What Time Does the Forex Market Close on Friday?

“Don’t just watch the clock—trade with it.”

Picture this: It’s late Friday afternoon, you’ve been riding the charts since Monday, maybe caught a few green pips, maybe fought through some red dips… and you glance at your terminal wondering—how much time is actually left? You know markets never sleep during the week, but they do hand over the keys at some point before the weekend. Miss that cut-off and you’re stuck holding until Monday, for better or worse.

The answer is more than just a number; it’s a piece of market rhythm you have to feel if you want to trade like a pro.

The Friday Cut-Off

In the Forex world, the market is a 24-hour wave that rolls across Sydney, Tokyo, London, and New York. From Monday morning in Sydney to Friday evening in New York, trading never pauses—one session hands off to the next like runners in a marathon. But when New York wraps, the party’s over.

For most brokers, that means Forex trading closes at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Friday. If you’re in London, that’s 10:00 p.m. GMT; if you’re in Singapore, it’s Saturday 6:00 a.m. local time. The subtle twist? Liquidity starts thinning before that, especially after London shuts down. By the last hour, spreads widen, execution can slow, and sudden price spikes can hit you from nowhere simply because fewer players are on the field.

Why the Friday Close Matters

It’s not just a time stamp—it’s a border between two worlds: live, reacting price action vs. the weekend gap.

Weekend gaps happen because while retail platforms are closed, geopolitical events, macroeconomic policy statements, or corporate developments don’t wait for you to come back online. You’ll log in Monday to find your charts have jumped, sometimes in your favor, sometimes against you, and there’s nothing you could do in between.

This matters even more for prop traders—those funded by proprietary trading firms—where strict risk rules often require flat positions before the weekend to protect capital. In the prop trading arena, discipline beats bravado; you’re trading someone else’s money, and staying open past close without a strategy isn’t just risky, it’s career suicide.

The Broader Asset Game

While Forex closes Friday evening in New York, other markets play by different rules.

• Stocks: Regular hours dictated by exchanges; U.S. closes at 4:00 p.m. ET, but after-hours sessions exist.
• Crypto: Never sleeps—Bitcoin doesn’t care what day it is. Great for those who still itch to trade Saturday.
• Indices and Commodities: Often follow futures market schedules; some pause for the weekend, some have short breaks.
• Options: Exchange-driven; no weekend activity.

A well-rounded trader knows how to pivot between these. If you love the fast flow of FX but want weekend exposure, crypto fills that gap. If you want structured hours, equities and options keep you tighter in schedule. Prop trading firms especially value traders who can adapt cross-asset because risk management changes with each products liquidity profile.

Strategy Around the Friday Close

Veteran traders often taper risk before Friday afternoon. If Monday’s calendar hints at heavy news—interest rate decisions, jobs reports—they tighten stop-losses, or exit entirely to avoid weekend surprises. Scalping in the final hour? Possible, but expect choppier, thinner market behavior.

One practical tip:

• Wrap your trading day two hours before the close if you’re not chasing a specific catalyst. That window protects you from last-minute spread widening and low-volume noise.
• If holding a position over the weekend, size it so a worst-case gap won’t violate your risk plan.

Personally, I’ve seen a EUR/USD short turn into Monday morning pain because a Sunday surprise from the European Central Bank forced a gap up. My stop was safe, but the mental hit taught me—Friday close is a line you respect, not just a clock you check.

Prop Trading & The Future of Market Hours

Prop trading isn’t slowing down; in fact, more firms now combine Forex desks with crypto divisions, keeping traders active through weekends. Decentralized finance (DeFi) adds another layer—smart contracts executing trades without a middleman, accessible 24/7, often paired with AI-driven models that scan real-time sentiment, global indexes, and blockchain mempools.

Challenges? Regulation lags behind innovation, and liquidity fragmentation can make “24/7” feel more like “sometimes liquid, sometimes desert.” But the trend is clear: the line between traditional close times and non-stop markets is blurring. Imagine a future where AI prop traders cross seamlessly between currencies, commodities, and tokenized stock indexes—never worrying about the clock, only about opportunity.

Closing Thought

Knowing what time the Forex market closes on Friday isn’t just trivia—it’s timing your moves so you’re not caught off guard. In prop trading, timing is capital. In DeFi, timing is code. And in every corner of finance, timing is momentum.

“Trade smart, not late—Friday 5 p.m. ET is your checkpoint.” If you know the beat, you can dance before the music stops.

If you want, I can also give you a shorter, punchy version of this article that’s perfect for social media and prop trading ads. Want me to?