How Many Trading Days in a Year? About 252, and 251 in 2026 (+ Monthly Breakdown)

The NYSE has 251 trading days in 2026 and 251 in 2027, counted from the holiday calendar the exchange publishes. The 252 you often see is a round number traders use when they annualize returns, so it is close but not the exact count for either year. Nasdaq's 2026 calendar lists the same closed days and the same early closes.

How the count works

Each year has 365 days, and 104 of them fall on a weekend in both 2026 and 2027. That leaves 261 weekdays, and the NYSE closes for 10 holidays on weekdays in each year, so 261 minus 10 gives 251.

The count stays at 251 in 2028 for a different reason. It is a leap year with 106 weekend days, which leaves 260 weekdays, and January 1 falls on a Saturday, so the NYSE observes only 9 holidays.

Trading days in each month

We counted every weekday in each month and removed the NYSE holidays. Each column adds up to 251.

By quarter, 2026 has 61, 62, 64 and 64 trading days, and 2027 has 60, 63, 64 and 64.

U.S. stock market holidays in 2026 and 2027

These dates come directly from the NYSE calendar. When a holiday lands on a weekend, the NYSE closes on the nearest weekday, which is why Christmas 2027 is observed on Friday, December 24.

Half-days and early closes

The NYSE closes at 1:00 p.m. Eastern on Friday, November 27, 2026, on Thursday, December 24, 2026, and on Friday, November 26, 2027. These days still count as trading days, although they run 3.5 hours rather than 6.5.

That gives 2026 about 1,625.5 hours of core-session trading: 249 full days at 6.5 hours is 1,618.5 hours, and 2 early closes at 3.5 hours add 7 more. Pre-market and after-hours sessions exist, but they are not part of this count.

How to use the number

Divide an annual goal by the days you will actually trade. A goal of $25,000 over 251 days is $99.60 per day, and over 150 days it is $166.67 per day. Before you trust a figure like that, compare it with your own average per trade in the expectancy calculator, since a daily target says nothing about whether your strategy can reach it.

Use 252 when you annualize, because most published figures do. A daily volatility of 1% annualizes to about 15.9%, which is 1% times the square root of 252. Using 251 gives 15.8%, so the difference rarely matters.

To turn a daily return into a yearly one, compound it over the trading days. A steady 0.1% per day becomes about 28.5% over 251 days, because 1.001 raised to the 251st power is 1.285. You can test how a win rate and reward-to-risk ratio play out across a year of sessions in the day trading simulation.

Other markets run on other calendars

Spot crypto markets trade every day of the year, so they have 365 sessions in 2026. Forex trades around the clock on weekdays, and every other stock exchange sets its own holidays, so check the exchange's own calendar when you trade outside the U.S.

Frequently asked questions