GMT definition

GMT is Greenwich Mean Time, the time at the Greenwich meridian used as a common reference across global markets. In trading it is the baseline for comparing activity in different countries and financial centres.

You use GMT to track market openings and closings, session overlaps, platform server time, and scheduled economic releases. A shared reference cuts the confusion when brokers, exchanges, liquidity providers, and traders all sit in different time zones.

GMT does not shift for daylight saving, which makes it a stable reference, though many platforms quote schedules in UTC instead. GMT and UTC keep the same clock time in practice, so a release listed at 13:30 GMT and 13:30 UTC lands at the same moment. GMT is most relevant in forex and CFD trading, where the market runs across the major global sessions.