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Global Currencies FAQ

Currency markets trade from Sundays 5:00 PM EST (market opening in Tokyo) to Fridays 5:00 PM EST (market close in New York).

Each country also has its own trading hours. The highest activity occurs when multiple markets are open.

Sydney begins at 5:00 pm EDT,EST, and New York closes at 5:00 pm EST--setting the pace for the start and close of trading. Those hours can be affected by Daylight Savings Time in each country.

    *
  • Sydney: 5:00 pm to 2:00 am EST
    • *
  • Tokyo:  7:00 pm to 4:00 am EST *  
  • London:  3:00 am to 12:00 noon EST *  
  • New York: 8:00am to 5:00 pm EST

No. The "inverse" of a currency pair is not always equal to the exchange rate of the opposite pair. 

Example: Suppose USDEUR has a value of 1.3050. The inverse of this rate is 1 / 1.3050 = 0.7763. You may expect that the exchange rate of EURUSD should equal 0.7763 at the same time.

While the two numbers should be very close, there is no guarantee they will match exactly. While Forex markets are massive and very liquid, they are also very distributed and decentralized. Not all trades occur exactly at the same time, in the same places and with the same price discovery:

For instance:

1. The timing of the last trade in USDEUR versus the last trade for EURUSD would have to match perfectly, and this is unlikely. Even in a very liquid market, there could be small price difference even for trades occurring sub-seconds apart.

2. The contributor for an exchange rates can change for any currency pair. If the quote for USDEUR comes from one contributor and EURUSD comes from another, again it is unlikely to match as those contributors could use different feeds and price discovery mechanisms. The size of the trades on each side of the pair can also vary and affect the rates.

If you still have any questions about this topic, please send an e-mail to [support@xignite.com](mailto:support@xignite.com).