Market hours
XAUUSD Trading Hours: When the Gold Market Is Open
Gold trades around the clock five days a week — but only a few hours each day carry the liquidity that produces clean, tradeable moves. Here are the exact sessions, converted to GMT, South African and US Eastern time.
Quick answer
XAUUSD trades 24 hours a day from Sunday 22:00 GMT to Friday 21:00 GMT, with a daily settlement break from 21:00 to 22:00 GMT. The best windows to trade it are the London open (07:00–10:00 GMT) and the London/New York overlap (12:00–16:00 GMT), where most of the daily range is printed and spreads are tightest.
Gold market opening and closing times
- Weekly open: Sunday 22:00 GMT (23:00 SAST, 17:00 EST)
- Weekly close: Friday 21:00 GMT (22:00 SAST, 16:00 EST)
- Daily settlement break: 21:00–22:00 GMT on most brokers — trading halts and spreads widen
Some brokers shift these by an hour depending on their server time and daylight-saving schedule, so confirm the exact times inside your platform's contract specification.
The four gold trading sessions
| Session | GMT | SAST (South Africa) | EST (New York) | Typical Gold behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 21:00 – 06:00 | 23:00 – 08:00 | 16:00 – 01:00 | Thinnest liquidity of the day. Gold drifts and builds the Asian range; spreads can widen at the open. |
| Tokyo / Asia | 00:00 – 09:00 | 02:00 – 11:00 | 19:00 – 04:00 | The Asian range forms here. Breakout traders mark the high and low as references for London. |
| London | 07:00 – 16:00 | 09:00 – 18:00 | 02:00 – 11:00 | The first major Gold window. The Asian range is frequently swept, then the real directional move begins. |
| New York | 12:00 – 21:00 | 14:00 – 23:00 | 07:00 – 16:00 | The second major window. US data (CPI, NFP, FOMC) lands at 12:30 or 18:00 GMT and drives the largest Gold moves. |
| London / New York overlap | 12:00 – 16:00 | 14:00 – 18:00 | 07:00 – 11:00 | The deepest liquidity of the day. Most of XAUUSD's daily range is printed inside these four hours. |
Why the London and New York windows matter most
XAUUSD is priced in US dollars and cleared through London and New York liquidity, so the overwhelming share of its daily volume — and therefore its clean moves — happens when those two centres are open. The London open frequently sweeps the Asian session high or low before setting the day's direction, and the 12:00–16:00 GMT overlap adds US data releases and the deepest order flow of the day.
This concentration is what makes Gold practical to trade around a job: you do not need to watch the chart for 24 hours, you need to be present for two windows. GOLD Scalper's own signals are published around exactly these sessions — see today's XAUUSD signals for a live example.
Daylight saving: the trap that catches most traders
The US, UK and Europe change their clocks on different dates. For a few weeks each March and again in October/November, the session times in your local timezone shift by an hour even though the GMT times barely move. South Africa does not observe daylight saving, so SAST conversions stay fixed all year — one reason the table above uses SAST as a stable reference.
Convert any session to your own timezone instantly with the free gold trading hours tool. For deeper context, read the best time to trade gold and how each session behaves — Asian range, London sweep, New York overlap.
Trading hours by instrument
These hours apply to spot XAUUSD. Gold futures (COMEX GC) trade on CME Globex from Sunday 18:00 to Friday 17:00 EST with a daily 17:00–18:00 EST break, and gold CFDs follow your broker's spot schedule. If you trade through one of the brokers on our XAUUSD broker comparison, the spot table above is the one that applies.
Common questions
XAUUSD trading hours: FAQ
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