Around the World in a Trading Day

The forex market is open and active 24 hours a day from the
start of business hours on Monday morning in the Asia-Pacific
time zone straight through to the Friday close of business
hours in New York. At any given moment, depending on the
time zone, dozens of global financial centers — such as
Sydney, Tokyo, or London — are open, and currency trading
desks in those financial centers are active in the market.
Currency trading doesn’t even stop for holidays when other
financial markets, like stocks or futures exchanges, may be
closed. Even though it’s a holiday in Japan, for example,
Sydney, Singapore, and Hong Kong may still be open. It might
be the Fourth of July in the United States, but if it’s a business
day, Tokyo, London, Toronto, and other financial centers will
still be trading currencies. About the only holiday in common
around the world is New Year’s Day, and even that depends on
what day of the week it falls on.