Gold trades 23 hours a day on MT5, but it doesn't behave the same way in each of them. Knowing when the range expands, when spreads blow out and when nothing happens is the difference between a grid that fills sensibly and one that gets stopped into during a two-minute news candle. Times below are IST (UTC+5:30) with server-time notes, because that's what a trader in India sees on the chart.
The three sessions, in Gold terms
- Asian session (05:30–13:30 IST): thin, range-bound, tight spreads at most brokers. Shanghai and Tokyo demand sets a tone but rarely a trend. Good for mean-reversion, poor for breakouts.
- London session (12:30–21:30 IST): volume arrives around 12:30–13:30 IST, the day's first real move usually starts here. Gold's daily high or low is often set in the first two London hours.
- New York session (18:00–02:30 IST): the London–New York overlap (18:00–21:30 IST) is the most liquid and most volatile window of the day. US data lands at 18:00 IST; the Comex pit settles around 23:00 IST and volume fades after.
The hours that produce most of the movement
Across the past few years, roughly 60% of Gold's daily range has formed between 13:00 and 22:00 IST. The 18:00–20:00 IST window alone routinely delivers the biggest hourly candles because US releases (CPI, NFP, retail sales, jobless claims, FOMC statements at 23:30) land inside it. If an EA is going to place breakout orders, this is where they fill; if it's a grid, this is where levels get taken quickly.
Spreads by hour
At an ECN broker Gold's spread is typically 10–20 cents during London–New York, 20–40 cents in Asia, and 100–300 cents (or more) for the minute around a major release and in the daily rollover around 02:30–03:30 IST when liquidity providers reset. An EA with a spread filter set at, say, 35 cents will naturally sit out the rollover and the news spikes. That is a feature, not a missed opportunity.
News windows to respect
- US CPI (monthly, ~18:00 IST) — the single biggest scheduled Gold mover.
- Non-Farm Payrolls (first Friday, 18:00 IST) — large two-way spike, often reverses within an hour.
- FOMC statement + press conference (23:30 / 00:00 IST, 8 times a year) — the trend of the following days is often set here.
- PCE, retail sales, jobless claims (18:00 IST), ISM (19:30 IST) — smaller but tradeable.
- Central-bank speakers — unscheduled moves are common; the calendar marks the scheduled ones.
What this means for an EA
Grid and mean-reversion EAs generally do their best work when volatility is moderate and predictable — the Asian session and the calmer London hours — and their worst work when a single candle travels $30. Breakout EAs are the opposite: they need London or New York to fill their orders at all. Either way, the two settings that matter most are a trading-hours filter and a spread filter, and the calendar is what tells you where to set them.
