Orders & execution · Beginner

Understanding Trading Sessions and Market Hours

A 1-minute lesson from the MarketPro academy, one of 16 in orders and execution.

Last reviewed 15 September 2026 by the MarketPro research desk · Editorial policy

Short answer

Financial markets operate on set schedules tied to the exchange's home time zone, and trading activity can vary noticeably depending on which session is currently active. Liquidity and volatility can differ substantially across these periods.

Financial markets operate on set schedules tied to the exchange's home time zone, and trading activity can vary noticeably depending on which session is currently active.

Typical Session Structure

Regular trading hours: the main session when an exchange is officially open, typically featuring the highest trading volume and liquidity of the day.
Pre-market and after-hours sessions: extended trading windows offered by some brokers outside regular hours, generally with lower liquidity and wider spreads.
Overlap periods: for markets that trade globally, such as certain currency or futures markets, hours when multiple major sessions are open at once tend to show increased activity.

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Liquidity and volatility can differ substantially across these periods. Extended-hours sessions, in particular, often have fewer participants, which can lead to wider bid-ask spreads and larger price swings on relatively small order sizes.

Major news, such as earnings releases, is sometimes scheduled deliberately outside regular trading hours, which can cause a stock to open the next regular session at a noticeably different price than where it previously closed—an event often referred to as a gap.

Being aware of which session is currently active, and how that affects typical liquidity and spread conditions, is a practical part of managing execution expectations, especially for orders placed outside the main regular session.

Lesson 15 of 16 in Orders and execution

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Written and reviewed by the MarketPro research desk

MarketPro is a trading-signal and trading-education app operated by Harajuku Holdings LTD (Cyprus). Our signal desk publishes and tracks every trade idea in-app, and every page here is checked against the app's live behaviour before publishing. Last reviewed 15 September 2026. How we produce signals and content · About MarketPro

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