Every Session Plays a Different Role — Here's How to Read Each One
Every session plays its own role — none of them is "just another one".
Before you start: Builds on the Asia, London and New York session concepts.
Part of the My Edge Official framework — refined through thousands of hours of chart study.
The goal isn't to trade every session. The goal is to understand what each session is trying to accomplish — Asia, London, New York, lunch, and power hour each have their own role in the daily story, and that difference changes how you read everything that happens within it.
- Asia Session — Objective: Building Liquidity
- London Session — Objective: Beginning Liquidity Delivery
- New York Session — Objective: Completing the Daily Delivery
- Lunch — Objective: Reading Reduced Participation
- Power Hour — Objective: Completing Delivery
- Rule and Session Transitions
- Worked Example
- Common Mistakes
The goal isn't to trade every session — the goal is to understand what each session is trying to accomplish. Asia builds liquidity, London starts delivering it, New York finishes the day's delivery, lunch is a period of reduced participation, and the last hour wraps up delivery.
Each session has its own role in the day's story — lunch isn't meant for the same kind of execution as the New York Kill Zone. At every session change, ask yourself: has liquidity already been delivered? Has the story changed? Are new zones forming?
Advanced explanation⌄
Asia Session — Objective: Building Liquidity
Establishes liquidity and the overnight dealing range. Check: whether Asia respects the NDOG, whether it's creating equal highs/lows, whether it's leaving clean PD Arrays behind, and whether it's expanding or ranging. Asia often builds the liquidity that London or New York later targets.
London Session — Objective: Beginning Liquidity Delivery
Check: whether Asian liquidity was taken, whether London created displacement, whether it established the daily narrative, and whether new PD Arrays are forming. London often sets the conditions for New York.
New York Session — Objective: Completing the Daily Delivery
Check: whether London completed its delivery, whether higher-timeframe liquidity is still unswept, whether an MSS is confirmed, whether displacement is present, and whether a valid execution model exists. Most high-probability executions happen after confirmation.
Lunch — Objective: Reading Reduced Participation
Check whether it's accumulation, distribution, manipulation, continuation, or consolidation. Lunch often provides information about the afternoon session.
Power Hour — Objective: Completing Delivery
Check whether the daily objective has been reached, whether the higher-timeframe delivery is complete, and whether price is targeting external liquidity into the close.
Rule and Session Transitions
💡 Never assess a session in isolation — always connect it to the weekly context, the market environment, the draw on liquidity, and the current daily narrative.
At every session change, ask yourself: has liquidity already been delivered, has the narrative changed, are new PD Arrays forming, does the trading scenario need to change?
Worked Example
Asia builds a narrow range and leaves clean liquidity on both sides — objective achieved. London opens and immediately takes the Asian low with upward displacement — the "beginning of delivery" objective is achieved, and the daily narrative is now bullish. New York opens within this narrative: if London's delivery isn't complete yet (higher liquidity remains unswept), New York continues in the same direction. If London has already delivered its entire expected range, New York instead often offers the opposite, concluding move. The difference between these two scenarios is exactly what the "Rule and Session Transitions" section requires you to check at every session change.
Common Mistakes
- Trading every session the same way, regardless of its purpose — lunch isn't meant for the same kind of execution as the New York Kill Zone.
- Ignoring the transition questions. Traders often carry London's narrative into New York without checking whether delivery has already been completed.
- Treating Asia as unimportant. Asia doesn't often offer executions, but without understanding which liquidity it built, London and New York lose their context.
How to Use It
In practice:
- Before every session, write down its objective (from the list above) and one concrete thing you'll watch for to know whether the session is achieving that objective.
- When transitioning from one session to another, always check the four transition questions above — this is the most commonly skipped step, and it's what causes traders to trade a stale narrative in the new session.
- Combine this with Higher Timeframe Context — a session model is high-probability only once it overlaps with a higher-timeframe PD Array.
Don't stop here — see how this fits with the rest of the framework.
Continue to Weekly Context →Frequently Asked Questions
What is Session Analysis?⌄
It's the framework for understanding the distinct role each part of the trading day plays — Asia builds liquidity, London begins delivery, New York completes it, lunch reflects reduced participation, and power hour finishes delivery into the close.
How do I use Session Analysis during the trading day?⌄
Before each session, write down its objective and one concrete thing to watch for, then at every session transition, explicitly check whether liquidity has already been delivered and whether the narrative has changed before carrying it into the next session.
Is every session traded the same way?⌄
No — treating every session identically, for example trading lunch the same way as the New York Kill Zone, is one of the most common mistakes this document specifically warns against.
Why analyze the Asia session if it rarely offers executions?⌄
Because without understanding which liquidity Asia built, London and New York lose their context — Asia's role is establishing the liquidity those later sessions target, not producing entries itself.