You're probably sitting there with a massive grocery list or maybe you're already smelling the turkey, and suddenly it hits you: what about your portfolio? It’s a fair question. Markets feel like they never sleep, right? Wrong. Is the stock market open Thanksgiving Day? Nope. Not even a little bit.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq take the day off. Completely.
It’s one of those rare moments where the frantic blinking of green and red tickers actually stops. For most traders, this is a forced reset. You can’t buy. You can’t sell. You just eat. But while the physical trading floors are empty and the electronic servers are chilling out, there is a lot more happening under the hood than most people realize. It isn't just about a single Thursday; it’s about a specific holiday "rhythm" that can seriously mess with your head if you aren't prepared for the low liquidity and the weird "Black Friday" hours that follow.
Why the closing bell stays silent on Thursday
Basically, Thanksgiving is one of the nine official holidays observed by the U.S. stock markets. Since the late 19th century, this has been the standard. The NYSE follows the federal holiday schedule pretty closely, though not perfectly. While banks and the post office are closed, the stock market follows its own tradition-heavy playbook.
Honesty, it’s a ghost town.
Because the NYSE and Nasdaq are closed, this also means the options markets are dark. If you have a position expiring or you’re worried about a sudden piece of news breaking over dinner, you’re stuck. No one is there to take the other side of your trade. This applies to the OTC (Over-the-Counter) markets too. If it’s a standard equity traded in the U.S., it’s taking a nap.
What about international markets?
This is where things get slightly annoying. Just because we are obsessing over stuffing and football doesn't mean the rest of the world stops. The London Stock Exchange (LSE), the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), and the Hong Kong markets are all wide open. They don't care about our turkey.
If you hold international stocks or ETFs that track foreign indices, you might see the value of your portfolio fluctuate on your brokerage app, even though you can't actually trade those tickers on a U.S. exchange. It’s a weird, ghost-in-the-machine feeling. You’re watching the world move while your hands are tied.
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The Black Friday "Half-Day" trap
A lot of people think the market just snaps back to normal on Friday. That’s a mistake. While the market technically reopens the day after Thanksgiving, it’s a shortened session.
The NYSE and Nasdaq close at 1:00 PM Eastern Time on Friday.
The bond market usually sticks around a little longer until 2:00 PM, but the energy is gone. Most of the "big money" institutional traders—the guys moving millions of shares—are often still out of the office. They took the "bridge day" off to head to the Hamptons or just sleep off the food coma.
What does this mean for you? Low liquidity.
When fewer people are trading, the "spread" between the bid and the ask price can get wider. Volatility can get spicy. A relatively small trade that wouldn't even nudge the needle on a Tuesday morning might cause a weird price spike on a low-volume Black Friday afternoon. It’s a dangerous time to place "market orders." If you absolutely have to trade on Friday, use limit orders. Don't let the lack of floor volume pick your pocket.
Historical performance: The "Thanksgiving Rally" myth
You’ve probably heard people talk about the "Santa Claus Rally" or the general bullishness of the holidays. Historically, the week of Thanksgiving has been relatively kind to investors. Since 1950, the S&P 500 has gained ground more often than not during this period.
But don't bet the house on it.
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The "holiday effect" is often just a result of retail optimism and institutional window dressing. People are feeling good. They're spending money. Black Friday sales numbers start trickling in, and if they look strong, retail stocks like Walmart, Amazon, and Target get a little bump.
- Wednesday: Usually quiet, sometimes a slight upward drift.
- Thursday: Market closed. Total silence.
- Friday: High volatility, low volume, early 1 PM close.
According to data from the Stock Trader’s Almanac, the Wednesday before and the Friday after Thanksgiving have a historical tendency to be positive, but the gains are often marginal. It’s not a get-rich-quick window. It’s a "don't do anything stupid" window.
Crypto never sleeps (and why that's exhausting)
If you’re a crypto trader asking is the stock market open Thanksgiving Day, you’re probably used to the 24/7/365 madness of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Crypto doesn't care about holidays. It doesn't care about your family time.
Bitcoin will be trading at 3:00 AM on Thanksgiving morning just like it does every other day.
This creates a weird dichotomy. You might see a massive move in the crypto space on Thursday that influences "crypto-adjacent" stocks like Coinbase (COIN) or MicroStrategy (MSTR). But because the stock market is closed, those stocks can't react until Friday morning. This often leads to "gaps." A stock might close at $150 on Wednesday and "gap up" to $160 on Friday morning because of what happened in the crypto or international markets while the NYSE was closed.
Managing your risk over the long weekend
Since the market is closed for a full day and a half, you are exposed to "overnight risk" or "weekend risk" on a larger scale. If a major geopolitical event happens on Thursday, you can't exit your positions.
Check your margins.
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If you are trading on margin, be aware that some brokers might increase maintenance requirements over a long holiday weekend to protect themselves from a volatile Friday open. The last thing you want is a margin call while you’re trying to enjoy a second slice of pie.
A quick checklist for the holiday:
- Cancel any loose orders: If you have standing limit orders that you forgot about, a thin-volume Friday could trigger them at a price you no longer like.
- Check the Bond Market: Remember, bonds often have different holiday hours than stocks. They might close early on Wednesday too.
- Futures Markets: CME Group futures (like S&P 500 futures) usually have a truncated schedule. They might trade for a few hours on Thursday morning before shutting down.
- Set Alerts: Since you can't trade, just set price alerts. If something catastrophic happens, you'll know, but you won't spend the whole day refreshing a dead ticker.
The psychological side of the "Closed" sign
Honestly, the best thing you can do when the market is closed for Thanksgiving is... nothing.
The market is a machine designed to extract money from the impatient. Professional traders often cite the holiday break as a vital time to zoom out. When you can't trade, you’re forced to look at the "macro" view. Is your long-term thesis still valid? Does it really matter what the Fed does on a Thursday when the markets aren't even listening?
Use the downtime.
Review your year-to-date performance. Thanksgiving is late November, which means we are staring down the barrel of year-end tax-loss harvesting. This is the perfect time to identify which "dogs" in your portfolio you want to sell in December to offset your capital gains. You don't need a live ticker to do that math.
Looking ahead to the New Year
Once Thanksgiving wraps up, the countdown to the end of the fiscal year is on. You have roughly twenty trading days left in December. The liquidity that vanished over Thanksgiving usually returns by the following Monday, but then it starts to taper off again as we approach Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
The market will also be closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
If Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday (which it always does), and the market is closed, treat it as a gift. The stock market is a high-stress environment. Taking 24 hours to realize that the world keeps spinning even when the NYSE isn't trading is actually a healthy reality check for any serious investor.
Actionable steps for your portfolio
- Verify your Friday plans: If you plan on trading the Friday session, remember the 1:00 PM ET close. If you try to trade at 2:00 PM, you'll be shouting into the void.
- Review retail exposure: If you hold heavy positions in consumer discretionary stocks, keep a passive eye on holiday retail "sentiment" reports, but don't overreact to early data.
- Audit your "GTC" (Good 'Til Canceled) orders: Clear out the clutter. Don't let a low-volume Friday "flash crash" fill an old order you no longer want.
- Refocus on tax strategy: Use the long weekend to prep your spreadsheets for December tax-loss harvesting.
The stock market isn't going anywhere. It’ll be there, loud and chaotic, on Friday morning. For now, let the tickers go dark and enjoy the break.