How Many Trading Days In a Year? [2023, 2024 & 2025]

What is a Trading Day

A trading day is a day when the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is open, and you can buy and sell stocks or other commodities. The stock exchanges, NYSE included, are opened Monday through Friday except for fixed date holidays, which we will discuss further below. The regular trading hours (or the ore trading session) on such days are between 9:30 a.m. ET and 9:30 a.m. ET. Every once in a while, there are cases when a trading day begins at regular hours but closes earlier than usual - this is what's called a shortened trading day.

Besides the regular trading hours, there are pre-market trading sessions (7:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. ET) and after-hours sessions (4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET). These are known as extended trading hours; only a few brokers allow trading during these intervals.

Nasdaq & New York Stock Exchange Trading Days

There are usually 252 trading days in a year on the NYSE, but, again, these depend on how many weekend days are in a certain year. The Nasdaq average number of trading days in a year is also the same since both stock markets follow the same national holiday calendar.

Should You Trade During Extended Hours?

Placing orders before or after regular trading hours is not a good idea, unless you are an experienced day trader.

First of all, the trading volume of assets is rather low during that time of the day on both NYSE and the Nasdaq Stock Market. Secondly, the market will react immediately to important news and you won't be able to rely on technical analysis at all.

Stock Market Holidays

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has nine holidays each year, as follows:

• New Year’s Day (January 1st)
• Martin Luther King, Jr Day (The third Monday of January)
• Presidents’ Day (The third Monday in February)
• Good Friday (The Friday before Easter Sunday)
• Memorial Day (The last Monday of May)
• Independence Day (July 4th)
• Labor Day (The first Monday in September)
• Thanksgiving Day (The fourth Thursday of November)
• Christmas Day (December 25th)

There are some years when some of these public holidays fall on weekends (Saturday and Sunday). In such cases, there is a special rule for a market holiday. There are actually 2 rules:

1. If the public holidays fall on a Saturday, the stock market is closed the preceding Friday
2. If the holidays fall on a Sunday, the stock market holidays are on the next Monday.

Now let's take a look on which days the stock exchanges are closed in the next few years.

Trading Days in 2023, 2024, and 2025

The number of trading days for the next 3 years is roughly the same.

In 2023, there are going to be a total of 252 trading days.

In 2024, there are going to be 251 days in the stock trading calendar.

In 2025, the total number of days when you can trade stocks is going to be 250.

The following tables contain the days when the stock market closures for 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Columbus day is usually a trading day, even though it is a federal holiday, unless it falls on a weekend. The same is valid for Veterans day. You won't see the market closed during such days.

Besides these, there may be days when the stock markets are closed due to special circumstances or unforeseen events, such as terrorist attacks, extreme weather or even technical problems.

Riskiest Trading Hours

While the regular trading day is six and a half hours long, they are not equally volatile or risky.

During the first and last hour of each trading day you are going to see a large volume of transactions and prices fluctuating up and down each second. In the morning, many are trading stocks that are in the news: earnings reports, major events, etc. In the last hour, volume and volatility pick up once again because of traders who are looking to close all their remaining positions. For day traders, those are 2 of the most important moments of the day.

Besides the first and last hour, the market is much more stable unless some big news comes along.

Riskiest Trading Days

It's also worth noting that some stock trading days are riskier to trade than others due to different factors. Here are the most dangerous days of the month for a stock trader due to increased volatility:

1. First and last day of each month
2. First Friday of every month, when Jobs report is released
3. During earnings announcement days of major companies
4. Fed Days - or Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) how they are officially called

Best Months to Buy and Sell Stocks

Now that you know how to trade depending on which day o the month, or week, you are in, now it's time to see how to trade during some 'special' months.

The January Effect

Early January is when the prices of stocks tend to start going up. Many believe that this is because investors come back to work with a positive attitude after the holidays and are looking for new opportunities.

The September Effect

September is considered by a lot of traders a good month to sell for many reasons. First of all, it's the worst-performing month for the 3 biggest indexes in the United States. Also, many individual traders close their positions to offset schooling costs.

Lastly, many of what could come in October.

October - The Most Volatile Month

There's no exact reason why October stands out, but some experts tend to believe that it's because of the market crashes of 1929 and 1987, which happened in that month. So a lot of investors fear this month.

However, historically, on average, October has been a positive month, although the gains have been fairly small.

The Discount on Christmas Eve

The last month of the year is also worth mentioning. In the last few days in a year many traders close their positions, so this is a good time to buy stocks if you want to purchase them at a discount and also take advantage of the big purchases that will be made in early January.

How Many Trading Days In a Year - Conclusion

The number of trading days varies each year based on which days some national holidays fall on. On average, there are 252 trading days per year so you have plenty of time to find winning trades.

Now that you know how many trading days in a year you can expect, it's time find the best trading app for you with the help of our comparison tool.