Futures Market Hours in UK Time (CME Globex)

Most CME Globex futures, including the equity index contracts (ES, NQ and their micros), crude oil, gold, Treasuries and currency futures, trade from Sunday 23:00 to Friday 22:00 UK time, with a daily one-hour break from 22:00 to 23:00 UK time on weekdays. The US stock market open, which drives much of the day's volume in index futures, is at 14:30 UK time. Twice a year, for a week or a few weeks when the US and UK change their clocks on different dates, all of these times are one hour earlier in the UK.

#CME Globex hours in Chicago, New York and UK time

CME quotes its hours in US Central Time (Chicago). Here they are converted, for most US contracts outside agriculture.

Event	Chicago (CT)	New York (ET)	UK, most of the year	UK, gap weeks
Week opens (Sunday)	17:00	18:00	23:00	22:00
Daily break starts (Mon to Thu)	16:00	17:00	22:00	21:00
Trading resumes after the break	17:00	18:00	23:00	22:00
Week closes (Friday)	16:00	17:00	22:00	21:00

That schedule applies, as of October 2026, to equity index (ES, NQ, RTY, YM), energy (CL, NG), metals (GC, SI, HG), interest rate (ZN, ZB, ZF) and currency (6E, 6B, 6J) futures, according to a broker's published summary of CME hours. CME's own trading-hours pages are the authority, and holiday hours differ.

During the daily break, CME Globex is closed for those products: no trading, and new orders aren't processed.

#Key US session times in UK time

Event	New York (ET)	UK, most of the year	UK, gap weeks
Many major US data releases	08:30	13:30	12:30
US stock market open	09:30	14:30	13:30
US stock market close	16:00	21:00	20:00

Equity index futures keep trading after the stock market closes, until the daily break an hour later.

#Agricultural futures keep different hours

Grain and oilseed futures (corn, wheat, soybeans and related contracts) don't follow the nearly round-the-clock schedule. As of October 2026 the published hours were:

Session	Chicago (CT)	UK, most of the year	UK, gap weeks
Overnight session (from Sunday to Thursday evenings)	19:00 to 07:45	01:00 to 13:45	00:00 to 12:45
Pause (Mon to Fri)	07:45 to 08:30	13:45 to 14:30	12:45 to 13:30
Day session (Mon to Fri)	08:30 to 13:20	14:30 to 19:20	13:30 to 18:20

Livestock contracts have a shorter day session again. Check CME's contract specifications for anything you trade outside the main groups.

#The clock-change weeks: when everything moves an hour

The US and UK both use daylight saving time, but they change on different dates:

• The US moves clocks forward on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November.
• The UK moves clocks forward on the last Sunday in March and back on the last Sunday in October.

In between, the UK is four hours ahead of New York instead of five, and five hours ahead of Chicago instead of six.

Year	Spring gap	Autumn gap
2026	8 March to 29 March	25 October to 1 November
2027	14 March to 28 March	31 October to 7 November

Each gap runs from the first clock change until the second. As this guide was written, in late October 2026, the US stock market was opening at 13:30 UK time until 1 November.

What changes for you in those weeks:

• Your usual routine starts an hour early: the open is 13:30, not 14:30.
• Many US data releases come out at 12:30 UK time.
• The daily break and the Friday close are at 21:00.
• Any prop-firm rule tied to US time, such as a time you must be flat by, also moves an hour earlier in UK time.

#The trading day starts in the evening

Futures trade dates don't match the calendar. The session that opens on Sunday evening belongs to Monday's trade date, and each weekday's session after the break counts towards the next day. From the UK, that means a trade at 23:30 on a Tuesday is part of Wednesday's trading day.

This matters for prop-firm accounts, where daily loss limits and best-day figures are usually counted per trading day. Check how your firm defines its day; see how to journal a prop firm evaluation.

#US holidays

CME shortens or halts trading around US holidays, including Thanksgiving (26 November in 2026) and Christmas. The changes differ by product group, so check CME's holiday calendar the week before. UK bank holidays don't close US futures.

#Why the hours matter for your trading journal

If you review your trades by time of day, the clock-change weeks can mislead you. In UK time, the open moves between 14:30 and 13:30; in New York time it's always 09:30. Two habits help:

1. Store each trade's time with its zone, so it converts correctly whatever week it was.
2. Review time-of-day stats in exchange time (New York or Chicago), so "the first half hour after the open" means the same thing every week.

Marble records every trade's day and time in New York time for this reason, so a 14:30 London entry on the open shows as 09:30 whatever the week, and it lets you set the time zone each imported file is in. For your weekly review, that keeps the open in the same place on the chart all year.

For what else UK traders need from a journal, see trading journal for UK futures traders.

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Marble keeps US-session trades on New York time, so your time-of-day stats hold up across clock changes. Try Marble.

Times are for information and can change. Always check CME's official trading hours and your firm's rules.

Marble is a trading journal. Nothing here is financial advice.