Sessions, the overlap and the killzones

The three sessions

Each session is worked out in its own city's time, with its own continent's summer time:

Your broker plays no part in this. It can sit on GMT+2, GMT+3 or anywhere else: that does not change when London opens. The only thing broker time is used for is working out where each band falls over your candles.

The overlap

London and New York are both open for a few hours. It is when the market moves most, and Tempo shows it in the plainest way it has: both bands are semi-transparent and, where they meet, their colours add up. On the strip and in the shading over the candles, the overlap comes out in a third colour you do not need to learn separately.

The dead zone

From 12:00 New York until the rollover starts. London has closed and New York has the afternoon left. It is the weakest stretch of the day, which is why it carries the most muted colour in the palette.

One thing that trips people up: the dead zone sits inside the New York session, which does not close until 17:00. They are not competing bands — one is the session, the other a stretch within it.

The weekend

The currency market closes on Friday at 17:00 New York and opens on Sunday at 17:00. Like the session hours, this is a convention: the most widespread one, and the one that fits the rest of the product — it is the same time the New York session closes.

During that gap Tempo highlights no session and shows no range. The bar still draws the shape of the day, which is true, but the text row says the only thing that matters then:

market closed · opens in 1d 14:22

The countdown runs to the second, just like the session-close one, and it is also right on the two weekends of the US clock change: on the Sunday when New York moves its clock, the open is counted with the time New York will have that Sunday, not the one it had on Saturday.

Your broker may keep different hours — some open on Sunday at 18:00 — and that does not change what Tempo draws: market time rules here, not broker time. If your broker is already quoting and Tempo still says "closed", that is the difference, not a fault.

The rollover

From 16:55 to 18:05 New York. It is when brokers roll the day over: spreads widen, liquidity disappears, and positions still open pay or receive swap.

It is in the palette's warning colour, and not for decoration: it is the only stretch of the day where the market behaves differently for reasons that have nothing to do with what you are looking at on the chart.

The killzones

Two windows of peak institutional activity, in New York time:

Both start an hour before their session opens, and that is not a mistake: it is what makes them useful. The move that sets up the open happens before the open, and a killzone that started with the bell would arrive late to what it is meant to show.

If you are coming from another tool and the edges surprise you, this is why.

A custom session

If you trade something that does not follow these three — the New York stock exchange, which opens at 09:30; the DAX; a window of your own —, you can add one session to the minute, in the time of whichever city you choose. Switch it on with InpPropia and set it up in Settings.