Sessions, the overlap and the killzones

The three sessions

Each session is computed in its own city's time, with its own continent's daylight saving:

Your broker plays no part in this. It can sit in GMT+2, GMT+3 or anywhere it likes: that does not change when London opens. The broker's clock is used for one thing only — knowing where each band falls over your candles.

The overlap

London and New York are open at the same time for a few hours. That stretch is marked separately because it is where the market moves most, and seeing it apart avoids the mistake of treating "the New York session" as uniformly busy.

The dead zone

From 12:00 New York until the rollover starts. London has closed and New York has its afternoon left. It is the slowest stretch of the day, which is why it carries the palette's dullest colour.

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 is a stretch within it.

The rollover

16:55 to 18:05 New York. This is when brokers roll the day over: spreads widen, liquidity disappears, and positions left open pay or collect the swap.

It carries the palette's alert 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 whatever 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 bug: it is what makes them useful. The move that sets up the open happens before the open, and a killzone that began with the bell would arrive late to the thing it exists to show.

Almost nobody draws them this way. If you come from another tool and the edges look wrong, this is why.