Why New York Close Charts Matter to Forex Traders

by Justin Bennett  · 

October 9, 2015

by Justin Bennett  · 

October 9, 2015

by Justin Bennett  · 

October 9, 2015


New York at dusk

There are hundreds of different ways to trade the Forex market. You can trade the daily charts, the 1 minute charts or anything in between. You can use fancy indicators or trade simple price action using key levels of support and resistance.

The list goes on and on, however there is one variable that can benefit you regardless of how you choose to trade the market…

Using New York close charts.

It can mean the difference between seeing a favorable price action setup versus a price structure that has no real significance. It will also make your life much easier when it comes to drawing key support and resistance levels.

By the end of this article you will have a solid understanding of what a “New York close chart” is and why it is so important. I will also share with you a few of the Forex brokers that offer this type of chart.

Let’s get started!

What Is a New York Close Chart?

Believe it or not, most Forex brokers do not offer suitable charts to trade from. If you are serious about making it as a Forex trader, understanding what I’m about to share with you is crucial.

There are two main types of charts, or feeds that are available in the Forex market. The first is a GMT close. This is the most common type of chart and is available at just about every major Forex broker in existence.

The second, less common type of chart is the New York close. As you can tell by the name, these charts use the New York close (5pm EST). Although this is the preferred chart for professional traders, the fact is that not every Forex broker offers it.

This makes it an important question that needs to be asked while performing your research on which broker to go with.

Does It Really Matter?

First things first, if you are trading from the more common GMT close, it does not mean that you can’t succeed as a Forex trader. I am in no way insinuating that you cannot become a successful Forex trader if you trade from charts that close at midnight.

What I am saying is that a New York close will give you a clean chart to trade from, making it easier to identify key levels and valid price action setups.

How do I know?

I know because I spent the first few years trading Forex from charts that use a GMT close. As soon as I switched over to a New York close, I found it much easier to identify the technical patterns that were unfolding.

If you stop and think about it, using a chart that closes at the same time of day that the market opens makes perfect sense

As you know, the Forex market opens the week at 5pm EST and closes the week at 5pm EST. Therefore it makes sense to have a chart where each session closes at the same time. This gives you five, 24 hour periods to work with.

The alternative (GMT close charts) will give you what are commonly referred to as “Sunday bars”. These are the candles that form during the short period of time each Sunday, and because the market is not very active during this time, you get extremely small candles that clutter your chart.

The comparison below illustrates this point.

Comparison between GMT close and New York close charts

Notice how the GMT close chart on the left has Sunday bars, which are the sessions that occur between the 5pm EST open and the GMT close.

In contrast, the New York close chart on the right has five equal trading sessions each week, making it much easier to read the raw price action.

Ask any professional Forex trader and they will tell you that having five equal sessions each week is an essential part of being able to “read” the price action that unfolds.

Of course the final decision is yours, but having traded from GMT close charts for years before making the switch, I can tell you that there is no way I would ever go back.

Final Words

If you want to become a consistently profitable Forex trader, it’s imperative that you establish a strong foundation. The very first step in building that foundation is to use clean, simple charts. Having five equal sessions to trade from will give you just that.

The easiest way to tell what type of chart you have is to simply watch where each session closes. If it closes at a time other than 5pm EST, you are not using New York close charts and may need to give your broker a call.

Need a broker that offers New York close charts?

Start trading with Daily Price Action’s preferred Forex broker.


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51  Comments

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  1. Yes I use FXPro cTrader ECN and the daily candlestick closes at 10pm London time which is the New York close I believe.

  2. OANDA has it for the live account but not demo. I think that is not practical because you try to simulate your demo to be as close to live trading as possible but that is just me.

    1. Don’t know when this article/comment was written (can’t find a date stamp unless I am not seeing it) but FYI Oanda does offer NY close charts on both demo/live platforms.
      (6/20//2019)

  3. If my broker says that the candle closes at GMT+2, it means that it is not NY close candle? 5pm EST should be GMT-4? I am not sure, Justin can you please enlighten me? Thank you!

      1. Hy Justin,iam using xm broker..they dont know whether it is new york close or not..how to find out whether our broker is newyork close or not using our my4 chart..how to check it..pls reply

    1. The most important thing is that you get five 24 hours daily bars per week in your chart. When time is GMT/UTC +2 then time in New York is GMT/UTC -5, / hours difference. Trading starts 5 PM on Sunday in New York and close 5 PM on Friday local EST time. GMT/UTC+2 means that trading start Monday 00.00 and close Friday 24:00 and provides five daily bars per week.

  4. Hello i have FXCM and use Ninjatrader, im having the hardest time figuring out the proper configuration for the Session manager to display the new york close charts… can you help?

  5. Hi Justin:

    I used GKFX and when started the close time was GMT time. Later on I ask to my assigned broker for a change and what he did was that thru Team Viewer enter to my MT4 and programed something and then I started to have NY close time.

    At first he don’t know about but later he consult and come back with that procedure.

      1. I send a screenshot – why do I have to have the ny close chart when I am only trade the signals I get [circled] I only take the trade if I have green line and not in a channel and only from upper Boll band down or the reverse ,also the candle color & size ,never Middle band,[you see I whited it out] . How do you think I may Improve anything.
        Thank you for your valuable advice & reply

    1. You are correct, FXCM is only still allowed to broker in Europe. They are banned from being a broker in the United States. No you can not request NY close charts. They either come defaulted with the trading platform offered by your broker or they don’t. If your broker does not offer that service, you could add an indicator to manipulate your charts into displaying on five trading days but …. that’s asking for trouble (eventually).

  6. I use FXopen in UK and their trading week starts Monday 00:00 and close Friday 24.00 UTC +2 so you get five daily bars per week, but the time on the chart is UTC +2. Works well for me, the six bar chart with one 2 hours bar on Sunday is disturbing.

  7. Hi Justin, can you please check if IC Markets has new york close time. I asked them and they said we close at new york time. GMT+3

  8. I just started with OANDA and they suggest GMT +2 live server to be in sync with EST closing time which i notice that but only difference is it shows GMT +2 time in x-axis instead of my EST timezone. Any suggestions how to change time labels to EST? Thanks in advance.

  9. Please clarify your reference to EST.
    I am in Perth Australia n EST is referred to as per eastern Australia.So I imagine the USA also uses THEIR own EST.
    Please let me know the NY close times for my location.
    rgds
    Mark

  10. Hi Justin
    I’m using Xm-global as my preferred broker, but I’m not sure whether they have the New York close chart

  11. Thank you I used Hot forex brokers and FXTM broker I believe they’re using New York close chart because they also at 10pm Nigeria time which is my local time.

  12. Justin, I value your forecasts and would be glad to use the broker you recommend, but they aren’t regulated in the US. Can you recommend a broker regulated by us who used the new york close, 5 day chart. Thanks

  13. Justin, I just signed up for Blueberry demo account in order to have the NY closing charts but I can’t find them. Where do I look/

  14. Blueberry Markets will not let US citizens open an account. They say it has something to do with terrorism and money laundering laws.

    Which US brokers have NY close charts? I use forex.com, but they have 6 candles per week.

  15. Hi Justine, thanks for enlightening us about the NY Close forex brokers. I have registered with Blueberry markets under your link. Was already practising on their Demo. They have great customer service. Have an issue with their client portal which I hope it will e resolved soonest as promised by account manager.

    I want to register for another forex broker. So I have two different accounts to diversity my funds. Which other reliable NY close broker can you recommend?

    Kind thanks,
    Pheliswa Nomdatya

  16. If this is the case, that means the 4 hours candles would be different too. Does that mean that the most watched/common/traded 4 hour candles are those starting from 5pm EST, as the also look different from the 4 hour candles that start from the end of the London session?

  17. Please tell me a broker who has 6 day candles per week, who has a weekend candle, preferably mt4. Thank you in advance!!!

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