When you check your watch and panic when it says 9:25am.

Why?

Because, that means the stock market is getting close to the opening bell for that trading day.

Want to know the exact breakdown of the stock market hours?

Keep reading!

The stock market is open throughout this time period, Monday to Friday (excluding holidays, which you can see if you keep scrolling).

These trading hours are typical for most stock exchanges, however, exchanges in China and Japan have lunch breaks.

Here in North America, both the United States (NYSE/NASDAQ) and Canada (Toronto Stock Exchange) use the typical stock market trading hours of 9:30 am to 4:00 pm.

So get your alarm set and start checking the action after the opening bell kicks things off.

But, I get asked all the time, how come the price of a stock is moving before or after the market opens or closes?

The answer is that there are extended hours for stock trading that the average investor does not have access to.

These extra trading hours are used by large hedge funds, investment banks, mutual fund companies and other institutions to open/close positions before regular trading occurs.

Who wants to get up that early, go into an office and trade right?

The bulk of the pre-market trading that does happen usually takes place between 8:00 am and 9:30 am.

Then, when the market officially opens up, the volume spikes and dwarfs everything that happened in the early hours.

Large firms can buy or sell from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm but again, the amount of shares moving is very small compared to the intraday volume experienced during regular trading hours.

This low volume can lead to large price movements and as a beginner investor it may seem like a lost opportunity when stocks are moving and you don’t have access.

Just focus on the stock price when the market is open. Extended hour trading isn’t something that you need to worry about.

There is enough time between 9:30 am and 4:00 pm to make money.

Traders get tired and all the employees who get the machine of capitalism running need an extra day off.

New Years Day - (fell on a weekend this year)

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - Monday, January 17

Washington’s Birthday - Monday, February 21

Good Friday - Friday, April 15

Memorial Day - Monday, May 30

Juneteenth National Independence Day - Monday June 20

Independence Day - Monday, July 4

Labor Day - Monday, September 5

Thanksgiving Day - Thursday, November 24

Christmas Day - Monday, December 26

The 2022 stock market holiday schedule for Canada looks like this:

New Years Day - Monday, January 3

Family Day - Monday, February 21

Good Friday - Friday, April 15

Victoria Day - Monday, May 23

Canada Day - Friday, July 1

Civic Day - Monday, August 1

Labor Day - Monday, September 5

Thanksgiving Day - Monday, October 10

Christmas Day - Monday, December 26

Boxing Day - Tuesday, December 27

Just wait until the market opens and then enter your trades as you see fit.

The more you learn and further you get into stock investing, the more you will start to understand the trends and stock price movements that can happen outside of normal market hours and what it means.

And, if you want to start investing in stocks but aren’t sure what your first step should be, check out this free online guide I put together, showing you step-by-step how to find companies that make money and act as assets.

It’s call the Stock Investing Secrets guide and you can download your own copy for free by clicking right here.

Check it out, start your own investing journey, keep it basic, and keep learning so you too can buy back your life!