Mapping the Asian–London overlap on EUR pairs
The Asian–London overlap runs from 14:00 to 16:00 ICT. For Vietnam-based traders watching EUR/USD or EUR/GBP, this is often the most actionable two hours of the morning — but only if you have the Asian range marked before 14:00.
Step 1: Mark the Asian range before London opens
By 13:45 ICT, the Asian session is winding down. Draw a horizontal line at the Asian high and Asian low on your hourly chart. Note the midpoint. If price is closing near the Asian high, expect the first London hour to test that level. If closing near the low, expect a test of support.
On EUR/USD last Tuesday, the Asian range was 28 pips wide — slightly narrower than the 20-day average of 34 pips. Narrow ranges tend to expand during the overlap, which means breakout attempts are common but often fail without a clear daily bias.
Step 2: Watch the 14:00 ICT candle
The first hourly candle of London tells you where the European desk is positioned relative to Asia. Three scenarios we track:
- Open inside, close outside: Breakout attempt. Wait for the 15:00 candle to confirm or reject.
- Open and close inside: Compression continues. The overlap may produce a false move before the real direction emerges after 16:00.
- Open outside prior range: Gap or overnight continuation. Check the daily chart before assuming reversal.
Step 3: Compare overlap range to Asian range
After 16:00 ICT, mark the overlap high and low. If the overlap range exceeds the Asian range in the same direction (e.g., both bullish expansion), the trend is more likely to continue into the full London session. If the overlap range is counter to the Asian close, you may be looking at a fade setup.
Practical note on EUR/GBP
EUR/GBP often shows cleaner overlap behaviour than EUR/USD because both currencies are driven by European liquidity. We use EUR/GBP as the teaching example in the Session Mapping Intensive for this reason — the session boundaries are visually clearer on the hourly chart.
Register for the Session Mapping Intensive to practice this marking sequence on live charts with instructor feedback.