AURUM

Three sessions

Gold does not trade one market.

XAUUSD is a 24-hour name on a CFD ticket and a three-character personality in reality. Asia draws the map. London spends it. New York either pays the rest or takes it back. Trade the session you are actually in.

Asia

Next London open in 5h 5m

UTC 01:54 · NY Wed 21:54 · London Thu 02:54

Build the map, don’t force the day. Mark Asian high/low and prior day levels. Mean-reversion only; leave breakout size for London.

Asia

Live

UTC 00:00–09:00 · London 01:00–10:00 · NY 20:00–05:00

Range-building. Liquidity is thinner, spreads a touch wider, and gold usually coils inside the prior New York range. The session’s job is to print an Asian high and low that London will hunt.

Tightest of the three. Often 0.4–0.8× London ATR.

Do

  • Mark the Asian high/low as soon as Tokyo has a few hours on the board.
  • Fade first touches of round $10 levels only with a tight invalidation.
  • Trade China data (PMI, PBOC, yuan fix) if it actually displaces — otherwise stand down.
  • Use the range as a map for London, not as a place to force size.

Don't

  • Chase breakouts of yesterday’s high/low in the first two hours — most are fake.
  • Run London-sized stops. Asia will wick you for noise, not trend.
  • Ignore Sunday’s gap. Weekend geopolitics often gaps; wait 30–60 minutes.

Asia is quieter than London/NY, but gold is not as dead as EURUSD here — China headlines and ETF flows still print.

Typical pattern: compression after the NY close, a probe of prior day high or low, then mean-revert into the London fix.

ICT Asian killzone (late NY / Sydney into Tokyo) is for mapping, not mandatory entries.

London

UTC 07:00–16:00 · London 08:00–17:00 · NY 03:00–12:00

Price discovery. Bullion banks, the LBMA, and the first real USD flows of the day. Classic day-trade: raid the Asian range, displace, then trend into the New York overlap.

Largest average true range of the three on most days.

Do

  • Wait for the Judas swing — a run of Asian high or low — before picking a side.
  • Trade the displacement that follows, not the raid itself.
  • Respect 10:30 London (AM gold fix) as a flow window, not a crystal ball.
  • If London expands >1.5× recent session ATR, expect New York to try a fade.

Don't

  • Market-on-open market orders at 07:00–07:15 UTC. Spreads + book rebuild.
  • Fade a clean displacement just because RSI is ‘overbought’ on gold.
  • Hold a London impulse into NY data without a plan. 8:30 ET can unwind it in one print.

London open (07:00–10:00 UTC) is the highest-quality discretionary window for XAUUSD outside of US data.

The overlap with New York (12:00–16:00 UTC) is the most liquid hour-block of the day — size belongs here, not in Tokyo.

LBMA AM/PM fixes still matter for physical and option flow even in a CFD book.

New York

UTC 12:00–21:00 · London 13:00–22:00 · NY 08:00–17:00

USD session. CPI, NFP, FOMC, yields and DXY decide whether London’s trend is continued or faded. AM is impulse; PM is often inventory.

Wide on data days, mean-reverting into the cash close on quiet days.

Do

  • If London left a clean trend and NY open does not raid the opposite extreme, join pullbacks.
  • Treat 08:30 ET data as a two-stage event: spike, then the real move after the 1–5 minute fake.
  • Fade stretched NY afternoon moves back toward session VWAP on quiet Fridays.
  • Re-mark PDH/PDL — NY frequently completes the daily range.

Don't

  • Trade the first tick of NFP/CPI. The spread is the stop.
  • Assume gold must fall when DXY rises. In geopolitics they rally together.
  • Size into 16:00–17:00 ET Friday. Books flatten; wicks lie.

COMEX electronic is nearly 24h; the cash pit open ~08:20 ET still adds a burst of volume.

West-coast traders live in this session — it is the one you can trade without an alarm clock.

Safe-haven days: gold up + DXY up. Classic days: gold inverse to DXY. Read the regime before the setup.

Overlap

12:00–16:00 UTC (08:00–12:00 New York) is the only window where London inventory and US dollar data share a book. This is where size belongs. 08:30 ET red folders (NFP, CPI, PPI, GDP) print inside it. If you can only day-trade one block, trade this one — and be flat into the print unless the news-map playbook is the plan.