Apex market hours: when you can trade, and when you can't.
Most instruments close at 5 PM ET and reopen an hour later. Agricultural futures close earlier. Holidays quietly change how your Daily Loss Limit behaves. Here is the full schedule, verified directly from Apex's own trading hours documentation.
Not everything closes at the same time.
All trades must be closed before 4:59 PM ET. It is the trader's responsibility to ensure their account is flat before that deadline, Apex does not take responsibility for positions left open through market close. Most instruments close at 5 PM ET, but agricultural futures close meaningfully earlier.
| Category | Instruments | Closing time |
|---|---|---|
| Equity index futures | ES, NQ, YM, RTY, EMD, NKD | 5:00 PM ET |
| Currency futures | 6A, 6B, 6C, 6E, 6J, 6S, 6N | 5:00 PM ET |
| Energy futures | CL, QM, NG, QG, HO, RB | 5:00 PM ET |
| Micro futures | MES, MYM, MNQ, M2K, M6A, M6E, MCL | 5:00 PM ET |
| Metal futures | GC, SI, HG, PL, PA | 5:00 PM ET |
| Cryptocurrency futures | MBT, MET | 5:00 PM ET |
| Livestock (agricultural) | Lean Hogs, Live Cattle, Feeder Cattle | 2:05 PM ET |
| Grains (agricultural) | Corn, Wheat, Soybeans, Soybean Meal, Soybean Oil | 2:20 PM ET |
Trading resumes at 6:00 PM ET, giving a roughly one-hour daily gap between the 5 PM close and the 6 PM reopen across most instruments. The full instrument catalog with commissions is covered in the Apex tradable instruments guide.
The clock runs from 6 PM to 4:59 PM, not midnight to midnight.
A trading day at Apex is defined from 6:00 PM ET one day to 4:59 PM ET the next day. This is a full 23-hour window, not a calendar day, and it matters for anyone trying to track exactly which session a trade or a milestone belongs to.
The system updates overnight to recognize the previous completed trading day. This is why an evaluation pass, or any other milestone reached during the session, is typically acknowledged and actioned after that day's market close rather than the exact moment the target is hit. If you hit your profit target mid-session, expect confirmation after the day closes, not immediately.
Allowed, but with real conditions attached.
Trading is permitted on holidays as long as the market is open, including during shortened sessions. This includes full market closures on some holidays, early closes on others, and reduced liquidity with wider spreads even when the market stays open.
All account rules and risk limits remain in effect at all times on a holiday session, including drawdown limits, consistency requirements, position sizing rules, and daily limits. Trading on a holiday provides no exemptions of any kind.
The 2026 CME holiday calendar
CME publishes final holiday hours roughly two weeks before each date, so treat the table below as the expected pattern rather than a locked schedule. Always confirm against the official CME holiday calendar and Apex's own Status Updates page closer to the date.
| Date (2026) | Holiday | Expected schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 1 | New Year's Day | Full closure |
| Jan 19 | Martin Luther King Jr. Day | Early halt ~1 PM ET, reopens 6 PM ET |
| Feb 16 | Presidents Day | Early halt ~1 PM ET, reopens 6 PM ET |
| Apr 3 | Good Friday | Full closure |
| May 25 | Memorial Day | Early halt ~1 PM ET, reopens 6 PM ET |
| Jun 19 | Juneteenth | Early halt ~1 PM ET, reopens 6 PM ET |
| Jul 2 | Day before Independence Day | Early close ~1 PM ET |
| Jul 3 | Independence Day (observed) | Early halt ~1 PM ET, reopens 6 PM ET |
| Sep 7 | Labor Day | Early halt ~1 PM ET, reopens 6 PM ET |
| Oct 12 | Columbus Day | Early halt ~1 PM ET, reopens 6 PM ET |
| Nov 11 | Veterans Day | Early halt ~1 PM ET, reopens 6 PM ET |
| Nov 26 | Thanksgiving Day | Halts ~1 PM ET, reopens 6 PM ET for Friday's shortened session |
| Nov 27 | Day after Thanksgiving | Early close ~1 PM ET |
| Dec 24 | Christmas Eve | Early close ~1 PM ET |
| Dec 25 | Christmas Day | Full closure |
Open positions must still be closed by the trader if the market closes early for a holiday. The same responsibility that applies at 4:59 PM ET on a normal day applies on a shortened holiday session too. Some instruments may stop trading earlier than others even within the same holiday, always check the official CME holiday schedule for the specific closure times that day.
Everything is Eastern Time. There is no conversion built in.
Apex publishes every time, whether it's a market hour, a ticket update, or an account renewal, in U.S. Eastern Time. This applies across the board with no exceptions. A time shown as 9:00 AM means 9:00 AM Eastern, not local time, unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Apex does not provide time zone conversion tools or localized scheduling. If you are trading from outside the Eastern time zone, converting every closing time, holiday schedule, and deadline into your own local time is your responsibility. This matters most around the 4:59 PM ET close and the holiday schedule above, since a small conversion error is exactly how a position gets left open past a close a trader thought was still hours away.
Holidays don't reset your Daily Loss Limit the way you'd expect.
This is the most consequential and least obvious mechanic covered here. A holiday or CME half-day session does not create a new trading day for Daily Loss Limit purposes. When trading resumes at 6:00 PM ET following a holiday or half-day session, it is treated as a continuation of the same trading day, not a fresh one.
Holiday or CME half-day, market closes early
Trading activity occurs, but this session does not close out the trading day for DLL purposes.
Market reopens, same trading day continues
The Daily Loss Limit carries forward from before the early close. It does not reset here.
DLL finally resets
Only after the next full, non-shortened trading day completes does the Daily Loss Limit reset at 6 PM ET.
A trader who assumes their DLL resets fresh after every session, holiday or not, can misjudge exactly how much risk cushion remains after a holiday half-day. The safer assumption is that a shortened session extends the current DLL window rather than closing it.
One combined day, not two separate ones.
For most market holidays and CME half-day schedules, trading activity during the holiday or half-day session is combined with the next full trading day and counted as a single trading day for trading-day calculations and payout eligibility purposes.
For example, if the market closes early on a Monday due to a holiday schedule, activity from that session and the following full session may be combined and counted as one trading day rather than two. This directly affects how quickly a trader accumulates the qualifying days needed toward a payout request, covered in full in the Apex payout rules guide.
Know the schedule before you're in a live session. Code ONKAGNVZ applies 90% off during the current active sale.
View current evaluation options →Where to check before a holiday session, not after.
Apex recommends three specific checks to avoid disruption around a holiday or unusual schedule:
- 1
Refer to the official CME holiday schedule for exact futures market hours and closures on any given date.
- 2
Check Apex's own Status Updates page to confirm how a specific holiday is being counted for early closes and full closures.
- 3
Monitor Apex's own platform announcements for any holiday-related updates that may change with short notice.
