Short answer
The Nasdaq stock market is open 09:30–16:00 ET, with pre-market from 04:00 and after-hours to 20:00 ET. Nasdaq-100 futures go further: they trade from 18:00 ET Sunday to 17:00 ET Friday with a 60-minute daily break, giving a near-23-hour session.
Regular Nasdaq stock market hours
| Session | Hours (ET) | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-market | 04:00 – 09:30 | Thin, wide spreads, headline-driven |
| Regular session | 09:30 – 16:00 | Full liquidity, where most volume prints |
| After-hours | 16:00 – 20:00 | Earnings reactions, thin book |
The exchange is closed on US market holidays, and closes early — typically 13:00 ET — on a handful of half-days such as the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Always check the exchange calendar before assuming a full session.
What "Nasdaq 23 hour trading" refers to
Two different things get called 23-hour trading, and they are worth separating.
The first is futures. Nasdaq-100 futures on CME Globex open Sunday at 18:00 ET and run through to Friday 17:00 ET, pausing for one hour each weekday afternoon (17:00–18:00 ET). That is a 23-hour trading day, and it has been the reality for index futures for years — it is why the futures price moves overnight while the cash market sits closed.
The second is the exchange's own move toward extended, near-round-the-clock equity trading. Nasdaq has announced plans to expand US stock trading toward a 24/5 model, and the timeline and mechanics are set by the exchange and regulators rather than by any broker. If that matters to your plan, confirm the current status on Nasdaq's own newsroom before relying on it.
Futures session, in practice
| Window | Hours (ET) | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly open | Sun 18:00 | Gap reaction to weekend news |
| Asia session | 20:00 – 02:00 | Range building, low volume |
| London session | 02:00 – 05:00 | First real expansion, often sets a false direction |
| NY pre-market | 07:00 – 09:30 | Data releases, positioning |
| NY AM killzone | 09:30 – 11:00 | Highest-quality intraday setups |
| Daily pause | 17:00 – 18:00 | Market closed, settlement |
The hours that actually pay
Being able to trade 23 hours does not mean you should. On NQ, the overwhelming majority of clean, repeatable intraday setups occur in three windows: the London open, the New York AM killzone, and the New York PM session. Outside those, spreads widen, ranges shrink, and stop-outs from noise become the norm.
- — Trading Asia hours with a New York model is the most common way to donate money to the market.
- — Overnight moves matter even if you don't trade them — the Asia and London ranges create the liquidity the New York session runs.
- — Set your chart to Eastern Time. Every ICT session window is quoted in ET, and mixing time zones causes more mistakes than any indicator.
The market is open 23 hours. Your edge is open for about three.
Practise the right window
The advantage of replay is that you can rehearse the 09:30 open ten times in an afternoon instead of waiting ten days. Load a historical session, jump to the killzone, and step through it bar-by-bar with the session windows drawn for you.