where you intended them to? A tight cluster with most entries marked chosen is a routine working as designed, whatever the results were.

Second: what happened in the sessions outside that cluster? Trades placed at odd hours, especially after a losing day, are rarely part of any plan - and they show up in the record as isolated timestamps with thin reasoning next to them.

Third: did any position stay open past the daily rollover, and was that written down at entry? Timing and holding are the same question asked twice, and the second half of it lives on the overnight page. Between the two, most first-month timing problems name themselves without any analysis at all.

Fitting a practice routine to hours you will actually have

  1. Decide, before the practice month begins, which hours you will realistically be able to trade once the account is funded.
  2. Practise inside those hours even when others are more convenient, so the month teaches you something you can use.
  3. Write one word at every entry - chosen, or available - alongside the usual reason and exit lines.
  4. Note at entry whether the position is expected to still be open at the daily rollover, so timing and holding are decided together.
  5. Each week, count the entries outside your intended window and read the reasoning next to them; that handful is usually the most instructive part of the week.

The schedule above is fixed and public. What it cannot tell you is which part of it is genuinely available to you, and that is the part a practice month is for.

Chosen hour or available hour: the same timestamp, two different trades

What the record showsMarked chosenMarked available
Entry inside the intended windowThe routine workingCoincidence worth noticing
Entry outside itA deliberate exception, with a reasonThe most common source of first-month regret
Reasoning next to the entryRefers to a planOften refers to being at the desk
What review can judgeWhether the reasoning heldWhether the hour suits trading at all
What to change next monthUsually nothingThe routine, not the instrument

One word written at entry turns a column of timestamps into two groups that mean different things.

Timing patterns in a first month and what each one is telling you

PatternHow it looks in the historyWhat the entry line adds
A consistent windowEntries clustered in the same hours most daysWhether that window was picked or inherited
Scattered timestampsNo two days looking alikeReason lines that thin out as the hour gets later
Late entries after a losing dayIsolated trades outside the usual windowThe state-of-mind word usually says it plainly
Positions left open at the rolloverDuration crossing the daily boundaryWhether the horizon was written at entry
Practice hours unlike live hoursTwo records that do not resemble each otherThe available marker appearing far more often once live

All five rows are read from timestamps and one word. None of them requires a session table to interpret.

Frequently asked questions

Does it matter which hour I practise in?
It matters more than most beginners expect. Practising in hours you will never be able to trade produces a month of learning that is true and inapplicable, and the mismatch usually only shows up once the account is funded.
What should the journal record about timing?
One word at entry: chosen, or available. The timestamp records itself; what it cannot record is whether being at the desk was the reason for the trade.
How do I see whether I traded when I planned to?
Count the entries inside your intended window against the ones outside it, week by week. The outliers are few, they are quickly read, and the reasoning next to them is usually thinner than the rest.
Is a fixed trading window worth committing to in a first month?
Yes, because it makes the month comparable. A window that stays fixed lets you attribute changes to your decisions; a window that moves means every week is a new experiment with one sample.
The rollover lands in my morning - does that change what I write?
It changes when the question is asked, not what it is. Note at entry whether the position is expected to still be open then, so timing and holding get decided in the same moment rather than separately.
Should I practise at the hour I can actually trade, even if it is inconvenient now?
Yes. Convenience during practice is worth very little if the resulting habits belong to a session you will not be awake for.
What does the weekly review ask about timing?
Three things: whether entries clustered where intended, what the outliers had in common, and whether anything stayed open past the rollover without being planned. Each takes a minute if the entry lines exist.

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