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Glossary · Trading basics

Weekend gap

A jump between Friday's closing price and the first price of the new week, caused by news and orders building up while forex was shut.

By Sky Trade editorial teamUpdated

The interbank forex market trades around the clock on weekdays but largely stops from Friday evening to Sunday evening. The world doesn't stop with it: elections, central-bank comments and geopolitical news keep arriving. When trading resumes, the first price can sit noticeably away from Friday's close. That jump is the weekend gap.

Gaps matter because indicators and levels computed on Friday know nothing about the weekend. A support level can be skipped entirely, and the first minutes of the week are often thin and jumpy. Some traders wait for the opening hour to settle before trusting any signal.

The popular idea that “every gap gets filled” is a tendency some traders watch, not a rule. Some gaps close within hours, others never do.

On Sky Trade the market forex pairs are unavailable while no fresh real quote arrives, which covers weekends. OTC instruments run 24/7, but they are generated by Sky Trade's server, so their weekend movement is not a preview of the real market on Monday. See OTC explained and the general entry on gaps.

Example

EUR/USD closes Friday at 1.0820. After weekend news, the first quote of the week is 1.0785 — a 35-pip gap down before anyone could trade at the prices in between.

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