Sessions, Closures and Economic Events

Second Officer · SO01: Know What You Trade · About 25 minutes

Safety rule: A market being open does not mean your planned order can be filled at a safe or stable price.

Your mission today

By the end you can build a one-day trading calendar that shows market hours, event times and when your plan requires you to wait.

Before you start

Use a demo platform's symbol-hours screen, a calendar and your notebook. You will need to convert time zones. Finish SO01.3 first so that spread and price movements are not mistaken for each other.

1. Different markets keep different clocks

A supermarket can be open while a particular counter is closed. Markets work in a similar way.

Many retail forex markets operate across major business days, but trading availability depends on the broker and instrument. Exchange-traded futures may pause for daily maintenance. An index CFD may have hours different from the cash stock market. Crypto-related products may trade during weekends but still have provider maintenance periods.

The trading session is the period when an instrument accepts trading. A market closure is a period when it does not. Your broker's exact symbol-hours schedule matters more than a generic chart label.

At a close or reopening, a price may jump past an earlier level. This is called a gap. A stop order cannot guarantee your planned exit price through every gap.

2. Worked example: loss risk around a scheduled event

Everything in this example is imaginary.

A student plans to buy EURUSD at 1.1002 with a stop at 1.0992. The intended distance is 0.0010 USD per euro, or 10 conventional pips.

Suppose the student risks $1 per pip at the selected demo volume. The planned price loss is 10 pips × $1/pip = $10, before fees.

Now a major scheduled announcement occurs. A rapid move means the stop may fill at 1.0987 instead of 1.0992.

The actual distance from 1.1002 to 1.0987 is 15 pips, giving $15 loss before separate charges. This is an adverse-fill illustration, not a prediction about any release.

If price instead moved favourably by 10 pips, the gross result would be +$10. But the possibility of a favourable move does not cancel the risk of an unfavourable fill.

The lesson is not "news makes price fall." It is that the planned loss and actual result can differ, especially when liquidity and execution change.

Original Black Box Journey teaching illustration. Synthetic example; not historical market data.

3. Convert times without guessing

Suppose a hypothetical event is scheduled for 13:30 UTC. You are in Malaysia, which observes UTC+8.

Add eight hours: 13:30 + 8 hours = 21:30 Malaysia time on the same day.

Now imagine the broker server shows UTC+2 on that date. Its display would show 15:30 server time. You must verify the server offset for that actual date. Some regions change clocks seasonally, while Malaysia does not.

A calendar can show times in your browser's local time zone, UTC or a chosen financial-centre zone. Write the source zone beside every event. Never simply copy "13:30" into a trade rule without specifying which clock it uses.

4. What a scheduled announcement can and cannot tell you

An economic calendar lists expected events, such as inflation reports, employment releases or central-bank decisions.

A scheduled event tells you when new information may arrive. It does not tell you whether the next candle will rise or fall. Markets also respond to expectations, revised data, liquidity and prior positioning. An obvious headline may produce a surprising price move.

Events can coincide with a wider spread, the gap between the buy and sell quotations. A normal spread from an earlier quiet period is not proof you can still trade at that cost.

Check the broker quote and symbol rules when you are actually reviewing the trade. If the spread exceeds your written maximum, skip. Do not move the stop just to make the order look acceptable.

5. Build a one-day pre-flight calendar

Choose your study date and one demo instrument. Record:

1. Your local date and time zone.
2. Broker server date, time and documented offset.
3. Instrument opening, closing and maintenance periods.
4. Scheduled major events, including source time zone.
5. A written no-entry window around events, if your personal practice plan uses one.
6. The spread and actual session status at the decision moment.

Example: Your imaginary plan may exclude new entries from ten minutes before to ten minutes after a specified event. That is a policy choice for this exercise, not a universal trading rule. You should later test whether the restriction improves your actual execution quality.

A rule that depends on a future candle is not available yet. Use closed bars and recorded times, not knowledge from the chart after the event.

Common mistake

A beginner assumes that the London or New York session label guarantees good execution. The session name does not guarantee a particular spread or fill. Check the executable quote and your broker's symbol schedule.

Plain-English glossary

• Session: A period when an instrument can usually trade.
• Gap: A jump between quoted or traded prices.
• Economic calendar: A schedule of planned data releases and policy events.
• Spread: The difference between available buy and sell quotes.
• Slippage: A difference between an intended price and actual execution.
• Time zone: The clock convention used to label a timestamp.

Try it yourself

Make tomorrow's demo trading calendar. Use your broker's instrument schedule and one reliable event calendar. Show every event in UTC, Malaysia time and your actual broker-server time. Pick one proposed trade time and decide TRADE, WAIT or SKIP using a written spread/session/event rule. Save the sources and a rejected trade example in your journal.

What you can now do

• Convert an event timestamp between known time zones.
• Identify when an instrument is actually open for trading.
• Apply a written no-entry rule without guessing future prices.

Next lesson

SO01.5 · Verify Brokers, Accounts and Claims. You will learn how to check the organisation behind a trading account.