Gold Trading Hours in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya

Gold trading hours in local time: the weekly schedule

Gold has no single exchange, but the main gold futures market, COMEX on CME Globex, sets the shape of gold trading hours for the week: it opens on Sunday at 18:00 New York time, runs to Friday at 17:00 New York time, and pauses for one hour each day from 17:00 (CME Group). Broker XAUUSD schedules are usually built around the same times, though they can differ by a few minutes or more.

South Africa (SAST), Nigeria (WAT) and Kenya (EAT) don’t change their clocks, but New York does, so the local times shift twice a year.

Early November to mid-March (New York on standard time):

	South Africa (SAST)	Nigeria (WAT)	Kenya (EAT)
Week opens	Monday 01:00	Monday 00:00	Monday 02:00
Daily break	00:00–01:00	23:00–00:00	01:00–02:00
Week closes	Saturday 00:00	Friday 23:00	Saturday 01:00

Mid-March to early November (New York on daylight saving time):

	South Africa (SAST)	Nigeria (WAT)	Kenya (EAT)
Week opens	Monday 00:00	Sunday 23:00	Monday 01:00
Daily break	23:00–00:00	22:00–23:00	00:00–01:00
Week closes	Friday 23:00	Friday 22:00	Saturday 00:00

The busiest hours for gold

Gold is traded everywhere, but most of the volume comes when London and New York are open, and the overlap between the two is usually the most active period of the day. These times follow both London’s and New York’s clocks:

Period	London–New York overlap, SAST	WAT	EAT
Early November to mid-March	15:00–19:00	14:00–18:00	16:00–20:00
Late March to late October	14:00–18:00	13:00–17:00	15:00–19:00

Two scheduled events fall in or near that window:

• The LBMA Gold Price auctions at 10:30 and 15:00 London time set the benchmark price used in many gold contracts (LBMA).
• Major US data releases, such as the monthly jobs report, come out at 08:30 New York time (BLS). Gold can move several dollars in seconds when they do.

Event	Late October to late March (SAST / WAT / EAT)	Late March to late October (SAST / WAT / EAT)
LBMA morning auction, 10:30 London	12:30 / 11:30 / 13:30	11:30 / 10:30 / 12:30
LBMA afternoon auction, 15:00 London	17:00 / 16:00 / 18:00	16:00 / 15:00 / 17:00

Event	Early November to mid-March (SAST / WAT / EAT)	Mid-March to early November (SAST / WAT / EAT)
US data at 08:30 New York	15:30 / 14:30 / 16:30	14:30 / 13:30 / 15:30

Quieter hours

During the Asian session, roughly midnight to mid-morning in African time, gold usually moves less, although news from Asia can still move it. Around the daily break, spreads on XAUUSD can widen sharply, and some brokers stop quoting altogether for part of it. If you have open positions, a sudden spread widening can trigger a stop loss even when the market barely moved.

Weekends and the Monday open

Standard XAUUSD contracts don’t trade at weekends. Whatever happens between Friday’s close and Sunday’s open, the price will reflect it at the first quote on Monday morning in Africa. If that first price is beyond your stop loss, the stop fills there, not at the level you set. Some traders close positions before the weekend for this reason; whether that suits you depends on your plan and your position size.

Holidays

US and UK public holidays can bring shortened sessions, thin trading and wider spreads, even when your platform stays open. Brokers usually publish holiday schedules in advance; check your broker’s notices in the week before a major holiday.

When the clocks change

New York’s clock changes move the weekly open, the daily break and the US data times. London’s clock changes move the LBMA auctions and the London session. The next changes:

Change	Date	Effect on gold hours in Africa
US clocks forward	14 March 2027	Open, close, daily break and US data one hour earlier
UK clocks forward	28 March 2027	LBMA auctions and London session one hour earlier
UK clocks back	31 October 2027	LBMA auctions and London session one hour later
US clocks back	7 November 2027	Open, close, daily break and US data one hour later

Sources: GOV.UK and NIST (the US changes on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November).

How to check your broker’s gold hours

The tables above are a reference. The hours that count are the ones on your account:

1. In MetaTrader 5, open Market Watch and find your gold symbol (XAUUSD, or a version such as XAUUSDm on Exness Standard accounts).
2. Right-click it and choose Specification.
3. Read the trading sessions for each day. They are shown in the broker’s server time.
4. Work out the difference between server time and SAST, WAT or EAT once, and write your local hours down.

If you live in Ghana

Ghana uses GMT, one hour behind WAT. Subtract one hour from the Nigeria column: for example, the London–New York overlap runs from 13:00 to 17:00 in Ghana from early November to mid-March.

For currency pairs, see forex trading hours. Before you trade gold for real, watch a full London–New York overlap on a demo account and read how to trade gold.