Gold Trading Hours

Gold trading hours

The gold market is open from 10:00 PM on Sunday to 9:00 PM GMT the following Friday. The following table converts gold's trading hours into different times zones:

Trading is available 23 hours a day, with a 60-minute daily break between 9:00 PM and 10:00 PM GMT ⁽¹⁾. During that time, you may still create, edit or cancel pending orders, but none of your trades will be executed then.

Gold trading hours in MetaTrader

In the MetaTrader 4 and 5 trading platforms, you can find gold trading times in your local time by i) right clicking on the XAUUSD instrument, ii) clicking on 'Specifications', and iii) scrolling down for gold's quote and trade times.

• Quote times are the times of day when price quotes are available.

• Trade times are the times of day when your orders can and will be executed.

Brokers compared

You may be surprised to learn that quote times and trade times aren't always the same, as some brokers don't allow you to trade as soon as the market opens. If you're passionate about day trading, even small time differences can give you an edge over others.

Our research shows that fxpro.com allows you to trade as soon as the gold market opens at 10:00 PM on Sunday and all subsequent days. fpmarkets.com allows you to trade gold just 1 minute later than FxPro, from 10:01 PM on all days. AvaTrade is the slowest to allow trading, from 10:05 PM on Sunday evening and 10:01 PM on all other days.

The following table summarises these brokers' gold GMT trading times. As the table is relatively busy, we've highlighted differences in yellow.

Gold trading times matter, but may not be your only consideration when choosing a broker. For example, you can trade gold with flexible leverage up to 1:500 through fpmarkets.com, versus 1:200 for FxPro and AvaTrade. This broker also has the widest selection of gold pairs, including XAUAUD, XAUEUR, XAUGBP, XAUSGD and XAUCNY.

World gold trading sessions

Your trading platform displays a synthetic spot price of gold (XAUUSD) by aggregating liquidity from banks and other LPs (liquidity providers). These reflect real-time quotes across the world's largest financial centres, rather than a single physical exchange.

Here's an overview of the world's three largest gold trading centres:

• The gold market opens in Asia, where Shanghai drives physical and paper trading volumes through the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) and Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), open from 1:00 AM GMT.

• London is the oldest running gold centre, and remains a hub for over-the-counter trading in physical gold through the London Bullion Market Association.

• As for New York, it's home to the COMEX and its highly liquid futures market. Trading in futures contracts affects the spot price of gold through storage and financing costs.

Gold Asian trading hours

The gold market opens in Tokyo, between 12:00 AM and 6:00 AM (or 9:00 AM to 15:00 PM local time). This session is typically characterised by lighter volume compared to London or New York, but sets the initial direction for prices each day.

The Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) is China's main physical gold exchange. Its day trading session runs between 1:00 AM and 7:30 AM GMT (or 9:00 AM and 3:30 PM local time). It closes for a midday break, and re-opens later for a night trading session that follows international markets ⁽²⁾.

The Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) offers Yuan-denominated futures and options contracts on a wide range of commodities, including gold. It accepts both Chinese domestic gold and standard bullions on the LBMA good delivery list. Its trading session runs between 1:00 AM and 7:00 AM GMT (or 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM local time).

Hong Kong's gold market, which includes the Hong Kong Gold Exchange (HKGX) and gold trading on HKEX, operates between 1:00 AM and 9:00 AM GMT ⁽³⁾. Hong Kong extends Asia's trading hours later into the GMT morning, and overlaps with the European gold trading session.

Gold European trading hours

London is the world's largest physical gold trading hub. The London Bullion Market Association's over-the-counter market is active between 7:00 AM and 4:00 PM GMT. Notably, the LBMA sets gold's reference price globally twice a day through its AM and PM fixes at 10:30 AM and 3:00 PM London-time respectively.

Zurich is another major center for gold, given Switzerland's large gold refining and trading industry. Zurich's gold trading aligns closely with London hours, generally 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central European Time, or 7:00 AM and 4:00 PM GMT. Zurich and London trade concurrently and provide deep liquidity in the European time-zone.

Gold American trading hours

The New York session is driven by COMEX, short for the Commodity Exchange, Inc., a division of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. COMEX is one of the world's leading futures and options exchanges, and the largest paper gold market in the United States.

Gold trading hours on the COMEX occur between 1:20 PM and 6:30 PM GMT (or 8:20 AM and 1:30 PM Eastern time) in an open outcry format. Electronic trading occurs through the CME Globex platform on a 23-hour basis, from 10:00 PM on Sunday to 9:00 PM GMT the following Friday.

CME Globex launched its paper gold trading products prior to the emergence of regional trading hubs in Asia. However, gold prices across international exchanges are closely correlated, with traders arbitraging differences away.

When is the best time to trade gold?

Traders seeking the deepest liquidity and tightest bid-ask spreads usually trade when sessions overlap.

• Asia - Europe overlap: occurs between 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM GMT when late Asian markets (e.g. Shanghai and Hong Kong) overlap with the start of London's session. In this brief window, both Asian and European traders are active. Liquidity is moderate, but this hour can see a handover of price momentum from Asia to Europe.

• Europe - North America overlap: occurs between 1:30 PM and 4:00 PM GMT when London and Zurich are in full swing, and New York's COMEX opens around 13:30 GMT. This is typically the most liquid period of the day, as two major centers are exchanging large volumes.

While North America and Asia don't have overlapping trading hours in the traditional sense, they do have near continuous handoff through after-hours electronic trading on the Globex platform. In other words, the gold market operates almost uninterruptedly, except for a daily 60-minute operational break on the Globex platform.

Conclusion

In summary, gold trading hours run through Asia, Europe, and the Americas in sequence, with major exchanges in each region ensuring continuous trading. Price fixes in London set benchmark prices worldwide, but pricing is increasingly set in Shanghai. The overlap periods, in particular between Europe and the US are especially important, as these are times of heightened liquidity and price action.