As the holidays are rapidly approaching, you’ll likely want to ensure you’re on top of your trades. Seasonality greatly impacts how financial markets perform. Before the holidays, there is a seasonal market trend called the pre-holiday effect, when the markets usually experience higher volatility than on regular trading days.
To help you prepare and refine your trading strategies, here’s what you can expect this upcoming holiday season.
Stock market
During the holidays, stock prices fluctuate due to several contributing factors, including
- the number of active traders
- the end of a financial quarter for companies (when they rebalance their portfolios based on which investments performed well or poorly)
- investors selling their unprofitable shares
With the expected rises and dips in price movements this time of the year, most traders rely on technical and fundamental analysis to study the seasonal stock trend of a particular asset to strategise better.
Stock exchanges holiday calendar
Stock markets are only open for trading on normal business days — Monday to Friday. Listed below are the holiday schedules of some of the major stock indices that we offer.
| Stock indices | Regular trading hours | Holiday status |
| US Index US Tech index Wall Street Index | 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM GMT | Closed on 26 December 2 January |
| Dutch Index French Index German Index | 7:00 AM to 8:30 PM GMT | Closed on 26 December |
| Euro 50 Index | 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM GMT | Closed on 26 December |
| Swiss Index | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM GMT | Closed on 26 December 2 January |
| UK Index | 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM GMT | Closed on 26 and 27 December 2 January |
| Hong Kong Index | 1:30 AM to 4:00 AM GMT 5:00 AM to 8:00 AM GMT | Closed on 26 and 27 December 2 January |
*Stocks and stock indices can be traded on Deriv MT5 and DTrader, DBot, and SmartTrader.
Forex market
The forex market is the world’s largest financial market, with a daily trading volume of over 6 trillion US dollars. It’s dominated by financial companies, hedge funds (also known as offshore investment funds), and banks.
These key market players are absent during the holiday season, resulting in lower liquidity. Their absence also leads to heightened volatility with higher chances of false breakouts, which some traders find unrewarding as there’s less potential for gains.
In a decentralised market like forex, there is no way of knowing how prices will move, so trading under such unpredictable market conditions can be challenging. Most traders rely on technical and fundamental analysis to study forex price movements.
*Forex can be traded on Deriv MT5, Deriv X, DTrader, DBot, and SmartTrader.
| Forex | Regular trading hours | Holiday status |
| All forex pairs | 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM GMT Closes early at 8:55 PM GMT | Closed on 26 December 2 January |
Commodities
The holiday season generates a high demand for commodities — from natural resources to precious metals — resulting in bullish markets that most traders take advantage of. This demand increase strengthens their prices, paving the way for more potential positive returns.
| Metals/energy | Regular trading hours | Holiday status |
| Gold Palladium Platinum Silver | 12:00 AM to 10:00 PM GMT 11:00 PM to 11:59 PM GMT Closes early at 8:55 PM GMT on Fridays | Closed on 23, 26, and 30 December 2 January |
| Oil | 07:00 AM to 8:30 PM GMT | Closed on 26 and 27 December 2 January |
*Commodities can be traded on Deriv MT5, Deriv X, DTrader, DBot, and SmartTrader.
Other markets
Cryptocurrencies and synthetic indices are the markets that never sleep. On Deriv, these markets are available to trade 24/7, even throughout the holiday seasons and on public holidays.
*Cryptocurrencies can be traded on Deriv MT5, Deriv X, and DTrader. Synthetics can be traded on Deriv MT5, Deriv X, DBot, DTrader, and SmartTrader.
Important: We’re open for business throughout the holiday season. The schedules mentioned are for guidance only and are subject to change.
Disclaimer:
The following are not available to clients residing within the European Union: Swiss Index, Hong Kong Index, options trading, DBot, Deriv X, and SmartTrader.