Forex Market Hours in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa

How forex market hours work

Forex market hours aren’t set by a single exchange, and there is no opening bell. Forex is traded between banks and brokers around the world, so the market follows the working day from one financial centre to the next: Sydney, Tokyo, London, then New York. The “sessions” below are the usual business hours of those centres. Brokers and websites draw the edges slightly differently; Pepperstone, for example, uses 08:00 to 17:00 London time for the London session (Pepperstone).

Nigeria (WAT, UTC+1), South Africa (SAST, UTC+2) and Kenya (EAT, UTC+3) don’t change their clocks. London and New York do, at different dates. That is why the local times move during the year, and why many timetables online are wrong for half of it.

Session times from early November to mid-March

London is on GMT and New York on Eastern Standard Time.

Session	Hours where it is based	Nigeria (WAT)	South Africa (SAST)	Kenya (EAT)
Tokyo	09:00–18:00 Tokyo	01:00–10:00	02:00–11:00	03:00–12:00
London	08:00–17:00 London	09:00–18:00	10:00–19:00	11:00–20:00
New York	08:00–17:00 New York	14:00–23:00	15:00–00:00	16:00–01:00
London + New York overlap		14:00–18:00	15:00–19:00	16:00–20:00

Session times from late March to late October

London is on British Summer Time and New York on Eastern Daylight Time, so both sessions start one hour earlier in African time. Tokyo doesn’t change.

Session	Hours where it is based	Nigeria (WAT)	South Africa (SAST)	Kenya (EAT)
Tokyo	09:00–18:00 Tokyo	01:00–10:00	02:00–11:00	03:00–12:00
London	08:00–17:00 London	08:00–17:00	09:00–18:00	10:00–19:00
New York	08:00–17:00 New York	13:00–22:00	14:00–23:00	15:00–00:00
London + New York overlap		13:00–17:00	14:00–18:00	15:00–19:00

Sydney (07:00–16:00 Sydney time) follows Australia’s own clock changes, which go the other way. While Sydney is on summer time, from early October to early April, the session runs 21:00–06:00 WAT, 22:00–07:00 SAST and 23:00–08:00 EAT. For the rest of the year it is one hour later: 22:00–07:00 WAT, 23:00–08:00 SAST and 00:00–09:00 EAT.

The weeks when London and New York don’t match

The UK changes its clocks on the last Sunday of March and October (GOV.UK). The US changes on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November (NIST). For two or three weeks a year, only one of them has changed:

Period	London (WAT)	New York (WAT)	Overlap (WAT)
14 March to 28 March 2027	09:00–18:00	13:00–22:00	13:00–18:00
31 October to 7 November 2027	09:00–18:00	13:00–22:00	13:00–18:00

Add one hour for SAST and two hours for EAT. In 2026 the autumn mismatch ran from 25 October to 1 November, so the winter table above applies from 1 November 2026.

Weekly open and close

The forex week is usually counted from about 17:00 New York time on Sunday to 17:00 New York time on Friday:

	Nigeria (WAT)	South Africa (SAST)	Kenya (EAT)
Opens, early Nov to mid-March	Sunday 23:00	Monday 00:00	Monday 01:00
Closes, early Nov to mid-March	Friday 23:00	Saturday 00:00	Saturday 01:00
Opens, mid-March to early Nov	Sunday 22:00	Sunday 23:00	Monday 00:00
Closes, mid-March to early Nov	Friday 22:00	Friday 23:00	Saturday 00:00

The first minutes after the open are often thin, with wide spreads, and the price can start the week some distance from Friday’s close. A stop loss doesn’t protect you from that gap: it is filled at the first available price.

When is the best time to trade?

“Best” depends on what you trade and when you’re free, but a few patterns hold:

• The London–New York overlap usually has the most activity and the tightest spreads on major pairs and gold. In Nigeria it falls in the afternoon; in South Africa and Kenya it runs into the early evening, which suits people who trade after work.
• The London open (09:00 WAT, 10:00 SAST or 11:00 EAT in winter) often brings the first big moves of the day in euro and pound pairs.
• The Asian session (roughly midnight to mid-morning in African time) is usually quieter for EUR and GBP pairs and more active for yen and Australian dollar pairs.
• Around 17:00 New York time, the daily rollover, spreads can widen sharply for a short period. That is 23:00 WAT, 00:00 SAST and 01:00 EAT in winter.

News releases in local time

Many major US figures, such as the monthly jobs report, are published at 08:30 New York time (BLS release schedule). That is 14:30 WAT, 15:30 SAST and 16:30 EAT in winter, and one hour earlier from mid-March to early November. Prices can jump several pips in seconds and spreads widen around these releases, so many beginners choose to stay out of the market for the minutes around them.

If you live in Ghana

Ghana uses GMT, one hour behind WAT and with no daylight saving. Take the Nigeria (WAT) column and subtract one hour: the London–New York overlap is 13:00 to 17:00 in Ghana from early November to mid-March, and 12:00 to 16:00 from late March to late October.

Check the times on your own platform

MetaTrader shows prices on the broker’s server time, which is often neither your local time nor London time. To see when a symbol trades, open the symbol’s Specification window and read the trading sessions, then convert from server time to WAT, SAST or EAT once and write it down.

A demo account is a good place to watch the sessions for a week before you trade them with real money: notice when spreads widen, when prices move most, and which hours fit your day. For gold’s schedule, including the daily break, see gold trading hours.