Trading hours

The stock market is open for six and a half hours a day. Stock index futures trade for almost the entire day and night, five days a week. Knowing the clock is basic survival: it tells you when you can trade, when you cannot, and when the market tends to wake up.

Every time in LearnToTick is in U.S. Central Time (CT), the time zone of CME Group in Chicago. When a source gives Eastern Time (ET), we convert it: CT is one hour earlier than ET.

The Globex week

ES, NQ, MES, and MNQ all trade on CME Globex on the same schedule:

• Opens: Sunday at 5:00 p.m. CT
• Closes: Friday at 4:00 p.m. CT
• Daily break: every weekday from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. CT, the market stops for a one-hour maintenance period, then reopens for the next trading day.

So from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, the market is open nearly around the clock, with a one-hour pause each afternoon. There is no trading on Saturday, or on Sunday before 5:00 p.m. CT.

(In CME’s own words the hours are listed in ET: Sunday 6:00 p.m. to Friday 5:00 p.m. ET, with a daily break from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. Same schedule, one hour later on the clock.)

A trading day starts the evening before

Here is something that confuses almost everyone at first. Because the market reopens at 5:00 p.m. CT, the trading day for futures begins the evening before the calendar day. Trading that happens Monday at 7:00 p.m. CT belongs to Tuesday’s session. Sunday evening’s trading belongs to Monday.

Two different markets, two different clocks

This is the part beginners mix up most, so take it slowly. When you trade ES or NQ, two separate markets are involved:

1. The stock market. This is where the actual shares of the companies in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 trade. Its main session is short. The New York Stock Exchange’s core trading session runs 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, which is 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. CT. This is often called the cash session.
2. The futures market. ES, NQ, MES, and MNQ do not trade on the stock exchange. They trade on CME Globex, which, as you just learned, is open nearly around the clock from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon.

So the futures keep trading long after the stock market has closed for the day, and long before it opens the next morning.

Regular trading hours (RTH)

Even though index futures trade nearly all day, ES and NQ traders pay the most attention to the stock market’s cash session, 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. CT. They call that window RTH, short for regular trading hours. Everything outside it is usually called overnight, Globex, or ETH (extended trading hours).

During RTH, the stocks that make up the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 are trading at the same time as the futures that track them, so both markets are active together. You will see on charts in the next level how different RTH and overnight trading can look.

Other futures keep other hours

The schedule in this lesson is for the stock index futures. Every CME contract lists its own hours on its contract specs page, and they are not all the same. A few examples, all in CT, from CME’s specs pages:

Crude oil, gold, and Treasury futures happen to run on the same nearly-24-hour clock as ES and NQ. Corn is different: it trades in two separate windows, closes for the day at 1:20 p.m. CT, and is shut for several hours each afternoon and evening. The lesson: never assume a market’s hours. Check its contract specs page.

Holidays change the schedule

On U.S. holidays the hours change: the market may close early, open late, or not trade at all. CME publishes a holiday calendar showing the exact hours for each holiday. Check it before any holiday week: https://www.cmegroup.com/trading-hours.html

Key ideas

• Globex trading runs from Sunday 5:00 p.m. CT to Friday 4:00 p.m. CT.
• There is a daily one-hour break from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. CT.
• The futures trading day starts the evening before the calendar day.
• RTH is 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. CT, the U.S. stock market’s cash session that ES and NQ traders watch.
• Other futures keep their own hours (corn, for example, trades in two windows). Always check the contract specs page.
• Holidays change the hours. Check CME’s holiday calendar.