Direct answer
A new candlestick for the US forex starts when the chart’s selected time interval rolls over to its next boundary. In practice, this is determined by the timestamping and timezone used by your chart’s data feed (for example, how your platform maps exchange/market time into chart time), not by a single universal “US forex” start moment.
Explanation: what “start” means in candlestick charts
A candlestick summarizes price movement over a fixed period (the chart timeframe). For a given pair, the platform collects open, high, low, and close values within that timeframe.
- Candlestick start time: the first timestamp included in that period.
- Candlestick close time: the moment the interval ends, when the next candlestick begins.
So, the “start” depends on two inputs you control or inherit:
- Timeframe (for example, 1-minute, 5-minute, 1-hour): the interval length defines when rollovers happen.
- Time mapping (timezone/session settings of the data feed): the platform converts market-data timestamps into the chart timeline.
Because “US forex” is not a single venue with one immutable candle clock, different platforms can display the rollover at slightly different moments if their timezone/session handling differs. This is also why two charts on the same timeframe can show different candle boundaries, even if they show the same general price behavior.
Example checks you can do on any chart
You can verify the candlestick boundary behavior without relying on assumptions:
- Timestamp check: look at the candle label/time and confirm that the next candle appears exactly when the timeframe boundary occurs on your chart clock.
- Compare timezones: if your platform offers a setting for chart timezone (or “use exchange time” vs “use platform time”), switch it and observe whether the candle boundaries shift.
- Cross-platform comparison: open the same pair and timeframe on two platforms, then compare the displayed candle start times. If the start times differ, the difference is almost always due to how each platform maps timestamps to chart time.
These checks show what your platform considers the candle’s start, which is the only definition that matters for interpreting that chart.
Limitations and what remains uncertain
- There is no single, universal “US forex candlestick start” moment that applies to every chart: candle boundaries are set by timeframe and the data/feed’s time mapping.
- This explanation assumes you are using standard candlestick aggregation: fixed-interval buckets where each bucket’s close finalizes that candle.
- If a platform uses different timezone/session rules or receives data with different timestamp handling, the observed start times can differ. That uncertainty is not a “data error” you can fix without changing the chart settings or data source.