Market movement between Asian and London open

The London open according to the World Market Hours site is 3 am EST. I noticed that during 1 am to 3 am EST that the currency market usually moves significantly even if no news announcements. The Toyko and Hong Kong markets are the only ones open just before London, which close at 1 am and 3 am EST respectively. However, many of the major currency pairs are consolidating after the Asian markets open until approx. 1 am EST. For example, prior to 1 am on 1/19, the EUR/USD fluctuated up and down only about 15 pips since the Toyko open at 7:30 pm EST and the Hong Kong open at 9 pm EST. However, at about 1:30 am on 1/19, the EUR/USD spiked down (at the time of this writing) about 40 pips before London even opened. There were no news announcements during that time to account for that movement. I have noticed this pattern many times. Is the reason for this is that the Asian market is closing positions just before the end of their trading day? If not, what is the reason? Also, another observation I have is that many times is that the currency markets will move significantly in the opposite direction of the movement after the Asian session closes and the London market opens - anyone have any ideas as to what causes that?

I know this document is old but it may help you.

Hi there, i posted the below info on another thread discussing the London open session and thought it would be of interest in context here:

Hi Trumpcard, here is the summary of the "Midnite Express" or the "Big Ben" (thx for posting the pdf file scorpion, i posted it in my original...great minds think alike ; - ) strategy...A must read for this strategy.

I have summarised the trading rules from the Big Ben trading strategy. This strategy works best with GBP/USD:

Short Trade Setup:
1) The pair makes a new range low at least 25 pips below the opening price after the Frankfurt/London trading in the GBP/USD rate begins around 1am EST.
2) The pair then reverses and trades 25 pips or more above the opening proce.
3) The pair then reverses once again to trade back below the intraday low established in step 1.
4) Sell a breakout (at least 7 pips) below the London Low.
5) Once filled place an initial protective stop no more than 40 pips above the entry price.
6) After the market moves lower by the distance between the entry price and the stop, cover half the position and trail a stop on the remainder.

Long Trade Setup:
1) The pair makes a new range high at least 25 pips above the opening price after the Frankfurt/London trading in the GBP/USD rate begins around 1am EST.
2) The pair then reverses and trades 25 pips or more below the opening price.
3) The pair then reverses once again to trade back above the intraday high established in step 1.
4) Sell a breakout (at least 7 pips) above the London High.
5) Once filled place an initial protective stop no more than 40 pips below the entry price.
6) After the market moves higher by the distance between the entry price and the stop, cover half the position and trail a stop on the remainder.

This is a fun strategy to trade but you have to have patience as the setup does not happen every London session, and you've got to watch the charts on small time frames to make it work.

====end paste.

I will also add that the basic rules for the "Midnite Express" is to look at the 12:30am Pacific Time 30 minute candle and take the first trade in the direction of that candle. I have a couple dozen trades over a 1 month period posted at my domain that you might find of interest. It was just an experiment so what i did was take trades in both directions...you can see the results at each screen shot.

http://www.accrete.com/fx_gbp/

Cheers,
Thom

eagle4x;
Hmm... price movements before 3AM EST ???
Here it goes... Not all of europe is contained within the same time zone.
Few nations east of UK are an hour ahead and obviously their markets do open earlier.
These nations and their markets infact contribute to those price movements you are reffering to.
I hope this answers your question...

http://images.infoplease.com/images/timezones.gif

can anyone post the opening and closing time for UK, US and Asian markets?

tomecki;
use this link as your reference...

Frankfurt ,Europe open 1 hour before London