I just recently found that I’ve been messing up the U.S. stock market opening times, especially with the time difference between Taiwan and the United States. Since it’s currently daylight saving time, the U.S. stock market starts trading at 9:30 PM in Taiwan, and continues until 4:00 AM the next day—it’s really quite late.

The U.S. stock market actually has three main exchanges in operation. The New York Stock Exchange is the largest, with more than 3,500 listed stocks. Then there’s NASDAQ, mainly for technology stocks (like Microsoft and Apple). After that, the American Stock Exchange is the third largest. Although the exchanges operate independently, their opening and closing times are basically synchronized.

In addition to regular trading, you can also trade in the pre-market session (4:30 PM Taiwan time) and the after-hours session (from 8:00 PM until early morning the next day). However, it’s important to note that U.S. stock market opening times change due to daylight saving time and standard time. During standard time, Taiwan needs to push the schedule back by one hour.

Also, there are quite a number of days when the U.S. stock market is closed in 2026. New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Washington’s Birthday, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are all market holidays. On the day after Thanksgiving, trading even ends three hours early, and the day before Christmas is affected as well.

If you want to trade U.S. stocks, you really need to remember these U.S. stock market opening times and holiday arrangements, or it’s very easy to misread the timing or get stuck on a holiday when markets are closed.