Session Time Highlighter - indicator for MetaTrader 5

Many session indicators ask you to enter session hours in your broker’s server time. That breaks twice a year when daylight saving changes, and again whenever you move to a broker with a different server time.

This indicator defines every session in the local time of its own city:

• Asia: 09:00 to 18:00 Tokyo time
• London: 08:00 to 17:00 London time (UK daylight saving applied)
• New York: 08:00 to 17:00 New York time (US daylight saving applied)
• Overlap: the period when London and New York are both open

It converts these times to your broker’s server time automatically, including the weeks in March and October/November when the UK and US clocks change on different dates.

How to read it

• Each session is drawn as a box covering its high and low, or as full height shading.
• The London/New York overlap is shown as a dashed outline.
• The panel in the top right corner shows a “NOW” line (for example “London + New York (overlap)”, “Between sessions” or “Weekend, market closed”). Open sessions are highlighted in green, and every session shows a countdown to its next open or close.
• Hover over a box to see its exact start and end in server time.

Inputs

• Server time mode: Auto detect, NY-close broker (UTC+2 winter / UTC+3 summer), or Manual fixed offset. Manual offset: the broker’s offset from UTC in hours.
• Display: days of history, box style, fill on/off, session labels, panel on/off, text, active and panel colors, and the highest timeframe on which boxes are drawn (H1 by default).
• Sessions: on/off, start and end time in the city’s local time, and color for Asia, London and New York; on/off and color for the overlap.

Notes

• In the Strategy Tester the terminal does not provide real UTC, so Auto detect uses the NY-close model there. If your broker uses a different server time, choose Manual and enter its offset.
• Weekends are skipped. The indicator uses chart objects only, has no buffers, and removes everything it drew when detached.

Useful for intraday traders on XAUUSD, indices and major FX pairs who time entries around the London open, the New York open and the overlap.