Options trading closing time

Trading Market Hours & Schedules.

Know when you can trade online.

Although binary options are a global trade, not all assets will be available all the time. Be sure to check carefully when the financial markets for your chosen assets are open to trade.

As much as we wish we could get up when we want and start trading in the assets we like, the markets aren’t always accommodating. It’s up to you to find out the optimum time for you to trade in the assets of your choosing.

This is why we’ve written more information on market hours below, and given you a live market widget which will show which of the main markets are open at any given time.

The Foreign Exchange Currency Market (FOREX)

The closest thing to a market you can trade in anywhere at any time, FOREX operates 24 hours a day, but only for four and a half day’s a week. As the FOREX market isn’t limited by physical trading exchanges, this market has the most trading hours of all.

The four major FOREX financial centres are Sydney, Tokyo, London & New York, but some brokers will also have Hamburg as an option.

The Opening hours are: Sunday 10:00 PM (22:00) GMT running continuously until Friday 10:00 PM (22:00) GMT.

So if you live in New York (GMT-5) daily trade starts at 5:00 PM (17:00) local time, and ends at 5:00 PM (17:00) the day after.

That said, a good little tip is that if you are based in the Eastern Time zone, you are not restricted to these hours, as the first four hours overlap with the last four hours of the London market session and therefore there is a high volume of trading within these four hours. Leading to high price volatility, and with it, plenty of binary options opportunities.

The US Stock market.

Whilst you can clearly trade in any market, there is no denying that the activity on the US stock market leads to the best chance for price swings.

The U. S. stock market trading hours are 8:30 A. M. to 4 P. M. EST, however, it is not uncommon to see price activity fall to very low levels from 12 P. M. to 1 P. M. EDT when traders break for lunch. Morning, before lunch, is when you’ll see the highest price activity.

Case-by-case.

Any asset based on the DJIA and NYSE stock indices, will be subject by the stock market hours above. However, in many cases the time may be shorter, so always check with your binary options trading broker to find out when you can trade in your favourite or chosen assets.

More binary options tools.

Best binary options brokers.

Best Binary Options Brokers.

Ready to start to trade binary options online? Take a look at our reputable & trustworthy broker sites reviews before you sign up.

Binary Options Strategies.

Learn how to lower you trading risks with the right binary options strategy. We cover the basics and advanced trading strategies.

Free Financial Tools.

Know when to bet with the latest market hours, global economic calendar and free e-wallets for fast and secure deposits.

Experience the AnyOption Trading Platform.

We use cookies for your improved experience. By using our site you agree to the use of them. OK.

Options Basics: How Options Work.

Options contracts are essentially the price probabilities of future events. The more likely something is to occur, the more expensive an option would be that profits from that event. This is the key to understanding the relative value of options.

Let’s take as a generic example a call option on International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) with a strike price of $200; IBM is currently trading at $175 and expires in 3 months. Remember, the call option gives you the right , but not the obligation , to purchase shares of IBM at $200 at any point in the next 3 months. If the price of IBM rises above $200, then you “win.” It doesn’t matter that we don’t know the price of this option for the moment – what we can say for sure, though, is that the same option that expires not in 3 months but in 1 month will cost less because the chances of anything occurring within a shorter interval is smaller. Likewise, the same option that expires in a year will cost more. This is also why options experience time decay: the same option will be worth less tomorrow than today if the price of the stock doesn’t move.

Returning to our 3-month expiration, another factor that will increase the likelihood that you’ll “win” is if the price of IBM stock rises closer to $200 – the closer the price of the stock to the strike, the more likely the event will happen. Thus, as the price of the underlying asset rises, the price of the call option premium will also rise. Alternatively, as the price goes down – and the gap between the strike price and the underlying asset prices widens – the option will cost less. Along a similar line, if the price of IBM stock stays at $175, the call with a $190 strike price will be worth more than the $200 strike call – since, again, the chances of the $190 event happening is greater than $200.

There is one other factor that can increase the odds that the event we want to happen will occur – if the volatility of the underlying asset increases. Something that has greater price swings – both up and down – will increase the chances of an event happening. Therefore, the greater the volatility, the greater the price of the option. Options trading and volatility are intrinsically linked to each other in this way.

With this in mind, let’s consider a hypothetical example. Let's say that on May 1, the stock price of Cory's Tequila Co. (CTQ) is $67 and the premium (cost) is $3.15 for a July 70 Call, which indicates that the expiration is the third Friday of July and the strike price is $70. The total price of the contract is $3.15 x 100 = $315. In reality, you'd also have to take commissions into account, but we'll ignore them for this example. On most U. S. exchanges, a stock option contract is the option to buy or sell 100 shares; that's why you must multiply the contract by 100 to get the total price. The strike price of $70 means that the stock price must rise above $70 before the call option is worth anything; furthermore, because the contract is $3.15 per share, the break-even price would be $73.15.

Three weeks later the stock price is $78. The options contract has increased along with the stock price and is now worth $8.25 x 100 = $825. Subtract what you paid for the contract, and your profit is ($8.25 - $3.15) x 100 = $510. You almost doubled our money in just three weeks! You could sell your options, which is called "closing your position," and take your profits – unless, of course, you think the stock price will continue to rise. For the sake of this example, let's say we let it ride.

By the expiration date, the price of CTQ drops down to $62. Because this is less than our $70 strike price and there is no time left, the option contract is worthless. We are now down by the original premium cost of $315.

To recap, here is what happened to our option investment:

So far we've talked about options as the right to buy or sell (exercise) the underlying good. This is true, but in reality, a majority of options are not actually exercised. In our example, you could make money by exercising at $70 and then selling the stock back in the market at $78 for a profit of $8 a share. You could also keep the stock, knowing you were able to buy it at a discount to the present value. However, the majority of the time holders choose to take their profits by trading out (closing out) their position. This means that holders sell their options in the market, and writers buy their positions back to close. According to the CBOE​, only about 10% of options are exercised, 60% are traded (closed) out, and 30% expire worthless.

At this point it is worth explaining more about the pricing of options. In our example the premium (price) of the option went from $3.15 to $8.25. These fluctuations can be explained by intrinsic value and extrinsic value, also known as time value. An option's premium is the combination of its intrinsic value and its time value. Intrinsic value is the amount in-the-money, which, for a call option, means that the price of the stock equals the strike price. Time value represents the possibility of the option increasing in value. Refer back to the beginning of this section of the turorial: the more likely an event is to occur, the more expensive the option. This is the extrinsic, or time value. So, the price of the option in our example can be thought of as the following:

In real life options almost always trade at some level above their intrinsic value, because the probability of an event occurring is never absolutely zero, even if it is highly unlikely. If you are wondering, we just picked the numbers for this example out of the air to demonstrate how options work.

A brief word on options pricing. As we’ve seen, the relative price of an option has to do with the chances that an event will happen. But in order to put an absolute price on an option, a pricing model must be used. The most well-known model is the Black-Scholes-Merton​ model, which was derived in the 1970’s, and for which the Nobel prize in economics was awarded. Since then other models have emerged such as binomial and trinomial tree models, which are also commonly used.

Trading Hours: Futures & Options.

Trading hours are in U. S. Central Time unless otherwise stated.

For products traded solely via CME ClearPort Clearing, the hours are as follows:

Sunday-Friday 6:00 p. m. - 5:00 p. m. New York time/ET (5:00 p. m. - 4:00 p. m. Chicago Time/CT) with a 60-minute break each day beginning at 5:00 p. m. (4:00 p. m. CT)

For weather products traded solely via CME ClearPort Clearing, the hours are as follows:

Sunday-Friday 7:00 p. m.- 6:45 p. m. New York time/ET (6:00 p. m.- 5:45 p. m. Chicago Time/CT) with a 15-minute break each day beginning at 6:45 p. m. – 7:00 p. m. (5:45 p. m. – 6:00 p. m. CT)

*Denotes trading hours on CME Direct Auction Platform.

*In Exchange products eligible for Trading at Settlement ("TAS") or Trading at Marker ("TAM"), TAS and TAM orders may not be entered into CME Globex from the end of a TAS trading session until receipt of the security status message indicating that the group has transitioned to the pre-open state.

* Throughout year, contract's trading hours will be adjusted for changes in both U. S. and Brazil Daylight Savings Time. See contract specifications.

Subscription Center.

Send Us Feedback.

Who We Are.

CME Group is the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace. The company is comprised of four Designated Contract Markets (DCMs). Further information on each exchange's rules and product listings can be found by clicking on the links to CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX.

Market Trading Hours.

easyMarkets gives you access to markets around the world – allowing you to trade throughout the week and around the clock. Chose the market that you prefer and use the table below to find their opening, closing and the hours they take breaks. Since easyMarkets is dedicated to you, our customer, if you have any question regarding trading hours, breaks or markets, we are available to help you.

Trading hours.

All times are GMT unless otherwise stated.

Daylight Savings Time (DST) is generally applicable in autumn and spring; however, it is not equally applicable to all instruments. There will be instruments that apply DST to USA times, with the EU or APAC times, while others may not apply DST at all. Our trading times are updated in the table below to reflect these changes as accurately as possible.

The table below shows the trading hours per instrument so you know when orders must be settled and find trading opportunities according to when a market opens or closes.

Holiday Schedule - Christmas.

22nd - 26th of December 2017 - Times GMT.

5 November to 11 March 2018 - Times GMT.

Deal Expiry.

Commodities and Indices expire at 12:00 GMT, while WTI Crude OIL expire at 15:00 GMT.

Vanilla Options Expire at 10:00 New York Time.

Cryptocurrencies on MT4 expire at 15:00 GMT on Friday, every 2nd and 4th week of the month.

Exact expire dates are displayed in your trade ticket and on MT4 Market Watch.

Changes on Trading Hours.

Trading hours may change due to several factors such as unusual market conditions which affect liquidity, or circumstances out of our control.

We aim to update our trading times as necessary to reflect these changes, please contact us for up-to-date information.

Innovating since 2001.

easyMarkets has been serving its customers since 2001. From the very beginning we have strived to offer our clients the most innovative products, tools and services.

Regulation and Security.

easyMarkets is regulated by both ASIC and CySEC. We offer our clients negative balance protection and their funds are held in segregated accounts.

Start with just $100.

You can experience easyMarkets industry leading customer support and optimal trading environment for just $100!

Open an account.

Innovating since 2001.

easyMarkets has been serving its customers since 2001. From the very beginning we have strived to offer our clients the most innovative products, tools and services.

Regulation and Security.

easyMarkets is regulated by both ASIC and CySEC. We offer our clients negative balance protection and their funds are held in segregated accounts.

Start with just $100.

You can experience easyMarkets industry leading customer support and optimal trading environment for just $100!

Open an account.

Please provide account details.

In order to continue we require some additional information to help keep your funds and account secure.

Choose your account password.

Client Agreement.

Your Client Agreement with Easy Forex Trading Ltd (easyMarkets) has recently been updated.

By clicking to continue you confirm that:

Forgot your account details?

Don't have an easyMarkets trading account?

Support Live Chat.

New to easyMarkets?

DEMO TRADING | Sign Up.

LIVE TRADING | Sign Up.

Already have an account? LOGIN.

What kind of trading are you interested in?

Verify your address.

A verification has been sent to.

Please check your and follow the link to start using your easyMarkets trading account.

Thank you for choosing easyMarkets!

Welcome back, how.

would you like to trade?

easyMarkets is a registered trademark.

Copyright © 2001 - 2017. All rights reserved.

Risk Warning: Forward Rate Agreements, Options and CFDs (OTC Trading) are leveraged products that carry a substantial risk of loss up to your invested capital and may not be suitable for everyone. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved and do not invest money you cannot afford to lose. Please refer to our full risk disclaimer. EF Worldwide Ltd.

Restricted Regions: easyMarkets Group of Companies does not provide services for residents of certain regions, such as the United States of America, Israel, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Myanmar, North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan, British Columbia, Ontario and Manitoba.