Futures Trading Hours: When ES, NQ, Gold & Oil Trade (2026)

Futures don't keep stock-market hours. Most CME futures — the S&P (ES), Nasdaq (NQ), gold (GC), crude (CL) — trade almost around the clock, five days a week, which is a big part of why prop traders like them. But "almost 24 hours" hides the details that actually matter: when the session resets, when the real volume shows up, and how those hours interact with a funded account's rules.

Here's the plain-English version of futures trading hours, the difference between regular and extended hours, and the hours worth actually trading — plus the bit most guides skip: what all of this means when you're on a futures prop-firm account with an end-of-day trailing drawdown.

When do futures trade?

Nearly all CME Globex futures follow the same core schedule: they open Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ET and trade continuously until Friday at 5:00 p.m. ET, with a short daily maintenance break from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET each evening. So each trading day effectively resets at 6:00 p.m. ET, not at midnight — which matters more than it sounds, as you'll see below.

Times are US Eastern and shift with daylight saving, and exact regular-session windows vary a little by contract, so always confirm the current hours on the CME's own product page before you trade. The takeaway: the electronic (Globex) market is nearly 24 hours, but each product has a shorter "regular" or cash session where most of the volume lives.

Regular hours vs extended hours

Regular Trading Hours (RTH) are the cash-session hours — for equity index futures that's 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, lined up with the US stock market. That's when volume, liquidity and clean price action are highest. Extended or overnight hours (ETH) cover everything else on Globex: the Asian and European sessions, and the pre- and post-market moves. Prices still move overnight — often on news — but on thinner volume, so spreads and slippage can be worse.

A lot of traders only chart RTH to keep their levels clean, then trade the overnight session more selectively. Whichever you choose, know which one your chart is showing, because an RTH-only chart hides the overnight range that a prop firm's drawdown still counts.

The best hours to trade futures

Volume and clean moves cluster in a few windows. For US index futures, the New York open (9:30 – 11:30 a.m. ET) is the prime session — the day's highest volume and the clearest trends. The London–New York overlap (roughly 8:00 – 11:00 a.m. ET) is strong for anything with European interest. And the hour around the New York cash close (3:00 – 4:00 p.m. ET) often brings a final volume push.

The dead zone is usually midday (12:00 – 1:30 p.m. ET) — lunchtime liquidity thins out and ranges chop. Overnight can trend on news, but for most traders the risk-adjusted best hours are the first two hours of the New York session.

What futures hours mean for a prop-firm account

This is the part that catches funded traders out. Most futures prop firms use an end-of-day trailing drawdown that updates at the session close (5:00 p.m. ET) — so the "day" your firm measures resets at 6:00 p.m. ET with the Globex reset, not at midnight your time. A trade you hold across that reset can land in a different trading day than you think, and your trailing line ratchets on the new session's close.

Two more things to confirm on your firm: whether you're allowed to hold positions overnight or over the weekend (some futures firms flatten before the close), and how the firm defines a "trading day" for its minimum-days rule. If you mostly trade the New York open, none of this bites — but if you trade the overnight session, know exactly when your firm's day rolls over. Our best futures prop firms list flags the drawdown model for each.

Bottom line

Futures trade nearly 24 hours — Sunday 6:00 p.m. to Friday 5:00 p.m. ET with a daily hour-long break — but the volume that's worth trading is concentrated in the New York open and the London overlap. Chart the session you actually trade, avoid the midday chop, and if you're on a funded account, know that your firm's day resets at the 6:00 p.m. ET Globex reset and its trailing drawdown updates on the session close. Confirm the exact hours per contract on CME and the day-rollover rule on your firm before you trade the overnight.