Short answer: the conventional Sydney session runs from 07:00 to 16:00 Sydney time, which is 20:00 to 05:00 UTC during Australian daylight time (now until 4 April 2027) and 21:00 to 06:00 UTC in the Australian winter. For gold, its real job is the reopen: spot XAUUSD restarts at 18:00 New York time, which is Monday 10:00 AEDT right now. That makes Sydney the first session of the trading week, where weekend news is priced in at once, in thin liquidity and with wide spreads. Most careful traders don’t chase that first price. They wait for Tokyo.
Why Sydney matters for gold
Sydney is the smallest of the four sessions, and for gold it is not where liquidity lives. It matters for three other reasons:
- It opens the week. Everything that happened over the weekend lands in the first minutes of Sydney’s Monday. Weekend gaps are a Sydney-session event.
- It owns the daily reopen. Every weekday, gold reopens after its daily break during Sydney hours, and that first hour is thin.
- Australia is a gold country. It is one of the largest gold producers, so AUD/USD and Australian news occasionally matter for XAUUSD.
The Tokyo session lesson picks up where this one ends.
Sydney hours and their opposite clock changes
Sydney is on AEST (UTC+10) in its winter and AEDT (UTC+11) in its summer. New South Wales moved its clocks forward on 4 October 2026 and moves them back on 4 April 2027. That is the opposite direction to the US and the UK, which spring forward in March and fall back in October or November. So the gap between Sydney and London or New York changes by up to two hours over a year.
| Location | Australian summer, northern winter (now until mid-March) | Australian winter, northern summer (April to early October) |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 07:00–16:00 AEDT | 07:00–16:00 AEST |
| UTC | 20:00–05:00 | 21:00–06:00 |
| New York | 15:00–00:00 | 17:00–02:00 |
| London | 20:00–05:00 GMT | 22:00–07:00 BST |
| Tokyo | 05:00–14:00 | 06:00–15:00 |
| India (IST) | 01:30–10:30 | 02:30–11:30 |
| Singapore | 04:00–13:00 | 05:00–14:00 |
Two transition windows don’t fit either column: October, when Sydney is already on AEDT but the US and UK are still on summer time, and mid-March to early April, when the US and UK have moved forward but Sydney has not yet moved back. In both, gold reopens at 09:00 Sydney time. The gold market hours tool handles all of this automatically, and our Australia guide lists the key London and New York times in AEST and AEDT.
What the session really covers for gold
Here is the part most session charts miss. Because gold closes for its daily break at 17:00 New York time and reopens at 18:00, the start of the conventional Sydney session is not new trading at all:
| Sydney time (now, AEDT) | UTC | What is happening in gold |
|---|---|---|
| 07:00–09:00 | 20:00–22:00 | The last two hours of the US session, usually quiet |
| 09:00–10:00 | 22:00–23:00 | Daily break: no spot trading at most providers |
| 10:00 | 23:00 | Gold reopens (Monday: the weekly open) |
| 10:00–11:00 | 23:00–00:00 | “Sydney only”: thin, wide spreads |
| 11:00 | 00:00 | Tokyo opens |
| 11:30 | 00:30 | Australian Bureau of Statistics releases |
| 12:00 | 01:00 | Shanghai Gold Exchange day session opens |
| 14:30 | 03:30 | RBA decision on meeting days |
| 16:00 | 05:00 | Conventional Sydney session ends |
In the Australian winter the same events fall at: daily break 07:00–08:00 AEST, reopen 08:00, Tokyo open 10:00, ABS releases 11:30, Shanghai open 11:00, RBA 14:30. In other words, the stretch where Sydney trades gold on its own is only one to two hours long. After that, it overlaps Tokyo.
Exact break and reopen times vary by provider; CME’s gold futures follow the Sunday-to-Friday, 18:00 to 17:00 New York schedule, and most spot and CFD quotes are close to it.
The Monday open and weekend gaps
What a gap is
Gold stops trading at 17:00 New York time on Friday and restarts at 18:00 on Sunday. The world doesn’t stop. When gold reopens, the first price reflects everything that happened in between, all at once. If that price is well away from Friday’s close, the chart shows a gap: there were no trades at the prices in between, so no stop or pending order could fill there.
What our data shows
We measured this on COMEX gold futures for the Monday gap study: 109 normal weekends from June 2024 to October 2026, gap = Sunday’s first price minus Friday’s last.
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Median gap | $4.70 (about 0.14%) |
| Median gap, last 12 months of the sample | $12.40 |
| Weekends with a gap of $20 or more | 21 |
| Weekends with a gap of $50 or more | 6 |
| Largest gap | $116.30, on 1 March 2026 |
| Direction | 52 up, 56 down, 1 flat |
And on the 42 weekends with a gap of $10 or more:
| Price traded back to Friday’s close within | Share |
|---|---|
| The first hour | 26% |
| 24 hours | 64% |
| The same week | 81% |
| Not that week | 19% |
Three lessons for a Sydney-session trader:
- Gaps have grown with the gold price and the news flow. The median of $1.25 in 2024 became $15.80 in 2026 to late October. Old rules of thumb understate today’s gaps.
- Direction is a coin toss. Gaps went up and down about equally often. You cannot assume the weekend helps longs.
- “Gaps always fill” is false. Most large gaps came back within the week, but about one in five didn’t, and a quarter filled within the first hour, before most traders would have had a sensible entry.
These are futures, not spot XAUUSD; your provider’s gaps will be similar but not identical.
Thin liquidity and wide spreads
The first minutes after any reopen are the most expensive minutes of the trading day at many providers. On Monday they are worse, because quotes are restarting after two days and the first price may be uncertain. Spreads can be several times their usual size, and prices can jump between quotes. Stops placed close to Friday’s close can fill well beyond their level. Our rollover spread guide explains the daily version of the same problem.
How traders handle gaps
- Don’t chase the first price. The opening quote is the least reliable price of the week.
- Wait for the Tokyo hand-off. At 00:00 UTC (11:00 AEDT now) Japanese participants arrive and, an hour later, Shanghai. By then spreads are usually narrower than in the first minutes, and the gap has had time to show whether it is holding or filling.
- Classify the gap. Small gaps (a few dollars) are mostly noise. Large gaps need a reason: find the headline. Many traders give more weight to a gap with a clear, lasting cause than to one on thin rumour; treat that as judgement, not a tested rule.
- Mark the two levels. Friday’s close and the Monday open. The gap is the space between them.
- Plan both outcomes. “Gap holds” and “gap fills”, each with a trigger and an invalidation, before you look for an entry.
Australia, gold and AUD/USD
- A major producer. The US Geological Survey estimates Australia’s 2025 gold mine production at about 280 tonnes, third after China (about 380 tonnes) and Russia (about 310 tonnes), out of a world total of about 3,300 tonnes.
- A gold-heavy export basket. The RBA’s Index of Commodity Prices weights commodities by export values. From 1 April 2026, gold’s weight is 9.8%, up from 6.3% the year before.
- AUD/USD and gold. Both are priced against the US dollar, so a broad dollar move tends to push them the same way, and gold’s place in Australia’s exports adds to the link. It is not a fixed relationship: risk sentiment, Chinese demand for Australia’s other exports and interest-rate gaps all move the Australian dollar too. Use AUD/USD as a second opinion on a gold move during Sydney hours, not as a trigger. Gold correlation trading covers this approach.
- Gold in Australian dollars. Local investors often watch gold priced in AUD, which equals XAUUSD divided by AUD/USD. A falling Australian dollar can lift the local price even when XAUUSD is flat. See gold in other currencies.
RBA days and Australian data
Reserve Bank of Australia decisions
- The RBA’s Monetary Policy Board meets eight times a year, over two days. The 2026 meetings: 2–3 February, 16–17 March, 4–5 May, 15–16 June, 10–11 August, 28–29 September, 2–3 November and 7–8 December.
- The decision is announced at 2:30 pm Sydney time on the second day, and the Governor holds a media conference at 3:30 pm. In UTC that is 03:30 and 04:30 during AEDT, and 04:30 and 05:30 during AEST. Both fall inside Tokyo hours.
- Minutes are published two weeks after each meeting.
An RBA surprise moves AUD/USD first. Gold usually reacts only if the move spills into the broad dollar or into global rate expectations, so most RBA days pass with little effect on XAUUSD. Treat them as event days anyway: liquidity can thin around the announcement.
Australian data
The Australian Bureau of Statistics releases its statistics at 11:30 am Canberra time (00:30 UTC in AEDT, 01:30 UTC in AEST), including inflation, labour force, GDP and retail figures. As with RBA days, the direct effect on gold is usually small and runs through the Australian dollar. The gold market events page lists the releases that matter most for gold.
How gold behaves in Sydney hours
From our when does gold move most data (COMEX gold futures hourly bars, 30 October 2024 to 30 October 2026, all weekdays):
| UTC hour | Average range | What it usually is |
|---|---|---|
| 20:00–21:00 | $12.88 | Late US session (Sydney morning in AEDT) |
| 22:00–23:00 | $15.99 | First hour after the reopen when the US is on summer time |
| 23:00–00:00 | $15.22 | First hour after the reopen in US winter; Sydney-only trading |
| 00:00–01:00 | $17.63 | Tokyo open |
| 01:00–02:00 | $22.96 | Shanghai open, the busiest Asian hour |
So the Sydney-only hour is not unusually quiet in range terms, which fits the picture of a thin market that can still jump. It is a smaller move than the Shanghai hour that follows, and it comes with the day’s worst spreads. On Mondays in particular, our data does not show a quiet day overall: Monday’s average daily range ($84.89) was close to Tuesday’s ($84.74) and Friday’s ($84.00).
Typical Sydney behaviour, described qualitatively:
- Monday: a gap or a sharp first move, wide spreads, then either a slow fill or acceptance once Tokyo arrives.
- Tuesday to Friday: a thin hour or two that mostly continues the US close’s drift, before Tokyo builds the real Asian range.
- Event days: an RBA or Australian data surprise shows up in AUD/USD first, and only sometimes in gold.
Three setups and a stand-aside rule
These are educational templates, not trade recommendations.
Setup 1: The Tokyo hand-off on a gap Monday
| Element | Rule |
|---|---|
| Context | A Monday gap of at least $10, with a known headline or none |
| Wait | No entries before 00:00 UTC. Mark Friday’s close, the Monday open and the range from the reopen to the Tokyo open |
| Trigger: gap holds | During the first Tokyo hour, price stays on the gap side of the Monday open and forms a higher low (gap up) or lower high (gap down) on M15 |
| Trigger: gap fills | Price closes back through the Monday open, then breaks the reopen range on the Friday-close side |
| Entry | On the M15 close that completes the trigger, or on a retest of the broken level |
| Stop (invalidation) | Beyond the reopen range extreme on the other side, plus a buffer |
| Targets | Gap holds: the next H1 level in the gap direction. Gap fills: halfway into the gap, then Friday’s close |
| Management | Half size compared with a normal day. If neither trigger happens by 02:00 UTC, no trade |
Setup 2: Map the reopen range for Tokyo
On normal weekdays, the best use of Sydney hours is preparation.
| Element | Rule |
|---|---|
| Window | From the reopen to 00:00 UTC |
| Levels | Reopen price, reopen-range high and low, previous day’s high, low and close |
| Read | Is price continuing the US close’s direction or reversing it? |
| Output | A level map for the Tokyo session: which edge the Shanghai open is likely to test |
Setup 3: RBA or Australian data reaction
| Element | Rule |
|---|---|
| Context | An RBA decision (03:30 UTC in AEDT) or a major ABS release |
| Wait | 15–30 minutes. Check that AUD/USD and the broad dollar moved, not just the Australian dollar |
| Trigger | Gold forms a structure in the same direction as the dollar move: a higher low after a rise, a lower high after a fall |
| Entry | On a retest of the broken short-term level |
| Stop (invalidation) | Beyond the post-release swing |
| Targets | The release-spike extreme, then the Tokyo range edge |
| Management | If gold did not react at all, there is no trade; the release was an AUD event only |
When to stand aside
| Condition | Why |
|---|---|
| The first 15–30 minutes after any reopen | Worst spreads of the day, unreliable first prices |
| A Monday gap with no identifiable cause | No way to judge whether it should hold |
| A gap larger than your planned stop | Your stop is no longer a meaningful invalidation |
| Holidays in Australia, Japan or China | Even thinner liquidity than usual |
| Positions held from Friday without a plan | Decide on the weekend, not in the opening seconds |
Worked example (hypothetical)
A full walk-through of the “gap fills” branch of Setup 1, with sizing.
Preparation (Sunday, before the reopen). Gold closed Friday at 4,000.00. There was no major weekend headline. The trader’s plan is written: no entries before 00:00 UTC.
The open. At 23:00 UTC gold reopens at 4,021.40, a gap of $21.40. The spread is several times its usual size for the first few minutes. Between the reopen and 00:00 UTC, price trades between 4,014.50 and 4,024.80.
The trigger. In the first Tokyo hour price fails at 4,024.80 again, closes back below the Monday open at 4,021.40, and then an M15 candle closes at 4,013.80, below the reopen-range low.
Plan. - Entry: short at 4,013.80. - Stop: above the reopen-range high plus $1.50, at 4,026.30. Stop distance = $12.50. - Target 1: halfway into the gap, 4,010.70 (+$3.10, about 0.25R), used only to move the stop. - Target 2: just above Friday’s close, 4,000.50 (+$13.30, about 1.06R).
Position size. Account $10,000, risk 0.5% = $50. One lot is 100 oz, so one lot would lose $1,250 at the stop. Size = $50 ÷ $1,250 = 0.04 lots. Check: 0.04 × $12.50 × 100 = $50 at risk.
Judgement. The reward is only about 1R, because the reopen range forced a wide stop. Our gap data says roughly one in five large gaps did not fill within the week, so a 1R trade has little margin for error. Some traders would skip it or wait for a tighter structure. The point of the example is the order of decisions, not the trade.
All prices are hypothetical and show the planning sequence, not an expected result.
Risk, spreads and liquidity
- Size for the gap, not just the stop. If you hold over a weekend, ask what a $50 or $100 gap would cost at your size. Our gap study shows both have happened.
- Spreads first. Check your spread before every Sydney-hours order. A stop that is “tight” in London hours can be inside the spread just after the reopen.
- Stops are not guaranteed prices. A gap fills your stop at the first available price. See the risk management lesson and our weekend trading guide.
- Swap. Positions held through the daily break may carry overnight financing; read XAUUSD spread and swap costs.
The Monday reopen is one of the riskiest moments of the trading week. Spreads can be very wide, prices can jump past stops and the first move often reverses. Trade small or not at all until liquidity returns. Leveraged trading carries a high risk of loss.
Combining it with other concepts
- The next sessions: Tokyo, London and New York; for the whole night, the Asian session playbook and the Asian range breakout.
- Weekends: the Monday gap study and weekend gap risk before a big week.
Best timeframes and sessions
Use the daily and H4 charts for context (Friday’s close, the weekly trend), H1 for levels (Friday’s close, the Monday open, the previous day’s levels) and M15 for triggers after Tokyo opens. In the AEDT period, treat 22:00–23:00 UTC as the break, 23:00–00:00 UTC as the reopen hour for marking levels, and 00:00–02:00 UTC as the window for Setup 1. In the AEST period, the break and the reopen are one hour earlier.
Common mistakes and limitations
- Trading the first Monday price. It is the least reliable price of the week.
- Assuming every gap fills. About one in five large gaps in our data did not fill within the week.
- Using last season’s times. Sydney’s clocks move opposite to London’s and New York’s; recheck in March, April, October and November.
- Reading AUD/USD as a gold signal. It often moves alone on Australian news.
- Holding big positions over the weekend. Gaps hit size, not skill.
Honest caveats: our gap figures come from one futures contract over about two and a half years, and the hourly figures from two years; both will drift as the market changes. No verified figure exists for how often a Sydney-hours move continues into Tokyo. Test any gap rule with backtesting and a journal before you trust it.
Pro tips
- Read the weekend news before the open. It tells you whether a gap has a reason.
- Write Friday’s close on your chart every week. It is the key level on Monday.
- Halve size on Mondays until 02:00 UTC. The extra caution costs little.
- Track your own gaps. Log the gap, the cause and what happened by Tokyo’s close for 20 Mondays.
Quick checklist
- Do I know today’s reopen time in my zone, after the latest clock change?
- Is it Monday? What was Friday’s close, and what happened over the weekend?
- Have I waited at least until spreads normalise, ideally the Tokyo open?
- Is the gap holding or filling, by my written rule?
- Is my stop beyond the reopen range, and my size calculated from it?
- Is there an RBA decision or ABS release in the window?
- Do AUD/USD and the dollar agree with gold’s move?
- Am I handing the reopen range to a Tokyo plan?
Sources
- NSW Government: Daylight saving (starts 4 October 2026, ends 4 April 2027)
- Reserve Bank of Australia: 2026 Monetary Policy Board meeting dates (decision at 2.30 pm, media conference at 3.30 pm, minutes two weeks later)
- Reserve Bank of Australia: Weights for the Index of Commodity Prices, April 2026 (gold 9.8%)
- U.S. Geological Survey: Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, Gold (PDF) (2025 mine production estimates by country)
- Australian Bureau of Statistics: release policy (11.30 am Canberra time)
- CME Group: Gold futures overview (weekly and daily trading hours)
- Shanghai Gold Exchange: trading products and hours
- Weekend gaps: our gold Monday gap study, COMEX gold futures (GC=F) hourly bars via Yahoo Finance, June 2024 to October 2026
- Hourly ranges and weekday ranges: COMEX gold futures (GC=F) 1-hour bars via Yahoo Finance, 30 October 2024 to 30 October 2026, as used by our when does gold move most tool
Educational content only, not financial advice. Trading gold with leverage carries a high risk of loss.
Frequently asked questions
What time does the Sydney session open for gold?
The conventional Sydney session is 07:00 to 16:00 Sydney time. Spot gold itself reopens at 18:00 New York time, which on a Monday is 10:00 AEDT in the Australian summer (November to mid-March) and 08:00 AEST in the Australian winter (April to early October). In October and from mid-March to early April it is 09:00 AEDT. The gold market hours tool converts this to your zone.
Why does the Sydney session time change so much?
Australia’s daylight saving runs opposite to the northern hemisphere’s. Sydney moves to AEDT (UTC+11) on the first Sunday in October and back to AEST (UTC+10) on the first Sunday in April, while the US and UK change in March and October/November. As a result, gold’s open in Sydney moves between 08:00 and 10:00 across the year.
How big are gold's Monday gaps?
In our study of 109 normal weekends of COMEX gold futures (June 2024 to October 2026), the median gap was $4.70, but 21 weekends gapped $20 or more and 6 gapped $50 or more. The largest was $116.30 on 1 March 2026. The Monday gap study has the full tables.
Do gold's weekend gaps always fill?
No. Of the 42 weekends in our sample with a gap of $10 or more, about 64% traded back to Friday’s close within 24 hours and 81% within the week, but 19% did not fill that week. Some of the unfilled gaps were among the largest. A gap-fill trade needs a stop like any other trade.
Is it safe to trade the Sunday or Monday open?
It is one of the most expensive times to trade. Liquidity is thin, spreads are often several times their normal size and prices can jump. Many traders wait until the Tokyo open, at 00:00 UTC, before acting on a gap.
When is the RBA decision?
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s board meets eight times a year over two days and announces its decision at 2:30 pm Sydney time on the second day, followed by a press conference at 3:30 pm. That is 03:30 UTC during Australian daylight time and 04:30 UTC in winter. The next 2026 meeting is on 7–8 December.
Does AUD/USD move with gold?
Often in the same direction, partly because both are priced against the US dollar and partly because gold is one of Australia’s largest commodity exports. Gold’s weight in the RBA’s Index of Commodity Prices rose to 9.8% from 1 April 2026. The link is loose, so use AUD/USD as a confirmation, not a signal.
Is Sydney the start of the Asian session?
Yes. Most traders count the Asian session from gold’s reopen, when Sydney (and Wellington) are active, through Tokyo and Shanghai until London arrives. For the whole night, see the Asian session playbook.
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