Any weekday that the stock markets are open to trade, not weekends or official holidays, is a trading day. The NYSE/NASDAQ has a scheduled session in the U.S. between 9:30 am to 4:00 pm ET on trading days. According to the accepted norm, an average year consists of about 252 trading days. One is the following: 365 number of days -104 number of days on weekends -approximately 9-11 public holidays 252 open days. The U.S. stock market has a history of 250-252 trading days on average every year but with some fluctuation. It is worth pointing out that 2020 had 253 trading days and 2021 had 252. This will be a specific number based on the calendar and other special closures.
The U.S market timetable is projected to produce 250 trading days in the year 2026. According to Crypstudio, it is stated that there will be 250 trading days in 2026 (out of 365 days) when all the holiday closures, weekends, and special events are considered. We will subdivide how these 250 days are divided, including a count of each quarter and the 2026 holiday schedule.
What Is a Trading Day?
Any weekday that financial markets are operating is considered a trading day. This does not include weekends and official market holidays. In the case of U.S. stock exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ), the daily trading day is 9:30 am-4:00 pm ET. There are pre-market and after-hours trading sessions, which are not separate days of trading but one day of trading. That is, we have trading days which usually fall between Monday and Friday except when there are holiday closures. This notion is contrasted with calendar days every 365 or 366 days of a year and even with business days weekdays without taking into account holidays. A trading day particularly refers to the fact that the market is open to trade.
Typical Number of Trading Days (U.S. Market)
The stock markets in U.S have approximately 252 trading days in a normal year. The usual calculation is:
365 total days in the year
minus 104 days of the weekend (52 Saturdays 52 Sundays)
252 open market days = -9-11 exchange holidays (different each year).
As an example, one of the sources decomposes it: 365 total days – 104 weekends – 9 holidays = 252 trading days. The average statistics were 252 days in history (1990-2022). Practically, the range of most years is 250-253. Slight variations are brought about by holidays of weekends or unusual closures. As an example, 2016-2022 data indicate that it ranged between 250 and 253 days. That effectively reduces to 250-252 since Juneteenth became a holiday in 2022 but it is not counted therein. Particular years can be used to demonstrate the change: 2020 consisted of 253 trading days, 2021 consisted of 252. In comparison, 2023 contained 252, 2024 contained 251 and 2026 will contain 250.
Such differences are important in planning. Another common annualization of daily returns or volatility by traders is on the number of days daily variance multiplied by 252. The precise number of units is valuable in terms of portfolio rebalancing and planning taxes and risk analysis. Also, if you ever get strange messages about your account, check this guide on Coinbase text scams to stay safe from fraud.
Factors That Change the Count
The number of trading days may vary year to year due to a number of factors:
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- Weekends: As a default, all Saturdays and Sundays are non-trading days. This works out to 104 days (208 weekend days) being taken off the calendar in a normal year.
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- Federal and Exchange Holidays: Exchanges as well as the U.S. Congress declare some weekdays as holidays. Normally 9 regular federal holidays are allowed annually when the markets are closed (e.g. New Year Day, MLK Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and even the more recent Juneteenth). In the case of a holiday that is on the weekend, a closure is usually noticed on the next Friday or Monday. As an example, when July 4th fell on a Saturday, markets would close on Friday July 3rd. In this way, each year practically has 10 holidays based on the calendar.
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- Special or One-Time Closures: Sometimes markets are closed on a non-scheduled basis. History knows closures of the market following 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, or days of grieving over a President of the U.S. One of such special closures was in 2025: a national day of mourning of President Jimmy Carter on January 9, 2025, and U.S. exchanges were closed that day. This additional shut down cuts down the number of trading days on top of the normal holiday schedule.
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- Early-Closing Sessions: There are days when the trading normally closing up at 1:00 pm ET has been cut short on the eve of a big holiday. As an example, the markets will close early on July 3 before Independence Day, Nov 28 after Thanksgiving, and Dec 24 Christmas Eve. These half day sessions are included in the total number of trading days. They will not decrease the number of trading days – full closures only.
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- Leap Years: Every fourth year will add a day, the 29 th of Feb. When the 29 of February is not a Sunday or a holiday, then it will add an extra possible trading day. On the example of 2024, which was a leap year (with a total of 366 days), 253rd trading day might be added in all, other things being unchanged. Indeed, there were 251 placements in 2024 because of holidays. On the whole, leap years have the power to slightly increase the count by one.
To conclude, the last day of trading is determined by the timing of the holidays, quirks of the calendar, and extraordinary events of a given year.
2026 US Trading Calendar (Holidays & Closures)
By 2026, the U.S. stock market will operate 250 days. This is obtained by taking 365 less all of the weekends and market closures. The regular holiday closures in 2026 are:
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- Jan 1: New Year’s Day
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- Jan 20: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
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- Feb 17: Presidents’ Day (Washington’s Birthday)
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- Apr 18: Good Friday
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- May 26: Memorial Day
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- Jun 19: Juneteenth National Independence Day
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- Jul 4: Independence Day
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- Sep 1: Labor Day
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- Nov 27: Thanksgiving Day
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- Dec 25: Christmas Day
Also, it had one special closing in 2026: U.S. markets were closed on Jan 9, 2026, in memory of a national day of mourning for President Jimmy Carter. It is not an annual holiday but it essentially increases the number of closures in 2026.
There were also three early-close days (markets closing at 1:00 pm ET): Jul 3, Nov 28, and Dec 24, 2026. These introductory days are included in our trading days.
Adding it all up: 2026 contains 365 days, which will be reduced by 104 days on weekends, which will be reduced by 10 federal holiday closures, which will be reduced by 1 special closure (Carter Mourning), 250 trading days. The NYSE and the NASDAQ have the same schedule of holidays. The trading calendar for 2026 is presented in the figure below:
Calculating 2026’s Trading Days
Putting it all together for 2026:
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- Calendar days: 365 in 2026.
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- Weekends: 104 (every Saturday and Sunday).
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- Market holidays: 10 full closures (see list above).
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- Special closure: Jan 9 (mourning for Carter).
Therefore, 365 104 (weekends) -10 (holidays) 1 (extra closure) = 250 trading days. When we take the usual holidays alone, not counting the Carter closure, then the days of trade are 251. In both, the outcome is within the 250-252 range as anticipated.
It comes in handy when traders know that the first half of 2026 (January-June) has approximately 122 trading days and the second half (July-December) has approximately 128 trading days. The most and the least active quarters are Q4 (64 days) and Q1 (60 days).
Year-by-Year Comparison
For context, here are the trading day counts in recent years:
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- 2023: 252 trading days (10 holidays, no special closures)
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- 2024: 251 trading days (leap year with 10 holidays)
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- 2025: 250 trading days (10 holidays + 1 special)
The annual total is almost the same, though it may fluctuate by one or two days depending on the alignment of the calendar and the events.
Global Markets Comparison
Other stock market schedules are different as we pay attention to U.S:
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- United Kingdom (LSE): Annual traded days/year: of the order of 253 days/year (approximately 9-10 U.K. bank holidays).
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- India (NSE/BSE): ~246–250 trading days. Many religious and regional holidays close the Indian markets, and thus the number fluctuates like India has about 248 days of markets in 2026.
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- Hong Kong (HKEX): Approximately 246 trading days (Lunar New Year, etc. breaks are allowed).
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- Japan (TSE): The trading days are approximately 245 per year (numerous national holidays, e.g., Golden Week, New year, etc.).
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- Singapore (SGX): ~250 trading days.
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- Forex (Currency) Market: 260 trading days. The currency trading is 24/5 (Sunday evening to Friday evening) and this will cover the majority of the weekdays around the world.
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- Cryptocurrency Markets: 365 days. Cryptocurrency exchanges are 2/4/7/24/365 and have no holiday breaks.
The holidays of each exchange are determined by the local law and practice and therefore international investors have to be aware of these variances when trading overseas.
Why the Trading-Day Count Matters
It is important to know the number of trading days that will take place. Key reasons include:
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- Annualizing Returns and Volatility: Financial models usually use an assumption of around 252 trading days in a year. As an illustration, annualizing volatility will be 252. With the exact number, the performance measures are more accurate.
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- Performance Benchmarks: Traders compare performance daily P/L with annual targets, the knowledge about the number of days open would assist in setting realistic targets.
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- Strategy Planning: It can be seen that many trading strategies rely on a fixed number of days (50-trading-day moving average). Traders can work a calendar when there will be no markets or fewer sessions. It is worth noting that a significant portion of profits may be on a small proportion of days – e.g. 80 percent of profits on an approximation of 20 percent of trading days (50 days of 252) – thus each trading day may be crucial.
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- Scheduling and Logistics:Companies plan their earnings and news releases and operations on trading days. Holidays can lead to delays when an economic report has to be given on a holiday, it almost always moves to a different day. The traders even schedule holidays or rest during market holidays.
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- Tax and Accounting: Fiscal year accounting, tax reporting, and portfolio accounting commonly make use of trading day calendars, calculating the number of days, determining interest paid, etc.
Concisely, the number of trading days directly influences the annualization of market data and time-series, the timing of strategy execution and the management of portfolios.
Key Takeaways
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- The number of days/year that the U.S. equity markets trade is typically 252 days but the actual number varies by a few days every year.
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- The NYSE/NASDAQ in 2026 will be trading on 250 days. This is equivalent to 104 days of weekends and 11 overall closures (10 regular holidays and 1 special day) in the year.
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- The 2026 holiday schedule (Jan 1, Jan 20, Feb 17, Apr 18, May 26, Jun 19, Jul 4, Sep 1, Nov 27, Dec 25) and a one-time closure on Jan 9 determine the open days. Early-close sessions (Jul 3, Nov 28, Dec 24) are counted as trading days.
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- The count of trading days in the world varies: the UK has 253, India has 248, and HK and Japan have 245. (Forex trades ~260 days, crypto 365 days.)
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- The annualizing metrics and planning are used by traders through the trading-day number. As an example, it is standard to annualize the daily price or price movement into daily variance using something like 252 days.
This is because through the knowledge of the market calendar and the number of trading days, investors can have a better plan, compare performance over their past year, and manage risk management, with respect to the real days that the market is open.
