While organizing my notes on U.S. stock trading recently, I found that many investors in Taiwan don’t really understand the time-zone issue—especially when it comes to U.S. stock market closures. This year has already entered daylight saving time. During regular U.S. stock trading hours, the market runs from 10:30 PM to 5:00 AM Taiwan time, which is one hour later than during daylight saving time, so it can be easy to get mixed up at first.

As for U.S. market closures and holidays, there are quite a few to pay attention to this year. For example, New Year’s Day in January, Memorial Day in May, Independence Day in July, Thanksgiving in November, and Christmas in December—on these days, the U.S. stock market will be completely closed. Especially during the week of Thanksgiving, the market closes three hours early on the day after Thanksgiving. The day before Christmas is also a three-hours-early close, which is something people who are used to continuous trading in Taiwan’s stock market need to be particularly careful about.

There are three major exchanges operating in the U.S. The New York Stock Exchange is the largest, NASDAQ mainly covers tech stocks, and the American Stock Exchange is focused on small- and mid-cap stocks. Although each exchange operates independently, their opening and closing times are mostly synchronized most of the time. If you want to trade U.S. stocks from Taiwan, you must first write down these U.S. market closure dates to avoid mistaking the timing and missing out on trading opportunities.