Christmas Trading – When and How?

While many traders seem to want to take as few days off as possible, Christmas is an exception. It’s the time of year where most take their well-deserved time off and breathe a sigh of relief. However, does that mean the market stops operating for the day? Well, if you look at the factual side, no, the market keeps running, but it does slow down drastically. However, even on the holiday, some wish to continue with their business.

Even for those that did wish to trade, the process was a bit more difficult than usual. Namely, that’s because both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ are out for the day. They both closed at 1 PM Eastern time the day before, creating a significant amount of downtime. US bond and OTC markets followed suit, shutting down only an hour later but remaining closed through Christmas day.

So since the US exchanges are down, traders can look at foreign exchanges to fulfill their needs. First, we have the Toronto and London exchanges, which have largely similar openings and closings as their US counterparts. Namely, the former closed at 1 PM ET, and the latter at 12:30 PM GMT, both on Christmas Eve. Both will remain shut on Christmas.

That leaves traders with the Shanghai and Tokyo stock exchanges, which will be open on Christmas. However, the third prominent Asian exchange in Hong Kong won’t accept trades, as it closes at noon in its local time on Christmas Eve.

So while there are options open, is it even worth it to trade on Christmas? Well, the trading volume drops drastically, by a third compared to normal days by some estimates. However, stocks seem to have an overall positive performance on Christmas Eve. Taking the S&P 500 index as a baseline, it shows a 0.2% jump – higher than its average daily rise.