Summer Time / Daylight Savings Time

[garyfritz]

Could someone explain to me how Empty4 handles summer time?

Until this week, my crim was at GMT+2. Last weekend the US switched to Daylight Savings Time, and we set our clocks ahead an hour. I changed from GMT-7 to GMT-6.

Now my crim is at GMT+3! I see this both at PFG (a US broker) and Bully Pepperstone.

What's really confusing is that the "end of day" is still at 00:00, still at 3pm my local time -- even though my local time has shifted an hour. Obviously the rest of the world did not shift at the same time, so why do I see the "end of day" at the same time? You would hope the "FX daily close time" would be the same worldwide, summer or winter. Isn't it?

Does Empty4 detect that your local computer is using summer time, and adjust the crim time appropriately so you still see the "daily close time" as 00:00 (or whatever it was before) ? Or is "daily close time" a fiction of your local Empty4, and any "close of day" EA logic has just shifted by an hour??

[NicoScholtz]

Gary

See below extract from Bully Pepperstone email:

Dear Trader,
On Monday the 12th March 2012, the Bully Pepperstone Empty4 Server time will move one hour forward to GMT +3 hours.

Bully Pepperstone bases Empty4 Server time on "5pm New York", the internationally recognised end-of-day in the forex markets. The US will be changing to Daylight Saving Time on the 11th March 2012. With the US turning clocks one hour forward the Bully Pepperstone Empty4 Server Time will also move one hour forward.

How does this affect me?
The only noticeable change that you will experience is that the Market Watch time in Empty4 will now be set at GMT+3. This might not affect your trading at all - however, depending on your timezone, this may cause the market to open one hour earlier on Monday. The Empty4 server time will still open at 0:00 on the charts, this may just be an hour earlier for your time-zone.

GMT Offset
If you are using an EA with a GMT offset time, then you must change the GMT offset to +3 just prior to the 12th of March.

OLD SERVER TIME
Server Time GMT +2 Hours
GMT Offset +2

NEW SERVER TIME - 12th March
Server Time GMT +3 Hours
GMT Offset +3

[garyfritz]

Bully Pepperstone bases Empty4 Server time on "5pm New York", the internationally recognised end-of-day in the forex markets.

Thanks, Nico. That statement seems to explain it. I thought international FX markets were based on GMT, not jerked around by crazy time-changes in New York. What does a trader in Tokyo care about NY's summer time? They don't have summer time at all. Or a trader in London, who has summer time but it starts/stops on different dates. What a mess.

So for most of us in the US, it's easy -- we switch at the same time NY does, so we don't see any changes.