The most confusing part of trading U.S. stocks is the stock market hours. Especially when trading from Korea, since the market is open at night, it gets even more complicated. I’ve put it all together here—hope it’s helpful.

Basically, regular trading hours for all three exchanges—NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX—are from 09:30 to 16:00 Eastern Time. But in Korea time, that’s from 11:30 PM to 6:00 AM the next day. During daylight saving time, between March and November, the schedule shifts one hour earlier to 22:30 to 05:00. Knowing the exact U.S. stock market hours is essential so you don’t make mistakes when trading at night.

There are also pre-market hours (04:00 to 09:30 Eastern Time, 18:00 to 23:30 Korea time) and after-hours (16:00 to 20:00 Eastern Time, 06:00 to 10:00 the next day Korea time), so keep that in mind. However, liquidity is lower, so be careful.

As of 2026, there are also quite a lot of market holidays. They include January 1 (New Year’s Day), January 19 (MLK Day), February 16 (President’s Day), April 3 (Good Friday), May 25 (Memorial Day), June 19 (Juneteenth Day), July 3 (Independence Day), September 7 (Labor Day), November 26 (Thanksgiving Day), and December 25 (Christmas). Also, on the day before Independence Day (July 2), the day after Thanksgiving Day (November 27), and Christmas Eve (December 24), the market closes early at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. If you forget these holidays when planning your U.S. stock trading schedule, you can end up in a situation where you can’t trade.

One more important point is that, unlike Korea, the U.S. has no price limit bands. Even if prices drop sharply, trading doesn’t get halted, so risk management is even more important when you’re trading while sleeping at night. I think properly understanding U.S. stock market hours and making a trading plan is the first step toward reducing losses.