Trading rules
Futures trading hours: plan around holidays and firm cutoffs
Build your session around the contract, trade date and account’s earliest applicable cutoff.
Start with the contract’s trading hours
Futures trading hours depend on the contract. For example, CME’s Micro E-mini equity index FAQ lists sessions from 6:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Sunday through Friday, with a separate 4:15–4:30 p.m. ET halt. That is not continuous 24-hour trading, and it is not a schedule for every futures product.
Check the specific product and date in CME’s trading-hours calendar before using those regular hours. Holidays and an expiring contract’s last trading day can change the schedule. CME’s calendar uses US Central Time unless it says otherwise; the Micro E-mini FAQ above uses Eastern Time.
Sources: CME Micro E-mini equity index futures FAQ · CME trading hours and holiday calendar
Check your account cutoff and news windows
Separate the exchange session from your provider’s rules. Boxcar requires positions to be closed by its daily cutoff and has separate news restrictions. Use its trading-hours and news guides for the exact cutoff and restricted windows.
Check the rule for your actual account stage. An evaluation, simulated-funded account and live account are different environments. Do not carry an overnight-holding permission or cutoff from one provider or stage into another without checking its terms.
| Time to record | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Exchange open, pauses and close | When the selected contract can match orders. |
| Account flat-by deadline | When your provider requires positions closed, even if the exchange remains open. |
| Restricted event window | Whether a news rule temporarily prevents trading within the session. |
| Trade date and reset boundary | Which trading day the provider assigns to activity and when its daily limits reset. |
Sources: CME trading hours and holiday calendar · Boxcar trading hours and core rules · Boxcar news-trading restrictions
Read the product’s holiday row, not just the holiday name
Choose the exact date and product in the CME calendar. Record any early close and the next opening, including the time zone. Do not infer one contract’s hours from another market or from a stock-market holiday announcement.
Check the session state as well as the time. CME distinguishes preopen, when orders may be entered but do not match, from open trading. A connected platform or an accepted order is therefore not enough to establish that matching has started.
Recheck near the holiday: CME says schedules are subject to change and are usually finalized about two weeks beforehand. Then compare the product’s schedule with your provider’s holiday notice.
Convert the date, not a fixed time difference
The UK moves back to GMT on October 25, 2026; US daylight saving time ends on November 1. During the intervening week, London is four hours ahead of New York instead of the usual five.
Suppose an account has a hypothetical 4:00 p.m. New York cutoff. The London deadline changes as follows. These are time conversions, not Boxcar’s cutoff.
| Date in 2026 | New York cutoff | London equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, October 23 | 4:00 p.m. EDT | 9:00 p.m. BST |
| Monday, October 26 | 4:00 p.m. EDT | 8:00 p.m. GMT |
| Monday, November 2 | 4:00 p.m. EST | 9:00 p.m. GMT |
Sources: NIST: US daylight saving time rules · GOV.UK: When the clocks change
Turn the schedule into a usable session note
Before opening a position, record the symbol and contract month, trade date, exchange schedule, account cutoff and any restricted event window in one time zone. Use date-aware zones such as America/New_York and Europe/London for calendar alerts rather than a fixed UTC offset.
For a hypothetical session with a 5:00 p.m. exchange close and a 4:55 p.m. account cutoff, the account deadline comes first. Set your own earlier exit reminder and confirm that positions are closed and working orders are canceled. An alert is a reminder, not an executed exit.
If a holiday moves the exchange close to noon, the old 4:55 p.m. reminder is no longer usable. Rebuild that day’s note from the holiday schedule and the provider’s instructions before trading.
Sources: CME trading hours and holiday calendar · Boxcar trading hours and core rules