Futures Trading Hours, Settlement Prices and Price Limits

Before you read: Futures Expiration, Rollover and Continuous Charts

What you will learn

• How nearly round-the-clock electronic futures sessions are organized, and why the trading day starts in the evening.
• What the daily settlement price is and why it can differ from the last traded price.
• Why the overnight and day sessions often look different on a chart, and what price limits do.

When do futures trade?

If a market trades almost 24 hours a day, when does one trading day end and the next begin?

Many major US futures, including stock index, energy, metals and interest-rate contracts, trade electronically from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, with a short daily pause. For many of these products the session runs from 6:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time the next day (5:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Central Time), with a one-hour break each afternoon. Specific products can differ, and holidays change the schedule.

The trading day is named for the date on which it ends. A session that opens on Monday evening belongs to Tuesday’s trading date. That matters when you read daily bars, settlement prices and statements: Tuesday’s bar includes Monday evening’s trading.

Trading day diagram

Illustrative diagram constructed for teaching. Not real market data.

The diagram shows a 23-hour electronic session starting in the evening, the daily pause, the regular-hours window and the settlement window near the close. Times are typical examples and are not a schedule for any particular product. It is constructed for teaching and is not real market data.

Why do the overnight and day sessions look different?

Why might the same contract feel quiet at 2 a.m. and busy at 10 a.m.?

Traders often split the futures day into two parts:

• Regular trading hours (RTH). For stock index futures this usually means the hours when the main US stock exchanges are open, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Other products have their own most active windows, for example around the opening of the physical market for a commodity.
• Electronic or overnight trading hours (ETH). Everything else.

Participation, and therefore liquidity, changes through the day. Overnight trading in stock index futures is usually thinner, with wider gaps between bids and offers at times, while the cash market open often brings a jump in volume. Many charting platforms let you show the full session or only RTH. A high, low or VWAP can be quite different depending on which you choose, so it is worth knowing which one any level was drawn from.

What is the settlement price?

Why does the exchange publish its own price each day instead of using the last trade?

Each day the exchange calculates a settlement price for every contract month. It is usually based on trading during a short window near the end of the main session, often a volume-weighted average of trades in that window, with rules for less active months. For E-mini S&P 500 futures, for example, CME settles the lead month to the volume-weighted average of trades between 2:59:30 and 3:00:00 p.m. Central Time. Settlement prices are used for mark-to-market, margin calculations and account statements. Because they come from a window and not a single trade, they can differ from the last traded price of the day, and some charting platforms show settlement as the daily close while others show the last trade.

At expiration, contracts end with a final settlement. For cash-settled stock index futures this is a value calculated from the underlying index, often from opening prices of the component stocks on the expiration day. For physically delivered contracts, final settlement starts a delivery process instead.

What are price limits?

What happens when a market moves so far, so fast, that the exchange steps in?

Some futures have daily price limits or dynamic circuit breakers. When price reaches a set distance from a reference price, trading can pause briefly or be restricted to prices within the band. For stock index futures, these limits are coordinated with the market-wide circuit breakers used for US stocks. The details vary by product, are expressed as percentages or fixed amounts, and are reset on a schedule. Limits slow a move; they do not stop losses. A position can still lose more than its margin, and a market can reopen sharply beyond the level where it paused.

What this does not tell you about trading hours

• Each product’s exact hours, breaks, holiday schedule and settlement method are in its own contract rules, and they can change.
• Brokers may limit which sessions you can trade in, or apply different margin outside certain hours.
• Thin overnight liquidity can mean larger slippage, but how much depends on the product and the moment.
• Nothing here says a particular session is better or worse to trade.

Check yourself

1. A futures session opens on Wednesday evening. Which trading date does it belong to? Hint: the day it ends.
2. Why can the settlement price differ from the last trade of the day? Hint: a window versus a single trade.
3. You see two different daily highs for the same contract on two platforms. Name two possible reasons. Hint: session template and settlement versus last trade.

Last reviewed November 8, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Report an error.