Traders beware: Europe has turned clocks back, altering trading hours

Before the new trading week gets fully under way, here's a brief alert for traders. European markets may look as though they are starting a bit later than usual today, and the reason is that familiar seasonal shift has come around once more.

Over the weekend, most of Europe brought daylight saving time to a close, and clocks went back one hour on Sunday, 25 October. As a result, the UK has returned to GMT, while large parts of continental Europe have moved over to CET.

Traders based outside Europe, especially in Asia, will now see European market sessions and economic data hit their local clocks one hour later. The London stock market, for instance, now opens at 16:00 in Singapore and Hong Kong, having previously started at 15:00.

There is another small complication, though. The US has not changed its clocks yet.

Only on Sunday, 1 November, will US clocks turn back. For this week at least, the London-New York gap is four hours rather than the standard five, and the two markets have a longer period of simultaneous trading. Anyone tracking forex liquidity near the US open may want to note the extended overlap.

None of this is especially dramatic. It is simply one of those minor calendar shifts that can still trip up traders. So treat this as a nudge to verify your economic calendars, market opening times and trading schedules before getting into this week's activity.