Ask and Answer for Beginer forex trader about Timing

Ask : How to calculate the est timings?

Answer : EST = GMT - 5. You should find out your local time zone. To do this either look at your PC time zone, or better go to http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ and in the search field type in the country you live in. Then calculate the correspondent EST hours for your local area. Also the timing tool at: Forex market hours can help at some point.

Ask : I heard that one should not trade on Mondays because it has more down days. But if that is true then it would seem that one should not trade long on Mondays, but trading short (assuming the trend is down) on Mondays would be a good thing. Did I misunderstand whats wrong with Mondays for trading?

Answer : It appears that you have misunderstood the statement. When they say that Mondays have more down days, they mean that on Mondays traders have a higher rate of unsuccessful trading. On Mondays the market is often unstable, deciding on which direction to pull this week, what market levels to obey and what to disregard. Unless there is a crystal clear trend imprinted in the price, traders try to avoid trading on Mondays to lower the percentage of losing trades.

Ask : I live in UK, what time on monday or sunday would I use for the start of the week for trading. Also once the week has began what is the daily time for my calculation.

Answer : Use GMT - your local time zone. Start trading on Monday, around 6-7am GMT if the trend is obvious and trading signals are clear, otherwise it is suggested to wait till Monday shake-up occurs in the market as it looks for its trend options. If you want to calculate Pivot points, New York time (EST) is recommended. EST = GMT - 5. Also majority of breakout methods are tailored to EST time. In all other cases you can confidently take GMT time - and base your calculations around 00:01am - 11:59pm GMT.

Ask : What is M15 timeframe?

Answer : M15 stands for 15 minute time frame.
Other examples:
4h - 4 hour time frame, or you can also say - 4 hour chart.
1d - daily time frame, 1 day chart.
5m - 5 minute chart.

Ask : Im abit confused about the openning time for london forex market. Is it at 5:00am or 8:00am ? And how about the timing of the platform of those Meta4 trader, are they GMT ? Are they all auto adjusted to day light saving ? ( what is the duration of day light saving ).

Answer : London market opens at 8am GMT. Different Forex brokers have different default timing settings for the Metatrader Platform offered. Those settings cannot be changed. You should ask your broker what timing their trading platform uses. All platforms are auto adjusted to daylight savings. Here is additional information on the calendar and duration of daylight saving periods in the world. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=136

Ask : If I traded before daylight savings time fall 2007 and up to end of feb 2008 at 5:00 pm mountain time, which is 0:00 GMT time. Would I still trade the same time or do I need to adjust my strategy back 1 hour as we moved our clocks forward 1 hour? I noticed today that 0:00 is now at 6pm mountain time?

Answer : Yes, as we switch to daylight saving time and back you adjust your strategy time accordingly.

Ask : Please i need your help about the timing because am in Nigeria and we are an hour ahead of GMT (GMT+1). Kindly help with the best time for me to calculate my pivots for both London and America market on 15 minutes chart.

Answer : Ok, let's use the time from 00:00 Eastern time to 00:00 next day Eastern time to calculate Pivot points. Let's not just do it one time, but learn how to do it each time when we require to perform similar time matching tasks.

1. Go to http://www.forexmarkethours.com/
2. Choose your local time zone in the window application. Press "Go!". Note the time in the green box next to it.
3. Now choose "GMT - 5 Eastern Time (USD, Canada)" in the same application. Press "Go!". Note the time in the green box again.
4. Find the difference in hours.

Using the rules above, for you time zone currently we have 5 hours difference (its daylight saving time in US). Therefore, since we want to Calculate pivots from 00:00 to 00:00 EST, in your local Nigeria time it will be from 5:00 am to 5:00 am EST. Same way we find the difference for London hours. Because of daylight savings your Local time now is the same as in London. No additional calculations required.

Ask : hello, am very new to in forex trading and will want to get myself fortified before activating my live act. the issue now is I will to know how daylight savings affect different forex market opening hours thank you

Answer : During the 2 weeks period when daylight savings is activated in different countries across the globe, it does confuses traders as to what hours to use. We suggest monitoring the time with Eastern Time time zone (New York time). Some traders may find useful switching their PC local time to Eastern Time to monitor hours effectively. Also http://www.forexmarkethours.com/ will always tell you what markets are currently open regarding your local time zone and according to daylight savings adjustments.