What Time Can You Trade Options?
Understand options trading hours, market holidays, and time zone impacts. Learn when to trade and avoid extended-hour misconceptions.
Options are financial derivatives that grant the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specified date. These instruments derive their value from the price movements of underlying securities, such as individual stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), or market indexes. Understanding the specific hours for trading these contracts is important for participants to plan strategies and respond to market developments.
Standard Options Trading Hours
Trading for most equity and ETF options typically begins at 9:30 AM Eastern Time (ET) and concludes at 4:00 PM ET, Monday through Friday. It is during these hours that the market experiences its highest levels of liquidity.
Liquidity refers to the ease with which an option contract can be bought or sold without significantly affecting its price. High liquidity is beneficial as it generally leads to tighter bid-ask spreads, which represent the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept. Tighter spreads can result in more efficient order execution and potentially lower transaction costs for traders. While some specific index options, like those on the S&P 500 (SPX), may have slightly extended regular trading hours until 4:15 PM ET, the core trading period remains consistent for most widely traded options.
Understanding Market Holidays and Early Closures
The regular trading schedule for options is subject to closures on U.S. market holidays, which generally follow federal holidays. For example, in 2025, common holidays when the market will be closed include New Year’s Day (January 1), Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 20), Presidents’ Day (February 17), Good Friday (April 18), Memorial Day (May 26), Juneteenth (June 19), Independence Day (July 4), Labor Day (September 1), Thanksgiving Day (November 27), and Christmas Day (December 25). If a holiday falls on a weekend, the market may observe it on the preceding Friday or the following Monday.
Beyond full-day closures, markets may also implement early closures on certain dates, typically for half-days. For instance, in 2025, early closures at 1:00 PM ET for eligible options are scheduled for July 3rd (the day before Independence Day), November 28th (the day after Thanksgiving), and December 24th (Christmas Eve). Traders should consult official exchange calendars, such as those provided by the NYSE or Nasdaq, for the most current information regarding market holidays and early closures to ensure accurate planning.
Time Zone Considerations for Traders
U.S. options trading hours are universally quoted in Eastern Time (ET), which is the time zone for New York City, where many major financial exchanges are located. Traders located in other time zones across the United States must convert Eastern Time to their local time to accurately determine market open and close. For example, when the market opens at 9:30 AM ET, it is 8:30 AM Central Time (CT), 7:30 AM Mountain Time (MT), and 6:30 AM Pacific Time (PT).
Conversely, when the market closes at 4:00 PM ET, it is 3:00 PM CT, 2:00 PM MT, and 1:00 PM PT. For international traders, understanding the time difference between their local time and Eastern Time is even more important, as significant time zone disparities can exist.
Limited Extended-Hours Trading for Options
Unlike stocks, which often have robust pre-market and after-hours trading sessions, the vast majority of equity options do not offer extended-hours trading. While stock markets may operate from 4:00 AM to 8:00 PM ET, options trading generally remains confined to the standard 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET window.
Extended-hours options trading suffers from lower liquidity, which can lead to wider bid-ask spreads. Increased volatility and the complexity of options pricing models further contribute to the limited nature of trading outside regular hours. While some broad-based index options, such as certain SPX options, do have extended global trading hours (GTH) that allow trading from 8:15 PM ET to 9:15 AM ET, these are specialized exceptions. These extended sessions are mainly relevant for institutional traders or those reacting to overnight global market events, and they do not apply to the common equity options traded by most retail investors. Therefore, for typical equity options, relying on the standard trading hours is the established approach.