Best hours to trade — what the data shows
We ran our validated strategies hour by hour and day by day across 45 days of real M1 candles. Timing changes results more than most people expect — and not where you'd guess.
The two windows that hold the edge
| Window | What's happening in the market | Result in our tests |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00–10:59 (UTC-3) | London–New York overlap (New York open during US summer time) | Consistent across all 4 validation windows |
| 18:00–23:59 (UTC-3) | NY close and Tokyo open | Strongest in the study; hours 18, 21 and 23 stood out |
| 11:00–17:59 | Midday | Neutral/unstable — the 4pm hour scored 65% in one slice and 40% in the next |
| 00:00–08:59 | Overnight | Worst: 00, 04 and 05 fell below break-even |
The weekday matters too
Tuesday and Thursday were consistently the best days; the strongest cell with a decent sample was Tuesday, 18:00–24:00. Friday is the worst day — it dropped to 48.8% in the fresh window, below break-even. Our production config simply doesn't trade on Fridays.
Forex sessions in UTC, Brasília and India time (2026)
Real currency pairs follow the interbank forex market, which moves around three main sessions. The hours below are market conventions, not official openings; we use the ones published by FOREX.com (Tokyo 9am–6pm, London 8am–4pm, New York 8am–5pm, local time). Brazil and India don't change their clocks, but the US and the UK do, so the table changes twice a year.
March 29 – October 24, 2026 (US and UK on summer time)
| Session | UTC | Brasília (UTC-3) | India (IST, UTC+5:30) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | 00:00–09:00 | 21:00–06:00 | 05:30–14:30 |
| London | 07:00–15:00 | 04:00–12:00 | 12:30–20:30 |
| New York | 12:00–21:00 | 09:00–18:00 | 17:30–02:30 |
| Tokyo–London overlap | 07:00–09:00 | 04:00–06:00 | 12:30–14:30 |
| London–New York overlap | 12:00–15:00 | 09:00–12:00 | 17:30–20:30 |
From November 1, 2026 to March 2027 (standard time)
| Session | UTC | Brasília (UTC-3) | India (IST, UTC+5:30) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | 00:00–09:00 | 21:00–06:00 | 05:30–14:30 |
| London | 08:00–16:00 | 05:00–13:00 | 13:30–21:30 |
| New York | 13:00–22:00 | 10:00–19:00 | 18:30–03:30 |
| Tokyo–London overlap | 08:00–09:00 | 05:00–06:00 | 13:30–14:30 |
| London–New York overlap | 13:00–16:00 | 10:00–13:00 | 18:30–21:30 |
Clock-change dates: US daylight saving time runs from March 8 to November 1, 2026 (NIST); the UK changes clocks on March 29 and October 25, 2026 (GOV.UK), the same Sundays as the rest of Europe. In the mismatch weeks (March 8–28 and October 25–31, 2026) London is already on winter hours while New York is still on summer hours, so the London–New York overlap stretches to 12:00–16:00 UTC (09:00–13:00 Brasília, 17:30–21:30 IST). Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy ruled out daylight saving time for 2026–27 (report, September 2026), so Brasília stays at UTC-3.
Where our two windows fall
09:00–10:59 Brasília = 12:00–13:59 UTC = 17:30–19:29 IST. Between late March and late October this is the New York open overlapping London's afternoon, the overlap FOREX.com lists as the most liquid part of the day. 18:00–23:59 Brasília = 21:00–02:59 UTC = 02:30–08:29 IST. It covers the New York close and the run into the Tokyo open at 00:00 UTC.
One thing we have not validated: our windows were measured on a fixed UTC-3 clock. From November 1, New York opens at 10:00 Brasília (18:30 IST). If the edge follows the session rather than the clock, the morning window would move one hour later. Until we re-run the study on winter data, test both 09:00–10:59 and 10:00–11:59 in demo and keep the one that holds up.
Why timing changes accuracy
Our champion strategies are mean-reversion (Double Reversal and Exhaustion+Band). They depend on liquidity: with many participants, a price stretch meets resistance and snaps back. Overnight, with thin liquidity, price drifts with nothing pulling it back — and the reversal fails.
Beware hour overfitting: cherry-picking "the best hour" from a single data slice is the easiest way to fool yourself. We only publish windows that survived four different slices. See how overfit lies.
How to apply it with the bot
The config_bot.ini reference in our tutorial has no hour or weekday setting: the bot trades whenever it is running and a signal appears. If your version's panel has a time filter, use it. If not, there are two ways to respect the windows.
- Run it only inside the windows (simplest). Start the bot at 09:00 and stop it at 11:00 Brasília time; start it again at 18:00 and stop at midnight; Monday to Thursday only. In UTC that is 12:00–13:59 and 21:00–02:59. In India it is 17:30–19:29 and 02:30–08:29 IST, and the night window lands on the next calendar day: Thursday night in Brazil is Friday morning in India.
- Add a filter with AI. The tutorial has a sample prompt for ChatGPT or Claude that adds a time filter to
bot.py. Ask for two settings such ashoras_boas = 09:00-10:59,18:00-23:59anddias = mon-thu, and state which clock the times refer to (your PC's local time or UTC). Before trusting it, run a day in demo and check in the log that no trade opened outside the windows.
Either way the idea is the same: the bot waits instead of trading for the sake of it. Fewer trades, better average.
Hours to avoid: high-impact news
Our study did not separate news minutes from normal minutes, so this is a precaution, not a measured result. The reasoning: the champion strategies bet that a stretched price snaps back. A major data release can push a pair in one direction for several minutes, which is exactly the move a reversal signal loses on.
- Open an economic calendar that shows an impact level for each event (most broker platforms and financial portals have one).
- Set the calendar's time zone to yours. Many default to GMT or New York time, which is how people end up an hour or more off.
- Filter the currencies of the pairs you trade: USD, EUR, GBP and JPY cover the majors.
- Show only high-impact events. Jobs reports, inflation (CPI) and central bank rate decisions (Fed, ECB, Bank of England, Bank of Japan) are the usual ones.
- Block a margin around each one (we use 15 minutes before to 15 minutes after) and keep the bot stopped in that gap.
A real example from an official calendar: the US Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the Employment Situation report at 8:30 a.m. New York time, and the next releases are Friday, October 2 and Friday, November 6, 2026. That is 09:30 Brasília / 18:00 IST on October 2, and 10:30 Brasília / 19:00 IST on November 6, after the US clock change. Both land inside the 09:00–10:59 window, and both are Fridays, which the study already excludes. The Fed's remaining 2026 meetings are October 27–28 and December 8–9 (FOMC calendar); check the announcement time in your calendar.
Weekends: only OTC, and OTC showed no edge
Interbank forex runs from Sunday evening to Friday evening, New York time. FOREX.com gives 22:00 UTC Sunday to 22:00 UTC Friday on standard time, one hour earlier during US summer time. In Brasília the weekly close is Friday 18:00 until November 1 and 19:00 after it; in India it is 02:30 or 03:30 IST on Saturday. So the Friday evening window barely exists on real pairs.
While the market is closed, brokers show OTC versions of the pairs. IQ Option states that OTC opens after the traditional markets close on Friday, runs through the weekend, and that its prices come from the platform's own algorithms rather than exchange data. In our tests OTC stayed around 50% at every hour. At 85% payout that is 0.50 × 0.85 − 0.50 = −7.5% of the stake per trade, with no hour to hide in. More in Is OTC random?
Binomo, IQ Option, Quotex: does the broker change the best time?
For real pairs, no. The price of EUR/USD or USD/JPY comes from the same global market whichever platform shows it. What changes between brokers, and between hours at the same broker, is the payout, and the payout sets the accuracy you need to break even: 1 / (1 + payout).
| Payout | Break-even accuracy |
|---|---|
| 70% | 58.8% |
| 80% | 55.6% |
| 85% | 54.1% |
| 90% | 52.6% |
So "the best time on IQ Option" is where three things meet: a real (non-OTC) pair, one of the tested windows, and a payout high enough that your measured accuracy clears break-even. The bot's payout_min setting (80 by default in config_bot.ini) skips trades below that threshold. Our bot does not connect to Binomo (it supports Quotex, IQ Option, Deriv and, in basic form, Olymp Trade), but if you trade there by hand the same hour logic applies. See our Binomo guide.
How to check these hours on your own account
- Use a demo account, real pairs only, and one strategy with fixed settings.
- Let it run across all hours for at least two weeks, recording the time and result of every trade (broker history or bot log).
- Group the trades: 09:00–10:59, 18:00–23:59, everything else, and Fridays separately (Brasília time, or the equivalent in yours).
- Don't draw conclusions before each group has 150 trades. Even then the margin is wide: a measured 57% over 150 trades has a 95% range of roughly 49% to 65%.
- Compare each group with the break-even for the payout you actually received, not the headline payout.
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FAQ
What is the best time to trade binary options?
In our tests on real M1 data, the 9:00–10:59 and 18:00–23:59 (UTC-3) windows concentrated the edge. Overnight hours (00:00–05:00) performed worst.
What is the worst day to trade?
Friday. In the fresh validation window accuracy fell to 48.8% — below break-even. Tuesday and Thursday were the best days.
Does this apply to OTC too?
No. OTC has no real session or liquidity, and no hour showed an advantage — the synthetic market is random around the clock.
What is the best time to trade on Binomo or IQ Option?
For real (non-OTC) pairs the broker doesn't change the market. In our data the edge was in 09:00–10:59 and 18:00–23:59 Brasília time (12:00–13:59 and 21:00–02:59 UTC), Monday to Thursday. At weekends only OTC is available, and OTC showed no advantage at any hour.
Does daylight saving time change these hours?
Brazil and India don't change their clocks, but the UK (October 25, 2026) and the US (November 1, 2026) do, so the London and New York sessions start one hour later in Brasília and IST time from November. Our windows were measured on a fixed UTC-3 clock; re-check them in demo after the change.
⚠️ Binary options carry a high risk of losing all your capital. Educational content based on demo-account data — not investment advice. Past results do not guarantee future results.