Option Trading Hours: Complete Schedule and Important Timeframes

What Are Option Trading Hours

The time windows in which options contract can be sold or bought (on a specific exchange or within a brokerage) are called options trading hours. Unlike cryptos or currency markets, which rarely close, options trading hours are limited, and often tied to underlying instrument and the exchange that is listing the contract. A stock option, an index option, and a futures option can have different buy/sell windows, even in the same place, and on the same trading day. It’s much more complicated than futures trading hours, or trading with CFDs.

This is why knowing specifically what are option trading hours for an asset you’re interested in is important. Liquidity, price behavior, spreads, they all change once the ‘main’ session ends. A spot forex or spot crypto can have quotes around the clock, but an option (written on top of an underlying stock or index) inherits that instrument's session. If a trader just assumes that a position can be closed at any time, they can be left holding a contract with no exits, until the next proper session opens. In some cases this might be heavily detrimental to the trading plan.

Standard Trading Hours by Market Type

In the US, options for indices and equities trade during the same time as the stock market: from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM (Eastern time). The exception is options for S&P 500 and VIX, which have high institutional demand, and so they are available slightly longer, till 4:15 PM.

In the table below you can see the main instruments, and the times where options for them can be bought and sold. Notice that futures trading hours are the clearest exception here: the futures market runs almost all the time, and so the options for futures are trading a lot longer than equity or indices options.

Outside the US, however, the picture follows the per-exchange formula. The instrument type is usually less relevant. For instance, Hong Kong Exchange has options for stocks running in a split session (9:30 - 12:00 AM, and then 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM local time). In general, options trading hours are set independently by the exchanges, according to local rules and customs. So if you want to be active across multiple regions, you need to be aware of the trade times in each one of them. There’s no single global rule.

Extended Trading Hours: Pre-Market and After-Hours

Pre-market sessions allow traders to react to some news before the standard session opens. An after-hours sessions fill a similar role. At the same time, they come with some tradeoffs that don’t apply to the core trading window. For instance, in US stock market, pre-market happens usually just from 4:00 AM to 9:30 AM ET, and after-hours runs from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM (but again, exact window can depend on a broker or an exchange).

Usually, options trading is slower to extend to these windows, than the underlying stocks themselves. Often contracts are not quotable, and traders have to wait for the standard session to proceed first. Reasons for this are multiple:

• Lower liquidity. There are fewer active participants in these windows, so the gap between buy and sell prices (the ‘spread’) often widens.

• Higher volatility. Less overall buyers and sellers, so a smaller amount of participants can move the price more. One large trade can swing a quote more noticeably, and so the market can be less stable. This is not ideal for options sellers, as more prices might get hit. This is what are option trading hours are there to avoid, at least in part.

• Limited availability. Many exchanges make options simply not tradable during this time, depending on the instrument, and how close a contract is to expiry.

Therefore, extended hours sessions are more useful for adjusting a futures/spot position you have, or as preparing yourself to react to a specific event. Opening new, unplanned orders, based on the pre-market prices, can often be an unwise decision. Thin volume and lower liquidity don’t provide the most representative prices for what will happen in the standard session (when most of the options contracts are being sold and bought, and executed). Watching order flow on the standard stock market session is much more representative.

Because options trading hours often have these restrictions during extended time, some traders look for alternatives. Ideally something that works around the clock, so they wouldn’t need to adjust to each exchange's policy and timing windows. In such case, some come to OTC trading. This is an alternative to regular options, where a quote is always available. There’s no need to wait for a session to resume, and no need to rely on thin liquidity. Instead, risks and tradeoffs shift to how accurately that quote itself is priced. This is what Pocket Option trading hours can offer, in place of a traditional brokerage.

Pocket Option Trading Hours Schedule

As explained, Pocket Option trading hours differ from a traditional exchange, in that the platform has ‘OTC’ assets, which are available 24 h/day, seven days a week. There’s no need to rely only on the standard exchange session to do your entire trading. You can trade whenever you feel comfortable. This works on many instruments: stocks, ETFs, metals. Instead of complicated schedules of all the worlds’ exchanges, a dedicated Pocket Option trading hours schedule looks like a single reference point. There’s nothing needed to remember.

Remember that this applies only to the OTC instruments though, not the other options and contracts available on the Pocket Option platform.

This OTC Pocket Option trading hours schedule means a trader always has something to trade, even if the NY stock exchange has already closed for a night or for a holiday. The tradeoff, however, is that OTC reflects the platform's own quotes, not the actual price of the asset. Its an approximation. It doesn't have a live exchange order book, that connects buyers and sellers. In this way, when the standard trading session resumes (or even an after-hours session, for that matter), the move to connect to the actual price might be drastic. Also, comparing OTC behavior to a real instrument, and basing your trading strategy around that might be misleading.

International Trading Hours by Exchange: Eurex, HKEX, ASX

The largest Europe’s exchange for derivatives, Eurex, has main trading time from ~8:00 to 22:00 CET for most of its options and futures. And the T7 trading system runs from as early as 1:00 AM CET (to appeal to some of the Asian-session users). It has a much longer session compared to the US, because of how electronic trading has evolved. Now one modern exchange can serve multiple time zones, and not just regional audience. As the European stock market is smaller than the US one, and it tries to cater to customers outside its own region, the times are a bit more lenient.

For Hong Kong Exchange, stock options trading hours are available during mornings and afternoons, but have an hour ‘missing’ between them. This is because such timing appeals to customers and culture wanting a ‘lunch break’. This is common across several Asian exchanges, and is not specific to options or futures.

The Australian Securities Exchange has options for stocks roughly from 10:00 AM to 4:20 PM by Sydney time. There, index options usually open a bit earlier (~9:50 AM), plus they have a separate ‘night’ session from 5:30 PM to 6:50 PM. This is made for customers outside of Australia (and not operating on its time) to be able to buy the products that have more global demand.

Best Hours for Trading: Liquidity and News Events

Activity on the market, of course, is not evenly spread during a session. Usually, first 2 hours have the highest volume (the post-night effect). Therefore, this is often the time for tightest spreads for options trading. This is where a lot of volume is made.

There are a few factors that influence the amount of liquidity:

• Time of day. Opening hour and the final half hour usually see an elevated volume.

• Data releases. These can be scheduled, or unexpected. Economic reports, earnings announcements, etc. These are usually concentrated around a specific time of the day, in each region.

• Day of the week. Before Saturday, a volume might be thinner.

• Proximity to a holiday. If the market goes out for a long weekend, trading before that can be lower.

• Broad market volatility. If a stock market is calm, activity is thinner than during activity and volatility windows.

 On news releases, any automated rule or strategy should be checked against these liquidity patterns, rather than treated as reliable at every time of the day. But still, a rule should exist. At any point of thinned liquidity or elevated volatility, options traders should avoid reactive, emotion-driven decision making. This tends to produce worse results than trading with a calm head, and pre-determined strategy.

How Trading Hours Affect Volatility and Time Decay

So depending on what are option trading hours, the trading strategy changes. An option loses its time value every day that it is held (it is called ‘time decay’). That decay doesn’t cease just because a market is closed. A holiday or simply a weekend still counts towards an option expiry date. Understanding even holidays in the countries which exchanges you use is therefore important (unless you trade PO OTC, of course).

Across a session, volatility hits different too. On the opening minutes, often outsized volatility is expected. But as the day progresses, it usually softens down, unless new catalysts hit. The final half hour of the session sees a pickup in volatility though, as the traders are tying to position themselves for the next day.

This quite uneven pattern is one more reason that position sizing can need even more thought put into it when heading into the open and the close of a session. Therefore, applying proper risk management practices before those higher-volatility windows (and not during the volatility strikes), can be a worthwhile addition to many strategies. This can help reduce the pressure of a fast-moving quote, when it hits.

Holiday Trading Schedules

Holidays that hit the exchange, hit the options trading on it too. In the US, such major holidays as Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and so on, can close the market in its entirety. Therefore, you won’t be able to buy or sell your options contracts, and that needs to be accounted for. The day before or after certain holidays is often truncated as well, seeing an earlier close.

International stock markets follow their own holiday calendars. If you’re active across EU, NA, and Asian sessions, you need to be able to track each one individually. For that, there are plenty of online trackers pre-built, and also the trading platform itself often has a calendar with all the most key events.

The days around the holiday often behave like a simpler version of the weekends. Exchanges are technically open, but volume may be lower, since many market participants are offline. Still, with thin liquidity, a big catalyst can cause a larger move. Therefore, when trading near a holiday, it can be worth it to apply the same caution that works on weekend trading on Pocket Option's OTC assets.

Conclusion

The options trading hours can differ depending on the exchange and the instrument. Learning about the place you are trading at, including things like national holidays or the cultural value of an afternoon break, can be a worthwhile endeavour. Otherwise, keeping a simple reference for options trading hours across each market used, alongside the Pocket Option trading hours schedule for OTC access, can be a decent first step.

Disclaimer: This article is made for educational purpose only, and does not mean financial advice. Do independent research and, if appropriate, consult professionals before making any trading or investing choices with real funds.