Recently, many beginners have asked me how to calculate the U.S. stock market opening times, so I went ahead and organized it to make sure everyone doesn’t keep getting it mixed up.

U.S. stock market opening times are actually divided into three parts: regular trading hours are from 9:30 to 16:00 (U.S. Eastern Time), Monday through Friday. But in fact, there is also pre-market and after-hours trading. Pre-market trading starts at 4:00 and after-hours trading continues until 20:00, which many people don’t know. Converted to Beijing time: since this is daylight saving time, regular hours are from 21:30 to 4:00 the next day; during standard time, it shifts back by one hour.

U.S. stocks are mainly traded on three exchanges: the NYSE, NASDAQ, and the American Stock Exchange. The NYSE is the oldest—dating back to 1792. It’s still mainly electronic trading today, but on-site trading for big orders remains very important. NASDAQ is fully electronic and is home to tech companies such as Microsoft and Apple. The American Stock Exchange is the smallest in scale, but its feature is that it can trade stocks, futures, and derivatives at the same time.

As for market closures, the U.S. has quite a lot of holidays. This year, we’ve already passed New Year’s Day, MLK Day, and Washington’s Birthday. You also need to pay attention to dates like Good Friday, Memorial Day, and Independence Day—especially around July 4, when the market closes early. Also be mindful around Christmas at the end of the year.

To be honest, the most troublesome part of U.S. stock market opening times for us Asian investors is the switch between daylight saving time and standard time. In the U.S., daylight saving time starts every year at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March, and switches back to standard time at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November—meaning the time difference changes by one hour, so you have to adjust frequently. Some states have different rules, but most major exchanges follow this schedule.

If you want to trade U.S. stocks, besides understanding the opening times, you also need to know the trading rules. U.S. stocks settle T+3, and the manual transaction fees are around 1%, while electronic trading is a bit cheaper. The trading unit is 1 share, denominated in USD, which is more flexible than A-shares.

By the way, it’s not just U.S. stocks—opening times of major global stock markets are also worth paying attention to. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is 9:00–15:00 (China time 8:00–14:00), the London Stock Exchange is 8:00–16:30 (China time 16:00 to 00:30 the next day), and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is 9:15–16:00. If you want to invest globally, you’ll need to remember these times.