I just checked the schedules of the Spanish stock exchange because I wanted to better understand how all this works. It turns out it's not as simple as it seems. The stock exchange opens at 9:00 am local time, but before that, there is an opening auction from 8:30 am. It closes at 5:30 pm, and then there is another closing auction until 5:35 pm. The interesting thing is that this applies from Monday to Friday, no weekends.

What I didn't know was that the Madrid Stock Exchange is not the only one. In fact, there is the SIBE that coordinates four exchanges: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and Bilbao. But Madrid is the main one, where all the large companies in Spain are concentrated. That's why the IBEX 35, which was created in 1992, is based on the 35 companies with the largest market capitalization in Spain. There we find banks like BBVA and Santander, international construction companies, and Inditex, which is the largest retailer.

I was surprised to learn that the Madrid Stock Exchange was founded more than 190 years ago, in 1831. It started trading banks, railway companies, and steel companies. The other exchanges came later, Bilbao in 1890, Barcelona in 1915, and Valencia only in 1980. All of them joined the SIBE in 1995, and since 2001, they have been managed by Bolsas y Mercados Españoles. If you ask what time the Spanish stock exchange opens in other Spanish-speaking countries, it varies quite a bit. In Mexico, it opens at 1:00 am, in Argentina at 4:00 am, and in Lima at 2:00 am. Quite different depending on the time zone. For 2025, they have holidays when it does not operate, such as January 1, Holy Week, May 1, and New Year's Eve. Sometimes there are also reduced sessions, half-day trading.