Broker server time and DST: the UTC+2/+3 brokers and the UTC+0 brokers

ConfirmedTrades team · September 8, 2026 · 7 min read

Why most MetaTrader servers run on UTC+2 in winter and UTC+3 in summer, why a few run on UTC all year, the exact switch dates from 2020 to 2027, and how ConfirmedTrades shows every account on one clock.

The short version

Every MetaTrader broker runs its servers on a clock of its own choosing, and the times in your terminal, your trade history and every statement are on that clock. Two conventions cover almost the whole industry.

UTC+2 in winter, UTC+3 in summer — used by the large majority, including IC Markets, VT Markets and Vantage. The clock is chosen so that the trading day ends at 5 pm in New York, where the forex day rolls over, and it shifts twice a year on the United States daylight-saving dates.

UTC+0 all year — used by a minority, Exness being the best-known. Nothing shifts; the daily candle closes at midnight UTC instead.

ConfirmedTrades shows every account on the UTC+2/+3 clock, whichever convention the broker uses, so two accounts can always be read side by side. A UTC+0 broker's trades are moved onto that clock, not left where they were.

Why 5 pm New York matters

The forex market has no exchange and no official close, but banks settle at 5 pm New York time, and that moment is treated as the end of the trading day. A broker whose server clock puts midnight at 5 pm New York gets a tidy result: exactly five daily candles a week, Monday to Friday, each covering one full trading day.

New York observes daylight saving. If the server clock did not follow it, midnight would drift an hour away from the New York close for eight months of the year. So the server clock follows New York: UTC+2 while New York is on standard time, UTC+3 while it is on daylight time.

This is why a MetaTrader server that seems to sit in a strange time zone is not in any country at all. It is simply New York plus seven hours.

The UTC+0 brokers

A server on UTC all year never shifts, which is simpler for the broker and for anyone matching trades against exchange data. The cost is the candle count: the week's last hours of trading, from 22:00 UTC on Friday, fall into a sixth, short daily candle on the chart. Some brokers keep that stub; some hide it.

For a trader the practical difference is small, but it changes the numbers on the page: the hour a trade appears to have opened, which weekday a late-Friday trade belongs to, and where a daily bar starts and ends. Any indicator that reads daily bars, and any EA that trades at a fixed server hour, behaves differently on the two clocks.

Daylight-saving switch dates, 2020 to 2027

The UTC+2/+3 brokers switch on the United States rule: daylight time starts on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November. Between those dates the server runs on UTC+3; outside them, UTC+2. The switch always lands on a weekend, when the market is closed, so no candle is ever cut in half.

2020 — UTC+3 from March 8 to November 1
2021 — UTC+3 from March 14 to November 7
2022 — UTC+3 from March 13 to November 6
2023 — UTC+3 from March 12 to November 5
2024 — UTC+3 from March 10 to November 3
2025 — UTC+3 from March 9 to November 2
2026 — UTC+3 from March 8 to November 1
2027 — UTC+3 from March 14 to November 7

A few brokers follow the European rule instead — the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October. Those servers disagree with the New York-based ones for two or three weeks each spring and one week each autumn. In 2026 the European dates are March 29 and October 25; in 2027, March 28 and October 31.

Which brokers use which clock

At the time of writing, and as a guide only — a broker can change its server clock, and some run different clocks on different server groups:

UTC+2/+3 (New York close): IC Markets, VT Markets, Vantage — and most other MetaTrader brokers.
UTC+0 all year: Exness.

To check your own broker, open the Market Watch window in MetaTrader: the time at the top is the server clock. Compare it with UTC and you have the offset; check again after a March or November switch and you know whether it follows daylight saving.

How ConfirmedTrades shows times

Every trade the connector sends is stamped with the broker's own clock at that moment, daylight saving included, so each record knows what the trader's screen said when it happened. That is the raw material.

For display, everything is placed on one clock, UTC+2/+3 — the convention most traders already read. An account on a UTC+2/+3 broker appears exactly as it does in its own terminal. An account on a UTC+0 broker has its times moved forward by two or three hours, so a trade opened at 14:00 Exness time is shown at 16:00 in winter and 17:00 in summer: the same instant, on the common clock.

The hour-of-day and weekday charts, the trade tables and the note under Trade records all use that clock. A portfolio that combines accounts from both kinds of broker combines them correctly, because the shift is applied before anything is added up.

If a time on a page looks two or three hours later than in your terminal, that is the reason: your broker runs on UTC+0 and the page runs on UTC+2/+3.

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