As we check in on the end of this week, the currency markets have slowed to a crawl. This gives us an opportunity to reflect on good times and bad times in which to trade.

The currency markets trade 24 hours a day from Sunday evening at 7pm EST until Friday afternoon at 4pm EST. Some may have different hours of availability through their brokers, but essentially, the FX trades when Tokyo opens up its stock exhange on Monday, until New York closes its exchange on Friday.

The very best times to trade are when those periods ovelap. For instance, when Tokyo opens up, Europe is still asleep and New York hasn't even gone to bed on Sunday evening. So if the banks and exchanges of the US and UK aren't open, there won't be a whole lot of activity.

As a young trader, I couldn't wait for Sunday night to jump on the markets. Then I would keep checking my screen to see what was going on. But nothing happened. Of the three major financial certers in the world where fx transactions are carried out, Tokyo is the smallest. That's why my trades rarely went anywhere.

But once that ball gets rolling, the end of Tokyo will overlap the start of Europe and London (the largest FX center in the world)...then London will overlap New York. It is during these overlaps that real volatility starts to pick up.

But at noon time here in the US, London is closed forthe day and Tokyo is already fast asleep. So entering a trade in the afternoon in the US may also result in slow trading conditions. That is exacerbated on Friday afternoon when London is closed for the week, and Tokyo is as well. You should never really enter a trade on a Friday afternoon. And, depending on how much you have committed to the trade, you may want to close it before the weekend arrives. You never know what my happen over the weekend.

So watch your trading times, 8-12 am EST is the very best time to trade if you can. And lay of Friday afternoons in the US.

Happy Trading!