How Many Trading Days in a Year (2024)? Tips for Better Market Timing

How many trading days in a year? Well, in the United States, there are 250 to 252 trading days in a year. Why 252 and not 365? Well, it’s a long answer that we will get right to in this article. However, the number of trading days in a year can vary depending on various factors. 

What Is a Trading Day?

A trading day is simply the period when a financial market is open for business. This excludes weekends and public holidays. 

In the United States, a typical trading day in major US stock exchanges, like the NYSE and Nasdaq, runs from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Time.

However, in the forex market, trading days are unique because the market operates 24 hours a day, five days a week. This nonstop trading cycle happens because forex trading involves major financial hubs like London, New York, Tokyo, and Sydney, with their trading sessions overlapping. 

A typical trading day starts with the Sydney session and moves across the globe. This means there's always a market open somewhere, letting you trade anytime, day or night.

How Many Trading Days in a Year?

There are approximately 252 days in the US. Again, why 252 and not 365. Well, it’s due to weekends and public holidays. 

Stock markets operate Monday through Friday, closing on Saturdays and Sundays. This immediately reduces the number of potential trading days by about 104 days (52 weekends).

Also, it depends on how holidays fall within the calendar. For instance, holidays like Christmas, New Year's, and Independence Day can affect the total count. 

Major Public Holidays in the US

Here are the public holidays in 2024 when U.S. stock markets (such as the NYSE and NASDAQ) are closed:

• New Year's Day - January 1 (Monday)

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day - January 15 (Monday)

• Presidents' Day - February 19 (Monday)

• Good Friday - March 29 (Friday)

• Memorial Day - May 27 (Monday)

• Independence Day - July 4 (Thursday)

• Labor Day - September 2 (Monday)

• Thanksgiving Day - November 28 (Thursday)

• Christmas Day - December 25 (Wednesday)

Note that while Veterans Day and Columbus Day are federal holidays, the stock markets remain open on these days. However, the markets close on Good Friday, which isn't an official federal holiday.

Differences Between Trading Days and Calendar Days

Trading and calendar days might seem similar, but they're pretty different. Trading days are the days when financial markets are open for business, as we discussed before, which are approximately 252 days a year.

On the other hand, calendar days include every single day of the year. That includes weekdays, weekends, and holidays totaling 365 (or 366 in a leap year). 

The key difference? Market activities like buying and selling only happen on trading days. 

So, while you can plan your schedule around calendar days, traders and investors need to focus on financial market trading days to execute and analyze their market activities.

How To Calculate Trading Days?

You can easily calculate your market's yearly trading days by using the daily historical data of a security or index that consistently trades every trading day. 

A broad market stock index is perfect for this – think the S&P 500, the DJIA in the U.S., or the VIX. 

Once you have that data, all you need to do is count the number of days listed (the rows of daily data) for the period you’re looking at and then divide by the number of years it covers. 

That will give you a good idea of the average number of trading days per year for your market.

How Many Trading Days in 2024?

Let’s try to calculate how many trading days in 2024. Some might say there are 251 trading days this year, but that’s not right. There are 252 trading days in 2024.  

This is calculated, as we said before, by taking the total number of weekdays in the year and subtracting the public holidays when the stock markets are closed.

• Total days in 2024: 366 days (2024 is a leap year)

• Weekends: 104 days (52 weeks x 2 days)

• Public holidays: 10 days (approximate for major U.S. stock exchanges)

So, the trading days calculation would be:

366 days - 104 weekends - 10 holidays = 252 trading days

Keep in mind that the exact number can vary slightly based on the specific holidays observed by different stock exchanges worldwide.

What Is a Trading Session?

A trading session is the hours when a financial market, like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is open for buying and selling. For example, the NYSE is open from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Time. 

This differs from trading days, which count how many days a market is open in a year, excluding weekends and holidays.

How Does a Trading Session Work?

A trading session is the period when a financial market, like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is open for buying and selling. The NYSE operates from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Time. 

Besides these regular hours, there are pre-market and after-hours sessions for trading outside the standard times. Trading sessions happen on weekdays, excluding weekends and public holidays.

 Different global markets have their trading hours based on their time zones, which sometimes overlap and create higher activity periods. 

What Are Extended Trading Hours?

Extended trading hours are the times before and after the regular trading session when you can still buy and sell securities. 

Pre-market trading happens before the market officially opens, usually from 4:00 AM to 9:30 AM Eastern Time, while after-hours trading takes place after the market closes, typically from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM Eastern Time. 

These sessions let traders react to news, earnings reports, and events outside regular hours. Although they offer more flexibility and extra opportunities, extended trading hours often come with lower liquidity, higher volatility, and fewer available order types.

Which Markets Offer Extended Trading Hours?

Several major financial markets offer extended trading hours, allowing you to buy and sell securities outside regular market hours. Here are a few:

• New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)

  • Pre-Market Trading: 4:00 AM to 9:30 AM Eastern Time

  • After-Hours Trading: 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM Eastern Time

• NASDAQ

  • Pre-Market Trading: 4:00 AM to 9:30 AM Eastern Time

  • After-Hours Trading: 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM Eastern Time

• London Stock Exchange (LSE)

  • Some securities may be traded on the LSE International Order Book from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM local time, with extended hours for certain instruments.

Bottom Line

Knowing how many trading days there are in a year and understanding trading sessions is key for anyone involved in the markets. In the U.S., you get around 252 trading days each year because weekends and public holidays knock out some of the potential 365 days.

Each trading day is when the markets, like the NYSE and NASDAQ, are open, typically from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Time. Plus, there are extended trading hours before and after the regular session for more trading opportunities, though these come with different levels of activity and risk. 

Want to start your trading journey? Check out this XS trading hours breakdown! 

FAQs

How Long Is 1 Trading Day?

 The length of a trading day can vary depending on the market. 

Standard Trading Hours:

• New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ: In the U.S., both markets are open from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Time, so a trading day is 6.5 hours long.

• London Stock Exchange (LSE): In the UK, the LSE operates from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM local time, giving traders 8.5 hours to trade.

• Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE): In Japan, the TSE runs from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM local time, with a lunch break from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM, making the total trading time 5 hours.

Many markets also offer pre-market and after-hours trading sessions, which allow for trading outside the regular hours.

Why 252 Trading Days?

There are 252 trading days yearly because stock markets are only open on weekdays, excluding weekends and public holidays. 

This schedule results in approximately 252 operational days out of the 365 days a year. The exact number can vary slightly depending on the specific year's calendar and holiday occurrences.

What is the 80/20 Rule of Trading?

The 80/20 Rule of Trading, also known as the Pareto Principle, suggests that roughly 80% of your trading profits come from just 20% of your trades. 

This could become a challenge for traders. Since there are only 252 stock market trading days per year, only 50 days will generate most of my profits.