Is the stock market open on the weekends

It's all digital and done with computers these days, so why bother? Doesn't that just make the system less liquid, which is the opposite to one aim of having the stock market? While a lot of trading is executed by computers, a substantial amount is still done at the behest of humans. Brokers managing accounts, Portfolio Managers, and Managers of Mutual Funds doing stock picks etc.

Those folks are still initiating a very large number of the trades or at least one side of a trade. And those humans don't work 7 days a week. And even a lot of places that use computers to create models and such, there are still humans in the loop to ensure that the computers are not ordering something stupid to be done.

The portfolios were designed to track indexes, or a mix of indexes and actively managed funds, but with the addition of managing for tax efficiency. A lot of complex math and complicated 'solver' programs that figured out each day what if anything to trade in each portfolio. Despite all those computers, humans still reviewed all the trades to be sure they made sense. And those humans only worked 5 days a week. However there are a few reasons why you would not want to:. The purpose of an exchange is to improve liquidity by gathering all buyers and sellers in the same place at the same time.

Some markets including NASDAQ depend on market makers or specialists to help liquidity. These exchanges are able to mandate that the market maker actively make a market in a security during a meaningful percentage of the trading day.

Trading systems, meaning both exchange infrastructure and market participant infrastructure, need maintenance time. It's nice to have the evenings and weekends for scheduled work. Post-trade clearing and settlement procedures are still somewhat manual at times. You need staff around to handle these processes. The stock markets are closed on week-ends and public holidays because the Banks are closed. The Banking is a must to settle the payment obligations.

So you may buy and sell as much as you wish, but unless money changes hands, nothing has really happened. Now as to why Banking itself is closed on week-ends and public holidays, well a different question: Keeping the system 24 hrs up and running does not actually push volumes, but definately push expenses for brokers, Banks etc. There definately is some convinience to buyers and sellers. At one level someone needs to be monitoring the computers that manage the trading to be sure they are functioning.

At another level someone needs to be making judgement calls on important but rare events: When do you close the stock exchange entirely?

Is the Stock Market Closed During the Weekend? | Finance - Zacks

It is alleged that unsupervised computer trades were at least partly responsible for the May selloff. Even if that's unproven, would you really want those unsupervised computers trading with each other for a couple of days?

Or even for a couple of hours? That would add hugely to the cost of trading. Simply, most of the above given 'answers' are mere 'justifications' for a practice that has become anachronistic. It did make sense once in the past, but not any more. The answer must lie in the vested interests of a few stakeholder groups - or - it could just be our difficult to change habits.

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Join them; it only takes a minute: Here's how it works: Anybody can ask a question Anybody can answer The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Why is the stock market closed on the weekend? Plus can't you just play the futures market after hours anyway?

E 2, 3 22 Answer this so I can quit checking it every three hours! I reckon, I only put it in last night. Can't believe it's got 13 votes already!

Is the stock market open on the weekend? | Yahoo Answers

E Jun 13 '11 at 3: To allow bankers time to go to the Hamptons. There are stock exchanges in the world which work 6-days, 7-days or 24x7. So, are you just asking about a few particular exchanges? Chuck van der Linden 5, 10 It's always day time somewhere in the world.

With that in mind, I still don't understand why close the market? The futures market get traded whilst the market is closed.

E Jun 13 '11 at Have you looked at the volumes that transact in various 'after hours' markets vs what transacts when the market is open? Hedge funds don't tend to like trading into a liquidity restricted market because it gets too expensive due to exaggerated price changes in response to what the hendge fund would be trying to accomplish.

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So hedge fund traders what to trade during the periods of maximum liquidity in order to get the best prices when both buying and selling.

E Jun 16 '11 at 1: This answers why humans are necessary, but not why the market is closed on the weekend. Would there not be enough volume without those humans driving trades? However there are a few reasons why you would not want to: Midtown West 1 3.

The after hours market has little volume, and this lack of activity makes for extra volatility. The participants mainly seem to be naive investors, who don't care what price they pay or get, and a few professionals who prey upon them. See, for instance, After-hours trades still risky. Not convinced on the maintenance argument.

There are plenty of electronic systems that never go down. Can you fill us in? The answer is 7-fold: Prior to , the stock market was open on Saturdays, but not Sundays For months after the stock market crash of late , Saturdays were taken off to allow exchange staff to catch up on their paperwork In the early 's, Saturdays began to be given off more often due to light trading volume, another result of the Crash and Great Depression.

From the 4th of July through Labor Day Sep , the stock market was closed all Saturdays Then, for many summers after that into the 's, the stock market was closed all Saturdays from Memorial Day through Labor Day This begins to blend in the concept of, in general, society just wanting a shorter work week.

In the 's, the stock market began closing every Saturday JimB 61 1 1. I am not doubting, but some evidence would be nice. Accounts are not settled immediately when you buy stock, and can be days or weeks later. The process of settlement begins the same day [Day 0]. Normally on the date of transaction, the actual payment balances are arrived [Day 0]. Next day these are communicated to all parties [Day 1]. Typically by the following day [Day 2], the movement of funds is confirmed.

There are some brokers who may extend your obligation by giving you a credit line. But they would have already paid up on behalf of you.

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There are a number of factors here. Just because you can't sell a stock doesn't mean the price hasn't plummeted. If you buy Japanese stock on Friday, Japan suffers a massive natural disaster on Saturday, regardless of whether you have to wait till monday or sell straight away, the value has still plummeted.

This is the reason why most day traders will close their positions at the end of the day or week. It sounds a bit unbelievable that stock exchanges which trade billions of dollars per day, from participants all around the world, will only open 6 hours a day to minimize maintenance costs.

Can you imagine a casino doing that? The futures market can change overnight, but you don't have to be in the futures market. Babu George 29 1. Rea Feb 2 '14 at 1: In it, you'll get: The week's top questions and answers Important community announcements Questions that need answers. Any citation or reference to your expertise?

I don't think this is even true. I disagree with no4. So with 24 hours working you need to triple the staff - who pays for that extra cost? MathOverflow Mathematics Cross Validated stats Theoretical Computer Science Physics Chemistry Biology Computer Science Philosophy more 3. Meta Stack Exchange Stack Apps Area 51 Stack Overflow Talent.