Futures trading hours
The short answer: most CME futures trade from Sunday 6:00 p.m. to Friday 5:00 p.m. ET, with a one-hour break every day from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET. That covers ES, NQ, crude oil, gold, Treasuries and currencies. Grains and bitcoin differ. The clock below shows what's open right now, in your own time.
- …Stock index futuresES, NQ, YM, RTY and the micros MES, MNQ, MYM, M2K
- …EnergyCL, MCL, NG
- …MetalsGC, MGC, SI, SIL
- …Treasury futuresZN, ZB, ZF, ZT
- …Currency futures6E, 6B, 6J, 6A and the other FX futures
- …GrainsZC (corn), ZS (soybeans), ZW (wheat)
- …Bitcoin futuresBTC, MBT
Regular weekly hours. Holidays change them; see the holiday table below.
CME futures hours by market
Electronic (CME Globex) hours. Micro contracts trade the same hours as the full-size ones.
| Market | New York time (ET) | Chicago time (CT) | Daily break |
|---|---|---|---|
Stock index futures ES, NQ, YM, RTY and the micros MES, MNQ, MYM, M2K | Sunday 6:00 p.m. to Friday 5:00 p.m. | Sunday 5:00 p.m. to Friday 4:00 p.m. | 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET (4:00 to 5:00 p.m. CT) |
Energy CL, MCL, NG | Sunday 6:00 p.m. to Friday 5:00 p.m. | Sunday 5:00 p.m. to Friday 4:00 p.m. | 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET (4:00 to 5:00 p.m. CT) |
Metals GC, MGC, SI, SIL | Sunday 6:00 p.m. to Friday 5:00 p.m. | Sunday 5:00 p.m. to Friday 4:00 p.m. | 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET (4:00 to 5:00 p.m. CT) |
Treasury futures ZN, ZB, ZF, ZT | Sunday 6:00 p.m. to Friday 5:00 p.m. | Sunday 5:00 p.m. to Friday 4:00 p.m. | 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET (4:00 to 5:00 p.m. CT) |
Currency futures 6E, 6B, 6J, 6A and the other FX futures | Sunday 6:00 p.m. to Friday 5:00 p.m. | Sunday 5:00 p.m. to Friday 4:00 p.m. | 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET (4:00 to 5:00 p.m. CT) |
Grains ZC (corn), ZS (soybeans), ZW (wheat) | Sunday to Friday 8:00 p.m. to 8:45 a.m., and Monday to Friday 9:30 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. | Sunday to Friday 7:00 p.m. to 7:45 a.m., and Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 1:20 p.m. | 8:45 to 9:30 a.m. ET, and closed 2:20 to 8:00 p.m. ET |
Bitcoin futures BTC, MBT | 24/7 | 24/7 | Saturday 3:00 to 5:00 a.m. ET, and 5:00 to 5:02 p.m. ET Monday to Friday |
From each contract's specification page at cmegroup.com, checked 1 October 2026. Your broker may stop accepting orders a few minutes before the close.
The times that matter during the day
Futures being open nearly 24 hours doesn't mean every hour is worth trading. Volume and moves cluster around a few times. All New York time.
| 6:00 p.m. Sun | Futures open for the week. Thin, and gaps from the weekend show up here. |
|---|---|
| 3:00 a.m. | London opens. Volume picks up in index futures, currencies and gold. |
| 8:30 a.m. | Most big US data: CPI, jobs report, retail sales. Expect a spike. |
| 9:30 a.m. | Stock market opens. The busiest and fastest hour of the day for index futures. |
| 10:00 a.m. | More data (ISM, consumer sentiment). Often a second move. |
| 10:30 a.m. Wed | EIA crude oil inventories. Oil can jump in seconds. |
| 2:00 p.m. | FOMC rate decision, eight times a year. |
| 4:00 p.m. | Stock market closes. Index futures keep trading, with less volume. |
| 5:00 p.m. | Daily close and the one-hour break on most CME futures. |
The hours outside 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. are usually called overnight or ETH (extended trading hours), and the stock market hours RTH (regular trading hours). Moves overnight are often slower and thinner, which suits some traders and catches out others.
The New York open in your time zone
When the stock market opens at 9:30 a.m. ET, and when futures reopen after the daily break at 6:00 p.m. ET. For most of the year:
| Where you are | 9:30 a.m. ET open | 6:00 p.m. ET reopen |
|---|---|---|
| London | 2:30 p.m. | 11:00 p.m. |
| Central Europe (Paris, Berlin, Stockholm) | 3:30 p.m. | 12:00 a.m. |
| Helsinki, Athens | 4:30 p.m. | 1:00 a.m. |
| Dubai | 5:30 p.m. | 2:00 a.m. |
| Singapore | 9:30 p.m. | 6:00 a.m. |
| Sydney | 11:30 p.m.* | 8:00 a.m.* |
The US and Europe change their clocks on different weekends. For about three weeks in March and one in late October to early November, the open comes one hour earlier in Europe (2:30 p.m. becomes 1:30 p.m. in London). Dubai and Singapore don't change clocks, so from November to March their times are one hour later. *Sydney is shown for the northern summer; it shifts by up to two hours over the year. The live clock at the top always gives the right time for you.
Futures holiday hours
CME doesn't simply close on US holidays. Most of the time it trades a short session and stops early. These are the stock index futures hours for the next holidays, from CME's holiday calendar.
| Holiday | Date | ES, NQ and other index futures | Other markets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thanksgiving | Thu 26 Nov 2026 | Trading halts at 12:00 p.m. CT (1:00 p.m. ET) Thursday, reopens 5:00 p.m. CT. Friday closes early at 12:15 p.m. CT (1:15 p.m. ET). | Energy halts 1:30 p.m. CT Thursday, Friday closes at 1:45 p.m. CT. |
| Christmas | Fri 25 Dec 2026 | Thursday 24 Dec closes early at 12:15 p.m. CT (1:15 p.m. ET). Closed Friday. | Energy closes at 12:45 p.m. CT on the 24th. |
| Martin Luther King Jr. Day | Mon 18 Jan 2027 | Opens as usual Sunday evening, halts at 12:00 p.m. CT (1:00 p.m. ET) Monday, reopens 5:00 p.m. CT. | No regular session on the holiday itself. |
| Presidents' Day | Mon 15 Feb 2027 | Halts at 12:00 p.m. CT (1:00 p.m. ET) Monday, reopens 5:00 p.m. CT. | No regular session on the holiday itself. |
| Good Friday | Fri 26 Mar 2027 | Closed. The last session ends Thursday at 4:00 p.m. CT (5:00 p.m. ET). | Closed. |
| Memorial Day | Mon 31 May 2027 | Halts at 12:00 p.m. CT (1:00 p.m. ET) Monday, reopens 5:00 p.m. CT. | No regular session on the holiday itself. |
| Juneteenth (observed) | Fri 18 Jun 2027 | Opens Thursday evening as usual, halts at 12:00 p.m. CT (1:00 p.m. ET) Friday, back Sunday evening. | Check CME for each product. |
Checked on CME's holiday calendar on 1 October 2026. Exchanges sometimes change holiday hours close to the date, so check cmegroup.com/trading-hours the week before.
Trade the hours you're good at
Being able to trade 23 hours a day is the trap. For a lot of traders the losses pile up outside the hours they planned to trade: the boredom trade at lunch, the one more trade at 3:45, the late-night session after a red day.
The fix is a trading window written as a rule, like "only 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. ET", and checking every trade against it. In Actal the trading hours rule does that for you, and your P&L by hour shows which part of the day is paying you and which is costing you. More examples in trading rules that work.
Questions people ask
Import your trades into Actal, set the hours you mean to trade, and every trade outside them is flagged with what it cost. Free during beta, no card.
Made by Joakim Jusell, futures trader and coach at Jusell Trading Academy.