Just realized something kinda wild - Good Friday is coming up and the stock market closes for it, but it's not even an official federal holiday in the US. Like, how does that work? Turns out the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ have been doing this since way back in the late 1800s, just out of tradition basically. Nobody's forcing them to, it's just become the norm.

The practical reason actually makes sense though. When the stock market is closed on Good Friday, fewer traders are around anyway since people take time off. So instead of having a skeleton crew trading, which could get messy with volatility and liquidity issues, they just shut it all down. Bond markets do the same thing. It's become this de facto market holiday even though other industries don't necessarily follow it.

If you're not religious but still get the day off from trading, you can use it however you want - volunteer, spend time with family, just chill and reflect on life. Pretty cool that a religious observance ended up shaping how the entire financial system operates. Guess history and tradition run deeper than we think sometimes.