CME Trading Hours: Globex, CBOT, NYMEX and the 2026 Holiday Calendar

CME trading hours run from Sunday 5:00 PM to Friday 4:00 PM Central Time on the Globex electronic platform, with a one-hour maintenance break from 4:00 to 5:00 PM CT Monday through Thursday. That single window covers all four CME Group exchanges, CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX, but each exchange lists product groups with their own Regular Trading Hours and quirks.

I've traded on CME Globex across dozens of prop firm accounts for over three years. The hours themselves are straightforward once you learn them, but the details catch people off guard: maintenance windows, settlement times, holiday schedules. I lost an account early on because I didn't realize that a CME early close meant my firm's flat-by-close deadline moved up too.

This is the reference guide I wish I'd had when I started. Exchange by exchange, plus the 2026 CME holiday calendar. If you want the bigger picture across global exchanges, my futures market hours guide covers Eurex and Asia too.

What Are the CME Globex Trading Hours?

CME Globex trading hours are Sunday 5:00 PM to Friday 4:00 PM Central Time, nearly 23 hours a day, five days a week. Globex is the electronic platform every CME Group product trades on, so when people search for the "CME open time," the answer is 5:00 PM CT the prior evening: the trading day starts Sunday or weekday evening, not at the morning bell.

The morning bell does matter, though. Regular Trading Hours (RTH) is the high-volume window that overlaps the U.S. cash session, and it differs by product group. For equity index futures, RTH runs 8:30 AM to 3:15 PM CT and carries roughly 70% of daily volume. Here's the CME exchange itself, equity indexes and currencies, where most prop firm traders live.

ES and its micro version MES are the default instruments for funded traders. If you're new to the contract, my ES futures trading guide breaks down how the session structure plays into actual setups, and my explainer on what E-mini futures are covers the contract family itself. Micros follow the exact same clock as their full-size parents, which is one reason micro futures trading is the standard starting point on smaller prop accounts.

One more timing detail that matters more than most traders realize. Settlement for equity index futures isn't the 4:00 PM Globex close. It's calculated from trading activity in the 3:14:30 to 3:15:00 PM CT window at the end of RTH. Prop firms that use end-of-day drawdown calculations reference this settlement price for your daily closing balance.

CBOT Trading Hours

CBOT trading hours split into two very different schedules: financial products (Treasuries and the E-mini Dow) follow the standard Globex clock, while grains run their own shorter session. CBOT is the Chicago Board of Trade, home to Treasury futures (ZB, ZN, ZF), grain futures (ZC, ZS, ZW), and YM, the E-mini Dow. Treasuries are the second most popular product group for prop firm trading after equity indexes.

The grain schedule is what trips people up. The CBOT night trade session for corn, soybeans, and wheat opens Sunday at 7:00 PM CT, two hours after the financial products, and the whole grain complex closes at 1:20 PM CT. Instead of the standard 4:00 to 5:00 PM maintenance break, grains pause overnight trading and run a pre-open from 7:45 to 8:30 AM before the day session.

Most prop firm traders skip grains entirely. Lower volume and the odd session structure make them inconvenient for RTH-focused strategies, and some firms don't enable them on the data feed at all.

NYMEX and COMEX Trading Hours

NYMEX trading hours and COMEX trading hours both follow the standard Globex window, Sunday 5:00 PM to Friday 4:00 PM CT, with the differences showing up in Regular Trading Hours. NYMEX is the energy exchange (crude oil, natural gas, heating oil, gasoline), while COMEX covers metals (gold, silver, copper).

All of these share the 4:00 to 5:00 PM CT maintenance break with the rest of Globex.

Crude oil is a popular prop firm product because of its volatility and clear session patterns, with most CL volume concentrating during its 8:00 AM to 1:30 PM RTH. Gold is the favorite for traders who prefer the London overlap. GC sees significant volume from roughly 3:00 to 5:00 AM CT when London is active, hours before its official RTH even starts. I cover how to actually use those windows in my gold futures trading guide.

Two practical warnings from my own accounts. Some firms restrict natural gas entirely because of its extreme volatility, and not every firm supports COMEX on their data feed. I once tried to trade copper on a firm that didn't. The order just sat there. No fill, no error message. Just dead. Check the allowed instruments list, and if you're still picking an instrument, my rundown of the best futures contracts to trade ranks them by liquidity and prop firm friendliness.

CME Holiday Calendar 2026

The CME holiday schedule for 2026 includes three full closures (New Year's Day, Good Friday, Christmas) and six early close days where equity products halt around 12:15 PM CT and energy and metals at 12:30 PM CT. These futures market holidays are published annually by CME Group, and on early close days specific products can close at different times, so always check the product-level detail.

Here's what's still ahead in 2026:

Earlier in 2026, the CME was fully closed on New Year's Day (Jan 1) and Good Friday (Apr 3), with early closes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan 19), Presidents' Day (Feb 16), and Memorial Day (May 25), all following the same 12:15 PM equities and 12:30 PM energy and metals pattern.

CME holidays matter for funded traders for one specific reason. On early close days, your prop firm's flat-by-close deadline typically shifts to match. If the CME closes equities at 12:15 PM CT, your firm expects you flat by then, not by the usual 4:00 PM. I always set a calendar reminder the night before a holiday-shortened session so I'm not caught off guard. That mistake has cost traders their funded accounts.

The day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) also has reduced hours, though it's not a full holiday. Volume is thin, and I skip it entirely on funded accounts. Trading a half-empty order book on a prop firm account isn't worth it.

What Is the CME Globex Maintenance Window?

The CME Globex maintenance window runs from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM Central Time, Monday through Thursday. During this hour, no orders can be placed, modified, or executed on any CME Group exchange.

This isn't just a pause in trading. The maintenance window is when CME resets the trading day. Your account's daily P&L, margin calculations, and settlement prices all update during this break, and the new trading day officially starts at 5:00 PM CT.

For prop firm traders, this window is critical. Most firms require you to be flat before 4:00 PM CT. If you have an open position at 3:59 PM and the market gaps at the 5:00 PM reopen, your drawdown takes the hit. I've seen 5-10 point gaps on ES at the 5 PM open after strong after-hours earnings or unexpected macro news. That's $250-$500 per contract of uncontrollable risk.

Some platforms let you queue orders during the maintenance window for execution at the 5:00 PM reopen. Rithmic supports this, and Tradovate does as well on most prop firm configurations. But queued orders execute at the opening price, which may gap from where you expected.

The CME Sunday Open

Trading resumes each week on Sunday at 5:00 PM Central Time, but the open isn't a single moment. CME uses a pre-open period: for equity index futures it starts at 4:00 PM CT on Sunday, one hour before the session opens. You can enter orders during this window, but no matching occurs. The order book builds, and at 5:00 PM CT the first trade matches.

The Sunday open is where weekend gaps appear. If geopolitical events, economic data from Asia, or corporate news broke over the weekend, the Sunday evening opening price can be significantly different from Friday's close.

I don't trade the Sunday open on prop firm accounts. The gap risk is unpredictable, and spreads stay wide for the first 30 to 60 minutes. If you want to trade Sunday evening, wait until at least 6:00 PM CT when the Asian session is fully active and spreads have normalized. For where the real edges sit during the week, see my breakdown of the best time to trade futures.

How CME Hours Affect Prop Firm Daily Resets

Prop firms calculate your daily performance based on the CME trading day, which runs from 5:00 PM CT to 4:00 PM CT the following day, not the calendar day.

For firms with EOD (end-of-day) trailing drawdowns like Lucid Trading, your drawdown level only updates at the 4:00 PM CT close. Intraday profits don't raise your drawdown floor until the next day. Knowing when your drawdown updates relative to CME settlement times is essential for risk management.

Firms with Intraday Trailing drawdowns calculate continuously during market hours. On those accounts the session boundaries matter less for drawdown, but the flat-by-close rule still applies at 4:00 PM CT.

I've seen traders confuse their firm's "trading day" with the calendar day. Your trading day doesn't start at midnight; it starts at the 5:00 PM CT Globex reopen. If you open a trade at 5:01 PM CT on Monday, that trade belongs to Tuesday's trading day in the CME system. This distinction matters for daily loss limit calculations.

Check your specific firm's rules. Apex Trader Funding uses the standard CME day, and so does TakeProfitTrader. But some smaller firms have custom definitions that don't perfectly align with CME settlement. And before you size up on any product, confirm its tick value and margin in my futures contract specifications guide, because session hours and contract specs together define your real risk per trade.

Frequently Asked Questions

What time does the CME open?

The CME opens at 5:00 PM Central Time on Sunday and each weekday evening, with the Globex session running until 4:00 PM CT the next day. The high-volume Regular Trading Hours for equity index futures start at 8:30 AM CT. So "the open" depends on which one you mean: the electronic session opens at 5:00 PM CT, the RTH session at 8:30 AM CT.

When does Globex close?

Globex closes daily at 4:00 PM Central Time for its one-hour maintenance break (Monday through Thursday) and closes for the week on Friday at 4:00 PM CT. Trading resumes at 5:00 PM CT, Sunday through Thursday.

Is the CME open today?

The CME is open Sunday 5:00 PM through Friday 4:00 PM CT except on exchange holidays. In the remainder of 2026, it closes fully on Christmas (December 25) and closes early on July 3, Labor Day (September 7), and Thanksgiving (November 26), with equities halting at 12:15 PM CT and energy and metals at 12:30 PM CT on those days.

What are CBOT trading hours?

CBOT financial products like Treasury futures (ZB, ZN, ZF) and the E-mini Dow (YM) trade Sunday 5:00 PM to Friday 4:00 PM CT with the standard 4:00 to 5:00 PM maintenance break. CBOT grains (ZC, ZS, ZW) run Sunday 7:00 PM to Friday 1:20 PM CT with a 7:45 to 8:30 AM pre-open instead.

What are NYMEX trading hours for crude oil?

NYMEX crude oil (CL) trades on Globex from Sunday 5:00 PM to Friday 4:00 PM CT with the daily 4:00 to 5:00 PM CT maintenance break. Regular Trading Hours for CL are 8:00 AM to 1:30 PM CT, and micro crude (MCL) follows the same schedule. Most crude volume concentrates during RTH.

What are COMEX trading hours for gold?

COMEX gold (GC) trades Sunday 5:00 PM to Friday 4:00 PM CT with Regular Trading Hours from 7:20 AM to 12:30 PM CT. Gold also sees significant volume during the London overlap from roughly 3:00 to 5:00 AM CT, which makes it unusual among CME products.

What is the CME Globex maintenance window?

The Globex maintenance window is 4:00 to 5:00 PM Central Time, Monday through Thursday. No orders can be placed, modified, or executed during this hour. CME uses it for system maintenance, settlement calculations, and the transition to the next trading day, which starts at 5:00 PM CT.

What time zone does CME Group use?

CME Group expresses all trading hours in Central Time, based in Chicago. That's UTC-6 during standard time (November through March) and UTC-5 during daylight saving time (March through November). All settlement times, maintenance windows, and session boundaries reference Central Time.

How does the CME Sunday pre-open work?

The Sunday pre-open for equity index futures starts at 4:00 PM CT, one hour before the 5:00 PM session open. Traders can enter orders during this window but no matching occurs. The book builds, and the first trades execute at exactly 5:00 PM CT, which is where weekend gaps become visible.

Does the CME maintenance break affect prop firm accounts?

Directly. Most prop firms require all positions closed before 4:00 PM CT when the break begins, and holding through the 4:00 to 5:00 PM window is a rule violation at most firms. Even firms that allow overnight holding expose you to gap risk at the 5:00 PM reopen, and on holiday early close days the flat deadline moves up to match the earlier close.