Interactive reference — all times in Eastern Time (ET)
2:00 - 5:00 AM ET
Sweeps Asian session highs/lows. Displacement candles form. Look for OB/FVG entries after the liquidity grab. Highest probability ICT setups.
8:30 - 11:00 AM ET
Second major opportunity. News-driven sweeps at 8:30 AM, then displacement at 9:30 open. Continuation or reversal of London. High volume = clean moves.
7:00 PM - 12:00 AM ET
Range-building phase. Equal highs/lows are formed as liquidity targets. Mark the range for London to sweep. Low volatility — analysis time, not trading time.
Avoid 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM ET (dead zone)
Best setups form during London and NY open
Asian session builds the range that London/NY sweeps
Friday PM sessions are low quality — reduce size or sit out
Most retail traders ignore session timing. Professionals treat it as a primary filter — arguably more important than the setup itself. The same OB or FVG setup has completely different win rates depending on whether it forms at 3 AM ET (London open) vs 1 PM ET (dead zone). A beautiful bullish engulfing during the lunch hour dead zone will fail 60%+ of the time because there's simply no institutional volume to drive the move. That same pattern at 9:30 AM ET has real conviction behind it. Time context transforms a mediocre trade into a high-probability one.