Daylight Saving Time Ends: What Changes for Traders in 2026
October 21, 2026
13 min read
Daylight saving time ends in the United States at 2:00 AM local time on Sunday, November 1, 2026. Clocks fall back one hour, and Eastern Time moves from Eastern Daylight Time to Eastern Standard Time. For daylight saving time trading hours, the short answer is simple: the US stock market keeps its schedule in Eastern Time, so the opening bell still rings at 9:30 AM ET on Monday, November 2.
The longer answer is where traders get caught. The market's clock does not move, but your clock might. If you trade from Arizona, Hawaii, London or anywhere that changes its clocks on a different date or not at all, the US session lands an hour later or earlier on your local clock. Alarms, chart settings, journal timestamps and the routine you built around them can all drift by an hour without warning. A missed open is annoying. A trade placed in the wrong window because you misread the time is worse.
In this guide we'll cover exactly when daylight saving time ends in 2026, what changes for traders inside the US, why traders in Europe get one odd week before the US switch, how to adjust your routine and tools, and how the change interacts with the published hours of a simulated funded account.
Key Takeaways
- Mark November 1, 2026. US daylight saving time ends at 2:00 AM local time that Sunday, and Monday, November 2 is the first session on Eastern Standard Time.
- Keep the market on Eastern Time. US exchanges publish their hours in ET, so 9:30 AM ET is still the open. What changes is how that time converts to your local clock.
- Watch the odd week. The UK falls back on October 25, a week before the US, so the London to New York gap is four hours from October 26 to October 30.
- Check every tool that shows time. Chart time zones, platform clocks, alarms, calendar reminders and journal timestamps can disagree after a clock change.
- Plan around the published hours. Funded account trading hours are written in ET. Recompute your local window once, then write it down where you will see it.
Table of Contents
- When does daylight saving time end in 2026?
- What changes for traders inside the US?
- What changes for traders outside the US?
- How to adjust your trading routine for the clock change
- Daylight saving time and a simulated funded account
When does daylight saving time end in 2026?
Daylight saving time ends in the US at 2:00 AM local time on Sunday, November 1, 2026. At that moment, 2:00 AM becomes 1:00 AM, so the hour from 1:00 to 2:00 AM happens twice. Stock markets are closed on Sunday, so the first trading session affected is Monday, November 2.
The rule behind the date
The date is not chosen each year. It follows a fixed rule. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's page on daylight saving time rules, US daylight saving time begins at 2:00 AM on the second Sunday of March and ends at 2:00 AM on the first Sunday of November. For 2026, NIST lists the period as March 8 to November 1. The same page notes that the current dates were set by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and took effect in 2007.
Because the rule is fixed, you can put both dates in your calendar for the next several years at once. Next spring, clocks spring forward again on the second Sunday of March, and every point in this guide applies in reverse.
What Eastern Time actually does
Eastern Time is not one offset. During daylight saving time it is Eastern Daylight Time, four hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC-4). During standard time it is Eastern Standard Time, five hours behind (UTC-5). When people say the market opens at 9:30 AM ET, they mean whichever of the two is in effect that day.
So the open is 13:30 UTC through Friday, October 30, and 14:30 UTC from Monday, November 2. Nothing about the market moved. The label on the clock did.
Who in the US does not change
Not every US location observes daylight saving time. NIST lists Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the state of Arizona as places that do not observe it, with the exception of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, which does. Traders in those places keep the same local time all year, which means the US market moves on their clock twice a year instead of staying put.
What changes for traders inside the US?
For most traders inside the US, nothing changes about when the market opens on their own clock. New York, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles all fall back together, so a Chicago trader still sees the open at 8:30 AM Central and a California trader still sees it at 6:30 AM Pacific. The exceptions are the places that keep one time all year.
Exchange hours stay fixed in Eastern Time
US exchanges publish their schedules in Eastern Time. The New York Stock Exchange's holidays and trading hours page lists a core trading session of 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET and states that all times are Eastern Time. The same page lists early trading sessions on some of its markets that start as early as 4:00 AM ET. None of those numbers change on November 1.
That is why the clock change is mostly a personal problem, not a market problem. The market is consistent. The work is making sure every clock you rely on agrees with it.
Arizona and Hawaii traders get a new local schedule
Arizona stays on Mountain Standard Time all year. During daylight saving time, Arizona is three hours behind New York, so the 9:30 AM ET open arrives at 6:30 AM local time. From November 2, Arizona is two hours behind, and the open arrives at 7:30 AM local time.
Hawaii moves the same way, just earlier. The open lands at 3:30 AM Hawaii time during daylight saving time and at 4:30 AM from November 2. For a trader in either state, the clock change hands back an hour of morning before the open. The close moves by the same hour.
Your body notices, even if the market does not
For traders who do change their clocks, the open is at the same local time, but the world around it shifts. Mornings get lighter and evenings get darker. The first few days of a new schedule can feel off, and a pre-market routine that ran on habit may need a conscious push. Our guide to building a daily trading routine covers how to make that routine hold when the rest of the day moves around it.
The honest admission here is that a clock change rarely ruins a trading week by itself. What it does is expose routines that were never written down. A trader who has the session times in a plan adjusts in five minutes. A trader running on memory finds out on Monday morning.
What changes for traders outside the US?
Outside the US, the change depends on your own country's rules. If your country changes its clocks on a different date, there is a stretch where the gap between your time and New York time is one hour different from normal. If your country does not change at all, the US session shifts one hour later on your clock from November 2 until the US springs forward again.
The odd week for traders in the UK
The UK changes a week earlier than the US. The UK government's page on when the clocks change says the clocks go back one hour at 2:00 AM on the last Sunday in October, and lists October 25 for 2026. From then, the UK is on Greenwich Mean Time.
That leaves one week, Monday, October 26 to Friday, October 30, when London is already on GMT but New York is still on daylight time. The usual five-hour gap shrinks to four. The 9:30 AM ET open, normally 2:30 PM in London, arrives at 1:30 PM. The 4:00 PM ET close arrives at 8:00 PM instead of 9:00 PM. From November 2, both sides are on standard time and the gap returns to five hours.
If you trade from the UK and keep your platform on local time, every recurring alarm for that week is an hour late. Our guide to funded trading while traveling covers the same problem for traders who change time zones in person rather than on the calendar.
Other countries and other rules
Many countries outside the US change their clocks on their own schedules, and many do not change at all. Some countries in the Southern Hemisphere move their clocks in the opposite direction at a different time of year. We will not list every country's rule here, because those rules change and a wrong date is worse than no date. Look up your own government's published rule each year and compare it with the US dates from NIST.
The method is the same everywhere. Write down the US session in UTC for each period, then convert to your local time using your own country's rule for that same date. Converting through UTC avoids the most common mistake, which is assuming the gap between you and New York is constant.
Where the US open lands, week by week
The table below shows where the 9:30 AM ET open lands in several places across the three weeks around the change.
| Location | Oct 19 to 23 | Oct 26 to 30 | From Nov 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York (ET) | 9:30 AM EDT | 9:30 AM EDT | 9:30 AM EST |
| Chicago (CT) | 8:30 AM | 8:30 AM | 8:30 AM |
| UTC | 13:30 | 13:30 | 14:30 |
| London | 14:30 BST | 13:30 GMT | 14:30 GMT |
| Phoenix, Arizona | 6:30 AM | 6:30 AM | 7:30 AM |
| Honolulu, Hawaii | 3:30 AM | 3:30 AM | 4:30 AM |
The New York open never moves. Where a location keeps the same local time all year, the open moves one hour later on November 2. Where a location changes on a different date, there is a week when the gap is one hour off.
Illustrative timeline · a London desk
Same New York clock, a moving London clock
The US core session, 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET, placed on London local time for the three weeks around the change.
tradefundrr.com
Illustrative example. Dates from NIST (US) and GOV.UK (UK) for 2026. Confirm your own platform's hours before you trade.
How to adjust your trading routine for the clock change
The fix is a short audit, done once, before Monday, November 2. Go through every tool that displays or uses time, confirm what time zone it runs on, and recompute your session window in your own local time. Most of the risk sits in the tools you set up months ago and never looked at again.
Charts and platform clocks
Charting tools can display time in exchange time, in UTC or in your computer's local time. If your charts run on Eastern Time, session breaks and opening range lines stay where they always were. If they run on UTC, every intraday line you drew at 13:30 now belongs at 14:30. If they run on local time and you live somewhere that does not change, the same thing happens on your screen.
NIST points out that its time services broadcast UTC and leave the local time zone and daylight saving adjustment to your computer's operating system, which is why it recommends keeping the system up to date. A machine with a stale time zone setting can show the wrong local time even though the underlying clock is accurate.
Alarms, reminders and calendar events
Phone alarms set to a local time follow your local clock, which is usually what you want. Calendar events created in a different time zone, or shared by someone in another country, can move. Check each recurring reminder tied to the session: the pre-market scan, the open, any scheduled economic release you track, and the point in the afternoon when you stop opening new trades.
US economic releases are scheduled in Eastern Time, so their ET time does not change. Their local time changes exactly as the open does.
Your journal and your statistics
If you log trades by time of day, decide which clock your journal uses and keep it there. A journal kept in local time in a place that does not change its clocks will show the open at a different hour before and after November 2. Your "first 30 minutes" statistics will quietly mix two different windows unless you convert. Logging in Eastern Time avoids the problem for anyone trading US sessions.
- Confirm the US date (November 1, 2026) and your own country's date for the change.
- Write the session in Eastern Time, then in UTC, then in your local time.
- Check which time zone each chart and platform window displays.
- Move any intraday lines or session markers drawn on a UTC or local clock.
- Re-check every recurring alarm and calendar reminder tied to the session.
- Pick one clock for your trading journal and note the change date in it.
- Confirm your account's published hours and any early closes ahead.
- Plan the first two sessions of the new schedule a little lighter than usual.
Ease into the first week
The first sessions on a new schedule are a good time to trade a little lighter. Not because the market is different, but because you are more likely to make an operational mistake: an alarm an hour late, a chart line in the wrong place, a reminder that never fires. Fewer trades and smaller size buy you time to notice the problem before it costs you.
Daylight saving time and a simulated funded account
The end of daylight saving time does not change the published trading hours of a TradeFundrr account, because those hours are written in Eastern Time. What changes is the local time when those hours start and end for any trader who does not live on Eastern Time, or whose clock changes on a different date.
The published hours, in Eastern Time
The TradeFundrr stock Pre-Prop and Prop pages list trading hours of Monday through Friday, 4:00 AM to 4:00 PM ET, with premarket trading available, manual intraday trading only and no swing positions. Market holidays and early closes apply. The options pages list 9:30 AM to 3:55 PM ET, also manual and intraday only. Each trade must be held for at least 15 seconds.
Because no positions are held overnight, the hour that repeats early on Sunday, November 1 has no effect on an open position. There is nothing open to carry through it. The practical question is only when your next session starts on your own clock.
Your local window, recomputed
For a trader in London, the stock account hours of 4:00 AM to 4:00 PM ET run 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM BST through October 23, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM GMT from October 26 to 30, and 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM GMT from November 2. The options hours of 9:30 AM to 3:55 PM ET run 2:30 PM to 8:55 PM, then 1:30 PM to 7:55 PM, then 2:30 PM to 8:55 PM over the same three periods.
For a trader in Arizona, the options hours move from 6:30 AM to 12:55 PM local time before the change to 7:30 AM to 1:55 PM local time after it. Work out your own window the same way, once, and keep it somewhere visible. If you trade the premarket, our guide to pre-market and after-hours trading covers why the early hours behave differently from the core session.
The rules do not move with the clock
Both the stock and options accounts carry a daily loss limit that pauses trading for the rest of the session when it is reached and resets the next trading day, and a $3,000 maximum drawdown that trails the highest end-of-day balance. Pre-Prop is a simulated evaluation and Prop is a simulated funded account, and payouts are processed every Friday. None of those rules depend on which clock you read. If you want the exact time a new trading day begins for your account, confirm it in the Help Center rather than assuming.
The month ahead has more calendar traps than the clock change. The NYSE lists Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 26, 2026, as a holiday, and an early close at 1:00 PM ET on Friday, November 27. A trader who has just rebuilt their schedule for the clock change should add those dates at the same time. Practicing this kind of operational discipline in a simulated environment, where a missed alarm costs a session rather than your own money, is a habit that carries into any account you trade later.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does daylight saving time end in 2026?
US daylight saving time ends at 2:00 AM local time on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when clocks fall back one hour. Monday, November 2 is the first US trading session on Eastern Standard Time.
Do stock market hours change when daylight saving time ends?
No. US exchanges publish their hours in Eastern Time, so the core session stays 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET. Only the conversion to UTC and to clocks that do not change on the same date moves.
What time does the US stock market open in London after the clocks change?
From Monday, November 2, 2026, the 9:30 AM ET open is 2:30 PM GMT in London. During the week of October 26 to 30 it is 1:30 PM GMT, because the UK changes a week before the US.
Why is the gap between London and New York four hours for one week?
The UK clocks go back on the last Sunday in October, October 25 in 2026, while US clocks go back on the first Sunday in November. For the week in between, London is on GMT and New York is still on daylight time.
Do Arizona and Hawaii change their clocks?
No. NIST lists Arizona, except the Navajo Nation, and Hawaii among the places that do not observe daylight saving time. The US open moves one hour later on their clocks, to 7:30 AM in Arizona and 4:30 AM in Hawaii.
Do TradeFundrr trading hours change when daylight saving time ends?
No. The account hours are published in Eastern Time: 4:00 AM to 4:00 PM ET for stock accounts and 9:30 AM to 3:55 PM ET for options accounts. Your local window changes only if your clock does not follow Eastern Time.
Does the clock change affect an open position in a funded account?
No. TradeFundrr stock and options accounts are intraday only, with no swing positions, so nothing is held over the weekend when the clocks change. The first session on the new schedule starts flat, like every other session.
Does the daily loss limit reset at a different time after the clock change?
The account pages say the daily loss limit resets the next trading day, and the trading hours are set in Eastern Time, which the clock change does not move. For the exact reset time on your account, check the Help Center.
The end of daylight saving time is a small event with a simple rule: the market keeps Eastern Time, and everything else has to agree with it. Traders get hurt by the tools that quietly do not.
Spend ten minutes before November 2 checking your charts, alarms and journal, and write your local session window down. Then let the plan, not the clock on the wall, decide when you trade.
Trade on a clock that is written down
TradeFundrr's Pre-Prop and Prop accounts publish their trading hours in Eastern Time, along with the daily loss limit and the trailing drawdown, so your plan can be built around fixed rules in a simulated environment.
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