Characteristics of the 3 Major Sessions: Asia, Europe and USA

Asian Session

During the Asia market only 8 percentage% of total daily transactions go through Tokyo desks. This is the least active of the three major market sessions. Most of this 8% only involves yen based bitcoin trading with very little transactions happening for other instruments. This is the reason why it's not suitable to trade during this period. Not trading this trading period will save you lots of time and money.

European Session

The London/European market takes the lion's share of the total transactions, 34 % of all transactions are carried out during this session. London time zone is also well placed in terms of business trading hours for both eastern and western economies, this is when there are market overlaps & this results in high number of transactions during the this period. This time is most liquid and most volatile market session for all the crypto instruments.

Europe timezone also includes the EUR zone member countries. EUR zone has 17 members and major banks of these countries are open and there is a lot of liquidity as many transactions are being executed.

US Market Session

The US market takes up 20% of all transactions. Most active time for trading is approximately from 8 am to 12 pm when both London & New York dealing desks are open. This is when there is generally the highest volatility as it's also when majority of the major US economic announcements are released.

European USA Market Session Overlap

There are periods which have a greater volume of trade transactions, thereby increasing the opportunities to make profit.

For day traders the most productive hours are the London and the US market session overlaps and this is the peak for trades is when these two over-lap when there is a big volume of transactions and the btcusd market is most active.

During this over lap a substantial amount of economic news data is released generating a lot of price volatility and the bitcoin prices move fast and there is a lot of trading opportunities to open trades, this over lap offers the best trading opportunity for those wanting to maximize profit.

The best hours for trading, are during this over lap because the bitcoin prices really move and the moves are decisive and offer the best chance to make profits

This also is why Asian traders, Japan will wait until afternoon to begin executing their orders, this is the period that will coincide with the European and US sessions.

Asian investors will not open bitcoin transactions during the Asian time, henceforth as an investor from anywhere in the world it's best stay away also, after all even the hedge funds & other pro investors from Asia will avoid this time & wait for until afternoon when it is a lot easier because of the liquidity during the US & UK overlaps.

Therefore to come up with the best hours using based on these 3 sessions as illustrated below:

Bitcoin Trading Market Sessions and Market Sessions Overlaps - What are the Trading Market Sessions Explained?

Market Hours & Overlaps

The chart above shows the timetable of when each session starts and when it ends. Chart also shows when there are overlaps & also shows the best hours based on these over-laps.

Summary:

Determine Your Schedule

The type of trader you're determines your schedule. If you do not have a lot of time then a longer-term strategy would suit you best. If on the other hand you have a lot of time then you might decide to set a intraday trading schedule where you open bitcoin transactions during the most active market hours. The above chart shows the best GMT times to be in the btcusd market - from around 800 GMT and 1800 GMT.

Determine your timeframe

To set up a schedule you need to determine your chart time=frame. Try using different chart time frames until you find the most suitable & comfortable to use in accordance with your schedule.

Test your bitcoin strategy

Test your bitcoin strategy on a practice practice account for a period of time. Keep track of every transaction & monitor the progress of your schedule. Try to analyze what times are most profitable for your bitcoin strategy.

Your strategy should be specified on the plan which you use.

To learn and know more about how to specify this in your plan, read the lesson about Bitcoin plan. This learn bitcoin tutorial will show you an example of a format that you can use to specify your schedule.

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