Recently, while organizing my notes on US stock trading hours, I found that many investors in Taiwan actually don’t understand the time-difference issue—especially when switching between standard time and daylight saving time. Now that the United States has entered standard time, the regular trading session corresponds to 22:30 to 5:00 AM the next day in Taiwan local time. If you want to take part in pre-market trading, it’s 17:00 to 22:30.

US stock trading rules are actually not that complicated. There are mainly three major exchanges: the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and the American Stock Exchange. Although they operate independently, their opening and closing times are basically synchronized. Regular trading is from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM (US Eastern Time), Monday through Friday. If you want to enter earlier or exit later, pre-market trading starts at 4:00 AM, and after-hours trading ends at 20:00.

Most important of all, pay attention to the days when the US stock market is closed. I compiled the important holidays in 2026—such as New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Washington’s Birthday, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day—during which the US is closed for the market. In particular, note that on the day after Thanksgiving and the day before Christmas, the market closes 3 hours early, so don’t let the timing catch you off guard.

If you want to trade US stocks, the New York Stock Exchange is the largest in the world, with more than 3500 listed stocks. NASDAQ is an electronic trading market with a heavy concentration of technology stocks, such as Microsoft and Apple. The American Stock Exchange mainly focuses on small- and mid-cap stocks. Choose the exchange that matches your investment preferences. Once you’ve figured out the time difference and the market-closure dates, trading US stocks from Taiwan is actually not that complicated.