Futures Trading Hours: When Do ES, NQ and CL Open and Close?

CME futures like ES, NQ, CL and gold trade nearly 24 hours a day: from Sunday 5:00 p.m. to Friday 4:00 p.m. Central Time (6:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern), with a one-hour daily break from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. CT, Monday to Thursday. So “what time do futures close?” has two answers: 4:00 p.m. CT every weekday for the daily break, and 4:00 p.m. CT on Friday for the weekend.

If you trade a prop account, a third time matters more than either: the time your firm requires you to be flat. This guide covers all three, converts them to London and Frankfurt, and flags the two weeks each year when the conversions change.

The weekly schedule at a glance

CME’s fact card for its Micro E-mini equity futures gives the hours as 5:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Sunday to Friday, in Central Time. Topstep’s brokerage help center lists the same schedule, with the 4:00–5:00 p.m. CT maintenance break, for equity index, energy and metals contracts such as ES, NQ, CL, NG, GC and SI. Some products, like agricultural futures, keep shorter hours, and every product changes around US holidays, so check CME’s holiday calendar before a long weekend.

Why the trading day starts the evening before

A futures “day” runs from the 5:00 p.m. CT reopen to the next day’s 4:00 p.m. CT break. A trade at 9:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday belongs to Wednesday’s session. That matters for three things:

• Daily loss limits. Many prop firms reset the daily limit at the reopen, not at midnight. Topstep, for example, lets you trade again from 5:00 p.m. CT after a daily-limit pause.
• Daily P&L and consistency rules. If your firm counts “best day” by session, an evening trade lands on the next day’s total. Our consistency rule guide shows why that changes the maths.
• Your journal. If your journal files trades by calendar date in your own time zone, your daily totals won’t match your firm’s. Pick one convention and keep it.

The cash session inside the futures day

Equity index futures are usually busiest while the US stock market is open, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET (8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. CT), per NYSE. That leaves an hour of futures trading after the stock market closes and before the 5:00 p.m. ET break. Economic releases such as CPI and the jobs report usually land at 8:30 a.m. ET, an hour before the stock open; see news trading at prop firms for the dates and the rules.

The London and New York “killzones” that ICT traders use are windows inside this day. ICT killzones explained lists them in New York time and UTC.

Prop firm flat-by times (checked October 2026)

Most futures prop firms don’t let you hold positions through the daily break or the weekend. Two examples from the firms’ own help centers on 12 October 2026:

• Topstep: all positions must be closed by 3:10 p.m. CT every weekday. Topstep says its risk team starts flattening positions at 3:08 p.m. CT, and you can trade again from 5:00 p.m. CT.
• Tradeify: all positions must be closed by 4:45 p.m. ET, Monday to Friday, before the daily break, and by 12:59 p.m. ET on shortened holiday days.

Those are different clocks: 3:10 p.m. CT is 4:10 p.m. ET, 35 minutes earlier than Tradeify’s cut-off. Other firms set their own times, so check your firm’s current page; the prop firm rules cheat sheet lists the flat-by time for each firm we track.

Daylight saving: the weeks when the gap changes

The US, UK and EU all use daylight saving time, but they don’t switch on the same day. In autumn 2026, the UK and EU set clocks back on Sunday 25 October and the US on Sunday 1 November (2:00 a.m. local, per NIST). For that one week, Chicago is five hours behind London instead of six.

If you trade from Europe and set phone alarms for the open or your flat-by time, move them for that week. In spring the gap shifts the other way: the US switches on the second Sunday of March and Europe on the last Sunday of March.

A simple session plan for a prop trader

Put four times on one line at the top of your trading plan, in your own time zone:

1. Your start time, after any release you don’t want to trade through.
2. Your last new entry, early enough that a normal trade can finish before your flat-by time.
3. Your firm’s flat-by time, with a phone alarm five minutes before it.
4. The daily reset, so you know when a paused day ends.

For a Topstep trader in London this month, that might read: start 14:45, last entry 20:30, flat by 21:10, reset 23:00, and the whole line moves an hour earlier from 25 to 31 October. These times are an example of the format, not advice on when to trade.

Holiday hours

US holidays shorten or close sessions. The next ones on the calendar are Thanksgiving, Thursday 26 November 2026, when the NYSE is closed, and Friday 27 November, when it closes early at 1:00 p.m. ET; Christmas Eve, Thursday 24 December, is also an early close. CME publishes its own holiday schedule for each product, and futures hours on those days don’t always match the stock market’s. Prop firms often set earlier flat-by times on these days too.

Put your session times where you’ll see them

The mistakes here are rarely about knowing the hours. They’re about a position still open at 3:09, or a daily total that doesn’t match the firm’s because of an evening trade. Write your firm’s flat-by time in your trading plan in your own time zone, and check it after each clock change.

TJ’s Prop guard has a “flat by” rule you set in your own time, shown on the account’s rule chips with your daily limit and drawdown, and the economic calendar shows release times in your time zone. Read the futures trading journal page to see how it fits together.

Hours checked on the CME, Topstep, Tradeify, NYSE and NIST pages listed below on 12 October 2026. Exchanges and firms change hours around holidays; always confirm before you trade. TJ is journaling software, not financial advice.