Sydney open and the AUD spread hangover

[Fairman]

Sydney open and the AUD spread hangover

Sunday evening in New York is Monday morning in Sydney, and the AUD and NZD pairs are first to wake. Spreads on those pairs can be several times normal for the first thirty minutes, and the first prices often sit well away from where Friday closed.

Scalpers keen to be first often get a lesson here. Fills are poor, quotes jump, and the apparent trend in the first ten minutes frequently reverses once real volume arrives.

There is a second effect that gets less attention. The first Asia-Pacific trading hour shapes the overnight range for AUDUSD, and traders who treat that range as meaningful on Monday morning in London are often reading the thinnest part of the data.

Waiting until the spread settles, and then reading the first hour as a record of a thin market rather than a signal, avoids most of the trouble.

Quotes in that first half hour can also be indicative rather than firm. An order sent into a thin open may be rejected or filled with significant slippage, and the platform will show a tidy chart afterwards that hides how rough the actual trading was.

When does the spread on AUD pairs settle down on your platform after the Sunday open?