Forex trading session times in the UAE (Dubai time)

Dubai is on UTC+4 all year, but the forex sessions are not. When London, New York, Tokyo and Sydney open and overlap in UAE time, summer and winter.

Forex session times in the UAE at a glance

The UAE uses Gulf Standard Time, which is UTC+4 all year, and the country does not currently move its clocks for daylight saving. That makes Dubai time a simple fixed offset, but it also means the forex sessions slide by an hour against your clock twice a year, because London and New York do change theirs. The tables use the working-day convention for a session (08:00 to 17:00 local time in Sydney, London and New York, 09:00 to 18:00 in Tokyo), so they follow each centre’s own daylight saving. For any date in between, use the session times converter.

Northern summer (UK on BST, US on EDT, Sydney on winter time)

Northern winter (UK on GMT, US on EST, Sydney on summer time)

The trading week in Dubai time

The usual market pattern is that the week opens on Sunday at 17:00 New York time and closes on Friday at 17:00 New York time. In Dubai that is Monday 01:00 and Saturday 01:00 in northern summer, and Monday 02:00 and Saturday 02:00 in northern winter. Two things follow. The market reopens in the small hours of Monday, so by the time the UAE working day begins, a weekend gap has already been traded for several hours. And the Friday close falls after midnight, so a trade you close “on Friday night” can carry a Saturday date on your own clock while carrying a Friday date on your broker’s.

Which part of the Dubai day each session falls in

Tokyo’s session runs from 04:00 to 13:00 in Dubai, which is the early morning into early afternoon. London runs from 11:00 to 20:00 in summer and 12:00 to 21:00 in winter, so it starts around lunchtime and ends in the evening. New York runs from 16:00 to 01:00 (next day) in summer and 17:00 to 02:00 (next day) in winter, so it begins in the late afternoon and finishes after midnight.

The window most traders watch, the London and New York overlap, falls at 16:00 to 20:00 in summer and 17:00 to 21:00 in winter. For someone who works a daytime job in the UAE, that is the early evening after work: busy markets without sacrificing sleep. The cost is that the evening is also when family and social time compete, so the overlap is easier to trade on paper than every day.

An example week, worked out (hypothetical)

Say you journal your trades for a month and want to know whether your results depend on the session. Your broker’s server clock is UTC+3 in summer (an example, not a rule: measure yours). A trade your History tab shows closing at 18:30 server time happened at 15:30 UTC, which is 19:30 in Dubai, inside the London and New York overlap. A trade closing at 03:10 server time happened at 00:10 UTC, which is 04:10 in Dubai, inside the Tokyo session. Put each trade in a bucket like that and the sessions become columns you can total.

This is what the best-time guide does with the hour and weekday charts in AI Trading Journal’s Excel report, which are built on the broker’s clock, the same as the History tab. See MT5 server time for how to find your broker’s offset.

Gold traders in the UAE

Gold follows the same New York-anchored week. Its daily break sits at about 01:00 in Dubai in northern summer and 02:00 in northern winter. If you trade XAUUSD in the evening, the break is the part of the night to plan around. The full explanation is in gold trading hours.

Common mistakes when converting to Dubai time

• Using last season’s table. The UAE clock does not move, but London and New York do, so the session times shift by an hour in March and October or November.
• Forgetting the date change. New York’s session ends after midnight in Dubai, so its close belongs to the next calendar day on your clock.
• Mixing clocks in one journal. If the broker stamps trades in server time and you note sessions in Dubai time, convert once and write down which clock each column uses.
• Trusting a single website. Sources disagree by an hour on what a session is. Pick one definition and keep it.

A short checklist

1. Write down your broker’s server offset from UTC and the date you measured it.
2. Mark the overlap on your own clock for the current season.
3. Note the weekly open time in Dubai time so the Monday gap is not a surprise.
4. Tag each trade with a session when you journal it.
5. Revisit the table after the clock changes in London and New York.

Honest limits

• Sessions are a convention. The market does not start or stop at these times, and a busy hour can come at any moment around news.
• Your broker’s trading hours for a symbol may differ slightly from the market pattern. Check the symbol’s specification in MetaTrader 5.
• UAE clocks are fixed today, but if that ever changes the offsets on this page would change too.
• This page is general information, not trading advice, and does not suggest that any hour is a good time to trade.

Related: session times in Pakistan, in India, in South Africa and the gold trading sessions journal.

Frequently asked questions

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