Introduction
If you are a professional or part-time trader, one of the most enticing aspects of trading is that you can trade across various assets. Some different strategies and skills make specific forex traders better than others. Irrespective of the tools they use or if they learn that controlling negative emotions is imperative for a successful strategy. All of these components are just supplementary instruments to assist you.
Likewise, some professionals specialise in trading commodities such as gold, steel, silver and oil. On the other hand, some professional traders, usually those working for prestigious institutions and investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, will be experts across several different markets.
There are several trading days in a year. Since each market operates differently, the number of trading days differs annually. Today we will examine the number of stock trading days in a year and other markets, such as how many forex trading days in a year.
In addition, you have different markets, such as commodities and cryptocurrency. Hopefully, by the end of today’s article, you will completely understand how many trading days in a year there are, irrespective of the market.
How Many Stock Trading Days Are There In A Year?
If you’re a beginner in stock trading, it is essential to learn the basics. Once you have committed some basic stock trading facts to memory, you can build your knowledge around the topic.
The United States has the most significant trading markets. The NASDAQ and NYSE have just over 250 trading days in a year. In addition, the stock market is closed on weekends and is open between business hours, Monday to Friday.
Although there is more that can move the market that happens over the weekend or outside trading hours, this will not impact the price properly until the trading day begins again on the next available day.
Alongside the weekend, there are also public holidays that are observed on the trading floor in the United States, which are as follows
- January 1st — New Year’s Day
- January 20th — Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- February 17th — Presidents’ Day
- April 10th — Good Friday
- May 25th — Memorial Day
- July 4th (or the closest calendar day if it falls at the weekend)
- September 7th — Labor Day
- November 26th — Thanksgiving Day
- December 25th — Christmas Day
The easiest way to remember how many stock market trading days in a year there are simply subtract these days and weekends.
So Traders Get Time Off?
Technically, yes, they do. However, professional traders may argue that the market never sleeps. They’re always keeping their eye on news that could shift the market. Given the global nature of trading, it is hard to switch off.
The fact the world is far more interconnected than it used to be because of the internet is another factor. News travels a lot quicker than it used to before the internet, and a lot of traders get less time off than the schedule suggests.
Managing Risks
Presumably, if you want to find out how many stock trading days there are in a year, you will be an active trader or looking to enter the trading world. Therefore, managing risks is vital as it allows you to mitigate any losses and keep trading.
Your capital is always at risk. So even if you have a good strategy, you could eventually lose all your money if you do not combine it with high-quality risk management.
Ultimately, there are two ways to manage your risk. First, controlling negative emotions is vital, as discussed in the opening section. So long as you use stop loss and take profit limits, you are in a position where you don’t need to glue yourself to a chart. In addition, you do not need to let negative emotions or revenge trading enter your psychology.
Another way traders and investors manage risk is by using a dollar cost averaging technique. This means that you continue to buy your asset as it depreciates in value, so your average entry price is lower. This is a more effective tool for long-term strategies such as swing trading. However, it also doesn’t apply to more specialist instruments like options.
However, if you maintain an intelligent strategy to manage risk effectively, you are in a much better position than traders who don’t. Any trader with no risk management is essentially gambling away their savings.
How Many Forex Trading Days In A Year
It is good to understand a range of markets. Even though you may prefer commodities or forex, having a basic grasp of what drives other markets is a good idea. Understanding the total means knowing that each market has a different amount of activity.
Remembering that forex is the world’s biggest trading market is vital. With trillions of transactions over 24 hours, forex can offer lucrative returns for traders who know where to look.
Just because it is the biggest market in the world doesn’t mean that’s the only difference. Given that there are so many trading days in a year is one thing, but knowing the best time to trade your chosen foreign currency is a different story.
Forex has the same amount of trading days in a year as in stocks. Given that it’s more of an international marketplace, there is less onus or weight carried on public holidays.
However, as currencies are traded across multiple timezones in New York, Sydney, London and Tokyo, you can see big spikes at any time of the day. Therefore, following the news, especially about the economy and economic policies, is vital. Once you grasp the underlying factors that cause volatility and price action, this is one box you can tick.
How Many Trading Days Are There In A Typical Year?
Knowing how many trading days there are in a typical year is crucial. Except for leap years, this number is usually 252. This is because stocks follow a more rigid protocol within standard business hours. Forex is more lucid, and you can trade 24 hours a day during the week. Ultimately, the amount of trading days per year remains the same.
Other variables to consider when trading forex include deciding on the best platform to use, whether you should use a spread, listening to some of the best tips, or you can explore specific strategies such as the Fibonacci sequence.
How Many Cryptocurrency Trading Days In A Year?
Technically speaking, you can trade cryptocurrency 24/7, 365 days a year. This is partly why it is widely known as the most volatile asset you can trade. You can apply other techniques and look to enact them on the best trading days in a year. The most volatile days are often during economic announcements in major world economies.
You can use crypto trading bots if you prefer a hands-off approach to cryptocurrency trading. However, ensuring you understand cryptocurrency is the most critical component. Given that the market doesn’t shut down at any stage of the year can be used as a positive and negative. Although public holidays and weekends will see less volume, the news still causes the price to fluctuate heavily over Saturdays and Sundays.
Forex is a more established market when compared with crypto. As a result, it is a more significant marketplace, and although it has fewer trading days in a year, it deals with much higher amounts of trading volume.
The cryptocurrency market has violently crashed several times over the last decade. If there is a substantial global economic crash, all markets are impacted. Whether the forex market can crash, given its size of it, is a different question entirely.
Even if it did, plenty of traders have made a lot of money in times of crisis. Of course, you can still trade forex or any other asset during a recession, but there tends to be less volume, given that people have less money to spend.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for an answer to how many trading days in a year there are, then as you can tell from today’s article, there are several answers. All of these answers are correct. Weekdays see the most activity across all of these markets. This is irrespective of whether it is the forex, stock, or commodities markets.
Even though we didn’t touch on the commodities market today, it also has 252 trading days per year. So remember, if anybody asks you how many trading days in a year there are, ask them to specify which market. Learning the basics is a great foundation. Once you know the facts and start to understand the markets, you can trade in your chosen asset class.
