Asia is prime time on AUDUSD, not a filter-out
Sydney and Tokyo from 00:30 to 04:30 UTC are a real session here. Local flows, China headlines, and the RBA clock live in that window. If your bot only enables London, you are skipping the cleanest Aussie trend of the day and waking up to a completed 40-pip move.
The second paying window is 12:30 to 16:00 UTC, when the dollar side of the pair wakes up. US data and DXY swings complete the 50 to 75 pip ATR. Between 05:00 and 12:00 UTC the pair can grind, but the best pullbacks still want H4 agreement with copper and gold, not a lonely oscillator long.
Tight spreads, commodity beta, $10 pips
Contract is 100,000 AUD, pip is 0.0001, pip value is $10.00. A 0.2 to 0.7 pip spread is $2.00 to $7.00 per lot. That supports 8 to 12 pip scalps only when Asia or New York is actually open. A 16 to 26 pip intraday stop is the adult default, and 40 to 65 pips is swing.
If you start free on Venasri, size 5.00 lots at a 20-pip stop for 1% of $100,000, then cut to 2.50 lots for evaluations. Venasri Equity Guard should treat a China stimulus spike the same way it treats NFP: flatten if the planned 20 pips becomes a 45-pip air pocket.
RBA 03:30 UTC and the China headline that does not hit Forex Factory first
RBA cash-rate decisions at 03:30 UTC can travel 40 to 80 pips. Australian CPI is the same family. PBoC and China stimulus headlines often hit during Asia and are not always flagged as red-folder FX events on a US-centric calendar. The Aussie still reprices.
Black out RBA and Australian CPI. If gold and copper disagree with your AUDUSD direction, skip the trade. Long Aussie plus long gold plus long copper is one China-and-dollar basket. Correlation Guard should cap that stack.
Aussie session gates at 00 and 50 figures
Trade 00:30 to 04:30 UTC or 12:30 to 16:00 UTC. Require spread under 0.7 pips, copper and gold not fighting you, and a stop beyond 0.6650, 0.6700, or 0.6750. Reject entries 30 minutes around RBA and reject London-only fade trades against a completed Asian trend.
Park those gates on the AI Pre-Trade Checklist. AUDUSD pays the pullback that agrees with metals. It bills the London trader who ignored a 03:30 UTC RBA candle.
