Session overlaps that look busy but do not actually add liquidity
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2026 11:25 am
The standard chart of forex sessions shows overlaps as shaded blocks, and the implication is that overlap equals opportunity. That holds for London and New York in the morning. It does not hold for every pair of overlapping sessions, and the difference is worth knowing.
Two things look alike on the clock but are not alike in practice.
Tokyo and London overlap for roughly an hour in winter and not at all in some summer alignments, depending on daylight saving. In that window, USD/JPY and EUR/JPY can get busy, but EUR/USD often just keeps doing what it was doing. Both sessions are technically open, yet the participants who drive EUR/USD are on one side and the ones who drive JPY crosses are on the other.
Sydney and Tokyo overlap for hours, and it gets described as an active window. For AUD/JPY and NZD/JPY it can be. For almost everything else it is a quiet stretch where two small sessions are open at the same time.
The point is that activity is pair specific. An overlap adds liquidity for the currencies whose home markets are involved, and little for the rest.
So the useful question is not whether sessions overlap, but whose currency is each session actually trading. Scalpers who filter by clock alone end up taking EUR/USD signals in a window built for something else.
Where do the overlaps misleadingly look busy on the pairs you follow, and where do they genuinely deliver?
Two things look alike on the clock but are not alike in practice.
Tokyo and London overlap for roughly an hour in winter and not at all in some summer alignments, depending on daylight saving. In that window, USD/JPY and EUR/JPY can get busy, but EUR/USD often just keeps doing what it was doing. Both sessions are technically open, yet the participants who drive EUR/USD are on one side and the ones who drive JPY crosses are on the other.
Sydney and Tokyo overlap for hours, and it gets described as an active window. For AUD/JPY and NZD/JPY it can be. For almost everything else it is a quiet stretch where two small sessions are open at the same time.
The point is that activity is pair specific. An overlap adds liquidity for the currencies whose home markets are involved, and little for the rest.
So the useful question is not whether sessions overlap, but whose currency is each session actually trading. Scalpers who filter by clock alone end up taking EUR/USD signals in a window built for something else.
Where do the overlaps misleadingly look busy on the pairs you follow, and where do they genuinely deliver?