Hi Apologies up front for the simplicity of this question. What are the "real" trading hourse for, say the DOW and emini S&P. I currently use a spreadbet account for my first foray into trading and am confused about the actual times when I can trade these index futures contracts. 'Cause looking on the software it appears I can trade 24X7. I have looked on CBOT and CME exchange home pages but it seems a little confusing to a novice like myself. Mutts
Hi Mut1ey, what you are facing is the fact that many futures can be traded through Globex 24-hours are day, contracts like the Nikkei225 even on different exchanges with different contracts... For the "main" hours of the mini's (SP,Nd,DJ) - what time zone are you? EST would be 9:30 til 16:15 (hope that works because I'm trading CET). Regards, Oliver
Hi Mut1ey, basically yes - but it depends on the contracts you are trading. For example the T-Bonds and T-Notes (ACE) have nearly four hours of break after 4pm EST (or so) and reopen around 9pm EST. The mini's (Globex) close at 4.15pm and reopen at 5pm EST - again these times are conversions of CET in Europe from which I trade. So mistakes are possible. Regards, Oliver
correction for Globex: the currency futures are closed 5pm til 6pm EST the minis are closed 4.15pm til 4.30pm and again closed from 5.30pm til 6pm EST. Good trading
Mutley, If you use a UK based spread betting company you can trade when those companies are prepared to make market, which is often long after the exchanges close. I have sleeping accounts with the two main spread betting companies and although i haven't used them in years I seem to remember that their Ftse bets ran on until the Dow closed and possibly through the night. You really need to exercise caution if you are going to relate spread betting to actual markets because they make books of their own although mostly they are fairly in line with the index they track. If it's still the case with Ftse it was somewhat annoying to get stopped out long after the main market closed and based on people betting on an often short term action on the Dow. Of course there is nothing wrong with it if you factor such things into your strategy. The e-mini trades 24 hours minus a break between 21.15 and 21.45. It stops on Friday at 21.15 and re-opens at 23.30 on Sunday. The real volume is between 13.30 and 21.15 albeit on some days the half hour after re-open can be busy for those that were late getting out\in. Traduk
These new trading hours are really f*cked up! It makes no sense at all to have the shutdown period at 5:30pm, it was much better at midnight . These CME f*ckers coudn't come up with a worse time for the daily shutdown . This is when conference calls take place!
Depending on what index futures trading platform you use, the platform may also have a shut down period on a daily basis.
Yeah but I don't know of any broker that shuts down at 5:30pm. What the hell have these guys smoked?!! I take a trading break, next thing I know they changed the rules. What are you supposed to do now when the Q's crater at 5:45 because a big cap issues a profit warning? You are screwed. Before you could choose to take your position at the close or at the reopen at 4:45pm and at midnight you sleep anyway so you couldn't do much about the shutdown . Now there are 2 interruptions at very critical times and it could also affect liquidity in between .