CME Trading Hours: Complete 2026 Guide for Every Product Group

CME Group operates four exchanges — CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX — all running on the Globex electronic trading platform from Sunday 5:00 PM to Friday 4:00 PM Central Time. Each exchange lists different product groups with different Regular Trading Hours, but the overall Globex session is consistent.

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 — maintenance windows, settlement times, holiday schedules — catch people off guard. 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. Every product group, every session time, every holiday.

Written by Paul — funded futures trader with $200K+ in verified payouts across 50+ prop firms. I write from real trading experience, not theory. Everything on PropTradingVibes comes from accounts I've personally tested.

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What Are the Four CME Group Exchanges?

CME Group isn't a single exchange. It's a parent company operating four distinct exchanges, each specializing in different asset classes.

CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange): Equity index futures (ES, NQ, RTY), currency futures (6E, 6J, 6B), and micro contracts (MES, MNQ). This is where most prop firm traders spend their time.

CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade): Treasury futures (ZB, ZN, ZF, ZT), grain futures (ZC, ZS, ZW), and the E-mini Dow (YM). Treasury futures are the second most popular product group for prop firm trading after equity indexes.

NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange): Energy futures including crude oil (CL), natural gas (NG), and heating oil (HO). Crude oil is a popular prop firm product because of its volatility and clear session patterns.

COMEX (Commodity Exchange): Precious metals including gold (GC), silver (SI), copper (HG), and micro gold (MGC). Gold is a favorite for traders who prefer the London session overlap.

All four exchanges run on Globex with the same overall session window. The differences are in RTH timing, settlement procedures, and the specific maintenance windows for each product.

What Are the Globex Hours for Every CME Group Product?

As of March 2026, here's the complete product-level breakdown. All times are Central Time (CT).

CME Exchange Products (Equity Indexes & Currencies)

CBOT Products (Treasuries & Grains)

NYMEX Products (Energy)

COMEX Products (Precious Metals)

What Is the CME Globex Maintenance Window?

The daily maintenance break 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. 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. Tradovate does as well on most prop firm configurations. But queued orders execute at the opening price, which may gap from where you expected.

What Is the CME Sunday Open Process?

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.

The pre-open for equity index futures starts at 4:00 PM CT on Sunday (one hour before the session opens). During this window, you can enter orders, but no matching occurs. The order book builds up, 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, Monday's opening price (technically Sunday evening) 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 30-60 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.

What Is the CME 2026 Holiday Schedule?

As of March 2026, CME Group observes the following holidays with modified trading hours. On early close days, specific products close at different times, so always check the CME Group holiday calendar for product-level detail.

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. I always set a calendar reminder the night before a holiday-shortened session so I'm not caught off guard.

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. The risk-to-reward of trading a half-empty order book on a prop firm account doesn't make sense.

How Do 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.

For firms with EOD (end-of-day) trailing drawdowns like Lucid Trading, your drawdown level only updates at the 4:00 PM CT close. This means 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 real-time trailing drawdowns calculate continuously during market hours. On these accounts, the CME 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. TakeProfitTrader does as well. But some smaller firms have custom definitions that don't perfectly align with CME settlement.

What Products Can You Trade on a Prop Firm Account?

Most futures prop firms allow the full range of CME Group products, but restrictions exist. Common limitations across firms I've tested:

Equity index micros (MES, MNQ, MYM) are allowed almost everywhere. Full-size contracts (ES, NQ, YM) have higher margin requirements that may limit how many contracts you can hold on smaller accounts.

Crude oil (CL) and gold (GC) are allowed at most firms, but with tighter position limits due to their higher volatility and margin requirements. Some firms restrict natural gas (NG) entirely because of its extreme volatility.

Grains (ZC, ZS, ZW) are allowed but rarely traded by prop firm participants. Lower volume and different session hours make them less convenient for the RTH-focused strategies most prop traders use.

Check your firm's allowed instruments list before trading anything outside the standard equity index and energy products. I got caught once trying to trade copper (HG) on a firm that didn't support COMEX products on their data feed. The order just sat there. No fill, no error message. Just dead.

For a full comparison of which firms allow which products, see my prop firm reviews where I list allowed instruments for every firm.

Frequently Asked Questions

What time does CME Globex open and close?

CME Globex opens each week on Sunday at 5:00 PM Central Time and runs continuously through Friday at 4:00 PM CT, with a daily one-hour maintenance break from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM CT Monday through Thursday. This schedule applies to all four CME Group exchanges: CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX.

What is the CME maintenance window?

The CME Globex daily maintenance window runs from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM Central Time, Monday through Thursday. During this hour, no orders can be placed or executed on any CME Group product. The exchange uses this break for system maintenance, daily settlement calculations, and to transition between trading days.

Are CME trading hours the same for all products?

CME Globex electronic session hours are the same for most products (Sunday 5:00 PM to Friday 4:00 PM CT), but Regular Trading Hours (RTH) differ by product group. Equity index futures (ES, NQ) trade RTH from 8:30 AM to 3:15 PM CT, crude oil (CL) from 8:00 AM to 1:30 PM CT, gold (GC) from 7:20 AM to 12:30 PM CT, and grains have unique schedules.

What time zone does CME Group use?

CME Group expresses all trading hours in Central Time (CT), based in Chicago. Central Time is 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.

When does the CME close for holidays in 2026?

CME Group fully closes on three holidays in 2026: New Year's Day (January 1), Good Friday (April 3), and Christmas (December 25). Six additional holidays have early closes, with equity products typically halting at 12:15 PM CT and energy/metals at 12:30 PM CT. The CME publishes the full schedule on their website annually.

How does the CME Sunday pre-open work?

The CME Sunday pre-open period starts at 4:00 PM CT, one hour before the 5:00 PM session open. During this window, traders can enter orders but no matching occurs. The order book builds during pre-open, and the first trades execute at exactly 5:00 PM CT when the session officially starts. Weekend gaps are visible at this point.

What are CME Regular Trading Hours for equity index futures?

CME Regular Trading Hours for equity index futures including ES (S&P 500), NQ (Nasdaq 100), RTY (Russell 2000), and their micro equivalents run from 8:30 AM to 3:15 PM Central Time. This window overlaps with the U.S. cash equity market and accounts for approximately 70% of daily volume in these products.

Does the CME maintenance break affect prop firm accounts?

The CME maintenance break directly affects prop firm accounts because most firms require all positions closed before 4:00 PM CT when the break begins. Holding a position through the 4:00-5:00 PM CT window constitutes a rule violation at most firms. Even firms that allow overnight holding expose traders to gap risk at the 5:00 PM reopen.

What are NYMEX trading hours for crude oil?

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

What are COMEX trading hours for gold?

COMEX gold (GC) trades on CME Globex from Sunday 5:00 PM to Friday 4:00 PM CT with a daily maintenance break from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM CT. Regular Trading Hours for GC are 7:20 AM to 12:30 PM CT. Gold also sees significant volume during the London session overlap from approximately 3:00 AM to 5:00 AM CT.

Do CME grain futures have different trading hours?

CBOT grain futures (ZC, ZS, ZW) have a different schedule than other CME Group products. Grains trade on Globex from Sunday 7:00 PM to Friday 1:20 PM CT, with Regular Trading Hours from 8:30 AM to 1:20 PM CT. Grains also have a pre-open period from 7:45 AM to 8:30 AM CT. Most prop firm traders don't trade grains due to their unique session structure.

How do early CME closes affect prop firm flat-by-close rules?

On CME early close days, prop firm flat-by-close deadlines typically shift to match the earlier closing time. If equity index futures close at 12:15 PM CT instead of 4:00 PM CT, your firm expects all positions closed by that earlier time. Failing to adjust for holiday schedules has cost traders their funded accounts.

Can you trade CME products during the pre-market session?

Trading CME products during the pre-market (overnight Globex) session is allowed by the exchange from 5:00 PM CT through the start of RTH. Whether your prop firm allows overnight or pre-market trading depends on their specific rules. Most firms restrict pre-market trading or require positions closed before the maintenance break at 4:00 PM CT.

What happens if my order is open during CME maintenance?

Open orders on CME Globex are handled differently depending on order type and your broker/platform. Some platforms cancel all open orders at 4:00 PM CT when the maintenance break starts. Others hold orders and resubmit them at the 5:00 PM CT reopen. Check with your platform (Rithmic, Tradovate, NinjaTrader) for their specific maintenance break order handling.

How do CME settlement prices get calculated?

CME settlement prices are determined during the final minutes of the Regular Trading Hours session, not at the 4:00 PM CT Globex close. For equity index futures, settlement is calculated based on trading activity in the 3:14:30–3:15:00 PM CT window. Prop firms that use EOD drawdown calculations reference this settlement price to determine your account's daily closing balance.