Forex Market Hours and Daylight Saving 2026: Session Times From Oct 25 to Nov 1

Daylight saving time ends in the UK and EU at 01:00 UTC on Sunday, October 25, 2026, and in the US at 2:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, November 1. For the week between, London is four hours ahead of New York, not five, so the London/New York forex session overlap stretches to five hours, 12:00–17:00 UTC.

Those session times come from AlphaScala's forex market hours clock, which sets London and New York at 08:00–17:00 local time and Sydney and Tokyo at 09:00–18:00. Spot forex has no central exchange and no official session hours, so other sources draw the sessions differently. Any definition that runs the overlap from the New York open to the London close, both set in local time, gains the same extra hour in the gap week.

AlphaScala computed every time in the tables below from the IANA time zone database (release 2026d) with Python's zoneinfo library, for each of the three periods around the two changes. The same instants were then run through the code behind AlphaScala's clock, and its open and closed readings matched the computed tables in every period.

Sydney and Tokyo do not move at all between October 25 and November 1.

When daylight saving time ends in October and November 2026

The EU and the UK change first, at the same instant. Directive 2000/84/EC ends summer time "at 1.00 a.m., Greenwich Mean Time, on the last Sunday in October" in every EU member state, and the European Commission's timetable in the Official Journal (2021/C 149/01) fixes that Sunday as October 25 for 2026. The UK changes on the same Sunday: GOV.UK lists 25 October 2026 and says the clocks go "back 1 hour at 2am on the last Sunday in October".

US clocks change a week later. Under 15 U.S.C. 260a, daylight saving time ends "at 2 o'clock antemeridian on the first Sunday of November", and NIST gives the 2026 period as March 8 to November 1 at 2 a.m. local time. Each US time zone changes at its own 2 a.m., so New York moves at 06:00 UTC and Chicago, where CME Group sets its Globex hours, at 07:00 UTC.

Source: AlphaScala calculation from the IANA tz database 2026d. The dates match the EU's Official Journal timetable, GOV.UK, NIST and the NSW Government, all read on 22 October 2026.

The one-week gap dates from 2007. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 replaced "last Sunday of October" with "first Sunday of November" in the US statute, and NIST said the new rules took effect in 2007. Because the first Sunday of November always falls seven days after the last Sunday of October, the autumn gap always lasts one week.

Sydney's change is already behind it. New South Wales moved its clocks forward on Sunday, October 4, 2026 and moves them back on Sunday, April 4, 2027, according to the NSW Government, so Sydney stays on UTC+11 through both northern changes. Japan has not changed its clocks since 1951, according to the IANA database. Lagos, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Dubai, Karachi, India and Singapore have no clock change in 2026 in the same database, so traders there see only the London and New York sessions move.

Forex session times and overlaps in UTC, week by week

London's session moves one hour later in UTC on October 25, and New York's follows on November 1. Between those dates the two sessions sit an hour closer together than in the weeks either side.

Sydney's session starts on the previous UTC evening: 22:00 UTC on Sunday is 09:00 on Monday in Sydney.

Source: AlphaScala calculation from the IANA tz database 2026d, using the session hours in AlphaScala's market hours clock. Sample days: Wednesday, October 21, October 28 and November 4, 2026.

Why the London/New York overlap gains an hour

The overlap runs from the New York open to the London close. On October 25 the London close moves from 16:00 to 17:00 UTC, while the New York open stays at 12:00 UTC until November 1. For five trading days, Monday, October 26 to Friday, October 30, the window is 12:00–17:00 UTC. From Monday, November 2 the New York open moves to 13:00 UTC and the overlap is back to four hours.

The two sessions belong to the two largest FX trading centres. In the BIS Triennial Survey published on 30 September 2025, sales desks in the United Kingdom accounted for about 38% of FX trading in April 2025 and those in the United States for about 19%.

What changes for Sydney and Tokyo traders

Nothing moves in UTC for the Asia-Pacific sessions. What changes is their distance from London and New York. Tokyo is eight hours ahead of London until October 25 and nine hours ahead afterwards, so the Tokyo session closes at 09:00 London time instead of 10:00, and the Tokyo/London overlap shrinks from two hours to one. From November 1 Tokyo is 14 hours ahead of New York instead of 13, and the Sydney session opens at 17:00 New York time instead of 18:00.

The London/New York overlap in local time

Where clocks change with Europe or the US, the overlap's local hours differ only in the gap week. Where clocks stay put between October 25 and November 1, Sydney included, the overlap ends an hour later from October 25 and starts an hour later from November 1.

Times after midnight fall on the next calendar day. AlphaScala's market hours clock shows which sessions are open at any moment and which of them overlap, and it sits with the pip value, position size, margin and pivot point forex calculators, none of which needs an account.

NYSE and CME futures hours in the gap week

US exchanges set their hours in New York or Chicago time, so those hours shift in UTC with the local clock. New York and Chicago times move on November 1, not October 25, which puts US markets an hour earlier for European traders during the gap week.

Sources: NYSE, CME Group, CFTC and FTMO pages read on 22 October 2026. UTC and London conversions by AlphaScala from the IANA tz database 2026d.

The NYSE core trading session runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. From Monday, October 26 to Friday, October 30, its opening auction lands at 13:30 in London, an hour earlier than the week before.

CME Globex hours follow Chicago. E-mini S&P 500 futures trade from 5 p.m. Central time on Sunday to 4 p.m. on Friday, with a daily close from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., according to Charles Schwab's futures guide. CME Group's own trading hours page gives FX Spot+ on Globex the same Sunday 5:00 p.m. to Friday 4:00 p.m. Central time schedule, "with a 60-minute break each day beginning at 4:00 p.m. CT". Chicago is already on standard time when Globex opens on Sunday, November 1, so that week starts at 23:00 UTC.

EBS, CME Group's spot FX and precious metals platform, opens on Sunday at 17:00 GMT, per the same CME page. From Monday to Thursday it rolls the trade date at 17:00 New York time, and on Friday it closes at that hour. Its Sunday open is fixed to GMT, so it stays at 17:00 UTC through both changes, while the daily roll moves to 21:00 in London for the gap week.

The CFTC releases its Commitments of Traders reports at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time, usually on Fridays, with data from the previous Tuesday, and its 2026 schedule lists October 30 and November 6. The October 30 report lands at 19:30 in London instead of 20:30. AlphaScala's COT report page tracks speculator positioning in 21 futures markets from these weekly releases.

FTMO recalculates its maximum daily loss limit at 00:00 CE(S)T, Central European time, according to its Trading Objectives page. From the reset that opens Monday, October 26, it falls at 23:00 UTC instead of 22:00, which is 19:00 in New York during the gap week and 18:00 from November 1. How much room that limit leaves per trade is modelled in AlphaScala's FTMO risk-per-trade simulation.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange does not move. Its sessions, 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tokyo time according to the Japan Exchange Group, stay at 00:00–02:30 and 03:30–06:30 UTC in all three periods.

A clock-change check for the week of October 26

• Check which clock your charts and automated orders use. Anything written in fixed UTC or platform-server hours keeps firing at those hours while the London and New York sessions move around it.
• Move anything tied to US hours, from the NYSE open to the CFTC release, one hour earlier in your European calendar for the gap week only.
• Expect FTMO's daily reset to move once in UTC, on October 25, and to stay at 23:00 UTC after November 1.
• Run the pre-trade steps in AlphaScala's trading checklist on Monday, October 26 and again on Monday, November 2, after the second change.

Leveraged trading in forex, CFDs and futures puts your capital at risk, and losses can exceed deposits.

FAQ

When do the clocks go back in 2026?

UK and EU clocks go back one hour at 01:00 UTC on Sunday, October 25, 2026: 02:00 BST becomes 01:00 GMT in London, and 03:00 CEST becomes 02:00 CET in Frankfurt and Paris. US clocks go back at 2:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, November 1, which is 06:00 UTC in New York. Sydney moved forward on October 4, and Japan does not change its clocks.

How long is the London/New York overlap during the gap week?

Five hours, 12:00–17:00 UTC, from Monday, October 26 to Friday, October 30, 2026, using sessions of 08:00–17:00 local time in both cities. That is 12:00–17:00 in London and 08:00–13:00 in New York. Before October 25 the overlap is 12:00–16:00 UTC, and from November 2 it is 13:00–17:00 UTC, four hours in both cases.

What time does the forex market open on Sunday after the clocks change?

Each venue sets its own Sunday open. EBS, CME Group's spot FX platform, opens at 17:00 GMT on Sundays through both changes. CME Globex FX Spot+ and E-mini S&P 500 futures open at 5 p.m. Chicago time, which is 22:00 UTC on October 25 and 23:00 UTC on November 1. On AlphaScala's clock, the Sydney session opens at 22:00 UTC each Sunday, which is 22:00 in London from October 25.

Do Tokyo and Sydney session times change in October 2026?

Not in UTC. Japan has no daylight saving time, and Sydney moved its clocks forward on October 4, 2026, so both sessions keep the same UTC hours through October 25 and November 1. They do move against Europe and the US: the Tokyo session closes at 09:00 London time from October 25 instead of 10:00, and the Sydney session opens at 17:00 New York time from November 1 instead of 18:00.

What time does the NYSE open in London during the gap week?

At 13:30 London time from Monday, October 26 to Friday, October 30, 2026, an hour earlier than usual. The NYSE core session runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern time all year, and London moves to GMT a week before New York leaves daylight saving time. From Monday, November 2 the open is back at 14:30 London time.

When are US and European clocks out of sync again?

In spring 2027, for two weeks. US clocks go forward on Sunday, March 14, 2027, the second Sunday of March. UK clocks go forward on Sunday, March 28, 2027, according to GOV.UK, and EU rules use the same last Sunday of March. From March 14 to March 28, London is again four hours ahead of New York.