Live status, 2026 calendar and America/New_York timezone
The NYSE opens at 9:30 AM and closes at 4:00 PM, New York time. For a UK-based trader, that means 2:30 PM – 9:00 PM London time for most of the year. The window only shifts to 1:30 PM – 8:00 PM during two short transition periods, in March and late October–early November, because Europe and the United States do not change their clocks on the same weekend.
It is the largest exchange in the world by market capitalisation, home to the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average among others.
This page covers everything you need to follow the NYSE from Europe: exact hours in London time, the 2026 holiday calendar, pre-market, after-hours, and the busiest windows.
The NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) holds its regular session from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM, New York time (America/New_York time zone). It is a fixed schedule, five days a week, Monday to Friday. The exchange is closed on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as on ten federal holidays listed below.
The America/New_York time zone corresponds to ET (Eastern Time): UTC−5 in winter (EST) and UTC−4 in summer (EDT). The gap with London is 5 hours for most of the year: Europe and the United States switch to summer time, then to winter time, a few days or weeks apart, which keeps the gap stable in both summer and winter.
It drops to 4 hours during two short windows — a few weeks in March, then late October–early November — because the two regions do not switch on the same weekend.
In practice, here are the NYSE hours in London time:
| Session | New York time (ET) | London time |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-market | 7:00 – 9:30 AM | 12:00 – 2:30 PM |
| Regular session | 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM | 2:30 – 9:00 PM |
| After-hours | 4:00 – 8:00 PM | 9:00 PM – 1:00 AM |
The NYSE is identified by the MIC code XNYS. It is operated by NYSE Group, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), from the historic building at 11 Wall Street in Manhattan.
The official NYSE session from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET is not the only trading window. Two phases bracket the regular session and let traders react to news released outside the session.
Earlier still, from 4:00 AM ET (9:00 AM London), electronic trading becomes possible: this is when the Nasdaq pre-market and the NYSE Arca Early Trading Session start, NYSE Arca being the group’s electronic platform. Liquidity stays very thin and spreads wide, especially before 8:00 AM ET. Retail access to this window depends on the broker: some open it from 4:00, many only start at 7:00.
The busiest pre-market window is between 8:00 and 9:30 AM ET, because US macro releases (employment, inflation, retail sales) often land at 8:30 AM ET. Large caps move sharply on quarterly results published before the open — that is where the opening gaps form.
In both cases, orders execute on electronic platforms rather than through the central market auction. Prices can diverge significantly from the regular close, especially on stocks that publish results.
The NYSE is fully closed on ten days in 2026, plus two half-sessions at year-end. The full closures correspond to the US federal holidays officially recognised by the exchange.
| Date | Holiday | Session |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, January 1, 2026 | New Year’s Day | Closed |
| Monday, January 19, 2026 | Martin Luther King Jr. Day | Closed |
| Monday, February 16, 2026 | Presidents’ Day | Closed |
| Friday, April 3, 2026 | Good Friday | Closed |
| Monday, May 25, 2026 | Memorial Day | Closed |
| Friday, June 19, 2026 | Juneteenth | Closed |
| Friday, July 3, 2026 | Independence Day (observed) | Closed |
| Monday, September 7, 2026 | Labor Day | Closed |
| Thursday, November 26, 2026 | Thanksgiving | Closed |
| Friday, December 25, 2026 | Christmas Day | Closed |
Note: in addition to these ten full closures, the NYSE runs two half-sessions in 2026, with an early close at 1:00 PM ET (6:00 PM London time): Friday, November 27 (the day after Thanksgiving) and Thursday, December 24 (Christmas Eve).
Check the official NYSE calendar each year for any last-minute changes.
Three windows stand out for a European trader active on the US markets.
To trade US stocks from Europe, execution quality and real-time NYSE quotes matter as much as the strategy. ProRealTime gives access to the NYSE and Nasdaq feeds in real time, with ProBacktest to test strategies on S&P 500 history and ProScreener to scan the universe of large US caps. Try ProRealTime for free.
Triple witching is the session where three types of derivatives expire at the same time: index options, stock options and index futures. It falls on the third Friday of each quarter (March, June, September and December).
Quadruple witching adds single-stock futures; these, however, stopped trading in the United States in 2020, so both terms now refer to the same expiry.
On those days, volume and volatility surge, especially in the final hour of the session (3:00–4:00 PM ET / 8:00–9:00 PM London time), when open positions are closed and rolled.
The 2026 dates:
For a Europe-based trader, the NYSE is an evening market. The open at 2:30 PM London time lets you follow Wall Street’s first hours in the late afternoon, before wrapping up the day around 9:00 PM.
This time slot has practical implications:
The NYSE does not trade in the same time zone as the European exchanges. The overlap between the European session and the NYSE open (2:30–4:30 PM London time) is the most active window of the day for a Europe-based trader: volume multiplies.
| Exchange | Open | Close | Main index | Time zone |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 NYSE (New York) | 9:30 | 16:00 | Dow Jones / S&P 500 | ET (UTC−5/−4) |
| 🇺🇸 NASDAQ (New York) | 9:30 | 16:00 | NASDAQ-100 | ET (UTC−5/−4) |
| 🇬🇧 LSE (London) | 8:00 | 16:30 | FTSE 100 | GMT (UTC+0/+1) |
| 🇫🇷 Euronext Paris | 9:00 | 17:30 | CAC 40 | CET (UTC+1/+2) |
| 🇩🇪 XETRA (Frankfurt) | 9:00 | 17:30 | DAX 40 | CET (UTC+1/+2) |
| 🇪🇸 BME (Madrid) | 9:00 | 17:30 | IBEX 35 | CET (UTC+1/+2) |
| 🇯🇵 Tokyo (TSE) | 9:00 | 15:30 | Nikkei 225 | JST (UTC+9) |
Monday to Friday, except on the holidays listed above. The widget at the top of this page shows the live status with the hours converted to London time.
9:30 AM ET, i.e. 2:30 PM London time for most of the year. The window shifts to 1:30 PM only during the short clock-change transition periods, in March and late October–early November.
4:00 PM ET, i.e. 9:00 PM London time for most of the year. The window shifts to 8:00 PM only during the short clock-change transition periods, in March and late October–early November.
The NYSE and the NASDAQ are two separate US exchanges. The NYSE, founded in 1792, is a hybrid market with a physical floor on Wall Street and an electronic system. It lists mostly large industrial, financial and consumer companies (General Electric, JPMorgan, Coca-Cola).
The NASDAQ, created in 1971, is fully electronic and concentrated in technology companies (Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon). Both exchanges use the same time zone and the same session hours (9:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET).
Yes, through a regulated broker that gives access to the US markets. Brokers authorised in Europe (with a regulator such as the FCA, BaFin or AMF) generally offer access to NYSE and NASDAQ stocks. Check the USD/EUR conversion fees and any withholding tax on US dividends.
No. S&P 500 futures (CME Globex) trade almost around the clock: from 6:00 PM ET on Sunday to 5:00 PM ET on Friday, with a short daily break from 5:00 to 6:00 PM ET. They therefore let you take a position or hedge a portfolio outside NYSE hours.
No. The NYSE closes for Good Friday, just like the NASDAQ: both major US stock exchanges are closed that day. Good Friday is not a US federal holiday (banks and government offices operate normally), but the stock markets traditionally observe it.
Maxime holds two master’s degrees from the SKEMA Business School and FFBC. As founder and editor-in-chief of NewTrading.fr, he writes daily about financial trading.
