Forex traders should be aware of the Western holiday season of Christmas and New Year because it impacts market opening and arguably the market itself.
With 2020 thankfully finally coming to an end, it is time to think about year-end trading. As the Forex market is mostly headquartered in London and New York, Forex traders should be aware of the western holiday season of Christmas and New Year because it impacts market opening and arguably the market itself. The overlap between end of year and the start of a new year is sometimes challenging because December and January can hold some great trading opportunities, but you don’t want to be trading in markets with very low levels of liquidity and volatility.
So, let us pick through the daily trading calendar, showing the usual hours most brokers will be shut down or closed early, plus some advice about when to trade:
| Date | Typical Early Closing Time (UTC / GMT) | Advice |
| Thursday 24th December 2020 – CHRISTMAS EVE | Markets will be open until 6pm, when the NYSE will close and most Forex / CFD brokers will shut down until Monday. | The entire day is a public holiday in Germany and Australia, so trading the EUR or AUD could be especially pointless. Markets generally tend to move little this day so it may be wise to avoid opening any new trades. |
| Friday 25th December 2020 – CHRISTMAS DAY | Almost all major markets and brokers will be closed today on this major holiday, with Japan, China, and Middle Eastern countries as the only notable exceptions. | Trading will not be possible with the vast majority of brokers closed. |
| Monday 28th December 2020 – BOXING DAY | Most major markets and brokers will reopen, but English culture celebrates a holiday the first weekday after Christmas. Typically, there is relatively thin trading in Japan and Frankfurt until New York opens, when liquidity really comes on tap. | The entire day is a public holiday in Germany, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, so trading the EUR, CAD, AUD, or NZD could be especially pointless. This can be a good time to trade, especially when New York opens, and liquidity really gets going. Strong directional price movements are often seen in many markets during the last few days of December. |
| Thursday 31st December 2020 – NEW YEAR’S EVE | Markets will be open until about 9pm, when almost all Forex / CFD brokers will begin to shut down. | This can be a surprisingly good time to trade some markets if there is a year-end rally going on. It is a public holiday all day in Germany, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. |
| Friday 1st January 2021 – NEW YEAR’S EVE | Almost all major markets and brokers will be closed today on this major holiday, with China, and Middle Eastern countries as the only notable exceptions. | Trading will not be possible with the vast majority of brokers closed. |
If you are celebrating, enjoy the holiday and if you are not, do not try to enter new trades when major markets are thin. Then we can all enjoy a happy new year in 2021!This is the daily calendar covering the holiday period. Even if you are not in a country that celebrates Christmas, it is probably a good idea to take advantage of it and forget about trading for the entire week until 2nd January, although if you are trading strongly trending assets such as stocks or major Forex currency pairs, it is true that in a strong bull market against the USD such as we have today, there are often strong rises over the final few days of December.
