Direct answer
The forex market does not have one single, universal “always open” schedule. In practice, trading is often available nearly 24 hours on weekdays, but it can pause during certain breaks (for example, around the weekend) and trading conditions can change by time zone and trading venue.
How this works (and what “candle close” means)
Forex is the buying and selling of currencies, and trading happens through many institutions and venues. Because major financial centers operate in different time zones, activity can “roll” from one region to the next during the business week. That creates the common experience that forex is always tradable during weekdays.
However, there is no single moment when every participant stops at the same time for every platform. Whether you can place orders, and how liquid the market is, depends on your broker or trading venue and the specific pair.
For candle close specifically, a candlestick chart is an aggregation of price over a chosen time interval (for example, 1-minute or 1-hour candles). A “candle close” is when that interval ends on your chart—based on the chart’s time setting and the feed/server timing. Even if trading continues, liquidity can thin, spreads can widen, and candles can reflect that changing conditions.
Example checks you can verify independently
- Compare your chart’s last trading candles across time. If a pair has a visible gap or noticeably different behavior at a certain hour, that often reflects a market break or reduced liquidity.
- Check the chart’s time zone/session setting. If your candle close times shift when you change chart settings, you are seeing how candle construction depends on timing rules.
- Look at different pairs during the same moment. Some pairs may keep more consistent pricing while others can show larger jumps or wider spreads when the underlying liquidity changes.
Limitations and uncertainty
- There is no real-time data here and no assumption about your broker’s exact trading hours. Your venue’s feed can affect what candles you see and when they update.
- Because candles are constructed from time intervals, candle close times are partly a charting convention. They do not automatically prove that the underlying market is fully closed everywhere.
- The exact timing of breaks can vary by day, instrument, and platform, so you should treat any specific “closing hour” as venue- and setup-dependent rather than universal.