Trading hours, gaps and rollovers

On Friday you buy gold with a stop $25 below. You risk exactly 1%. On Monday morning the loss in your account is 2.4%, and the stop did its job.

When the market is shut, the news keeps coming

How you hold the weekend

Ordinary stopGuaranteed stopClosed on Friday

Stop distance below the $4,000 entry: Monday’s opening price:

Position (1% risk)

Planned loss at the stop

Result at Monday’s open

Illustrative gold prices, 100 oz per lot, $10,000 account risking 1%. Over the weekend the market is shut; if it reopens below your stop, an ordinary stop fills at the first price available.

CFDs trade when the market under them trades. Typical hours, which your broker’s specification confirms:

• Gold and US oil usually follow the US futures market: from Sunday evening to Friday evening, with a daily break of about an hour from 17:00 New York time (22:00 UK most of the year). Spreads widen in the minutes around that break.
• US index CFDs often trade nearly 23 hours a day with the same break, but the US cash session, 9:30–16:00 New York, is when most of the volume trades.
• DE40 often trades from early morning to late evening German time, busiest in the Frankfurt session, 09:00–17:30.

When trading stops, news does not. An OPEC+ announcement, an election result or a conflict over the weekend can put Monday’s first price far from Friday’s close. The jump is a gap.

A stop loss is an instruction to close at the next available price once your level is reached. If the market reopens beyond it, there is no price at your level to fill, so the stop fills at the opening price. That is slippage, and a gap can make it large. Some brokers offer a guaranteed stop, which fills at your level whatever happens, for an extra charge. Under UK and EU rules negative balance protection stops a retail account going below zero, but it does not cap any single loss at your stop.

Rollovers on futures-based CFDs

Oil CFDs and futures-based index CFDs follow a futures contract that expires: monthly for oil, quarterly for indices. Before expiry the broker switches the price feed to the next contract, and the two rarely trade at the same price. Your chart jumps.

Say expiring WTI is at 65.20 and next month’s contract is at 65.90. On roll day the chart jumps up $0.70. Brokers handle this in one of two ways: they close open positions at expiry, or they roll them over and make a cash adjustment so the jump creates no profit or loss. A long of 30 barrels would be debited 0.70 × 30 = $21 to cancel the $21 the jump added, usually plus a small roll charge. Check how stops are treated too: if they are not moved with the price, a short’s stop at 65.80 could be triggered by the roll alone. The broker’s site lists the roll dates.

Holidays

Exchange holidays shorten or close sessions: US holidays such as Independence Day and Thanksgiving, Good Friday, and the days around Christmas and New Year. Thin trading means wider spreads and jumpier prices. Brokers publish a holiday schedule each time; read it before holding positions through one.

Try it

How you hold the weekend

Ordinary stopGuaranteed stopClosed on Friday

Stop distance below the $4,000 entry: Monday’s opening price:

Position (1% risk)

Planned loss at the stop

Result at Monday’s open

Same account and 1% risk, starting with a tighter $15 stop and a quiet Monday open. Illustrative gold prices, 100 oz per lot.

Slide Monday’s open down from 3,990 to 3,900 and watch the result leave the planned loss behind once the open passes the stop; then try a wider stop, Guaranteed stop and Closed on Friday.

Quick check

Quick check

1. Question 1 of 4

   You are long 2 oz of gold at 4,000 with a stop at 3,980. Monday opens at 3,950. What happens with an ordinary stop?

   AIt fills near 3,950 and you lose about $100BIt fills at 3,980 and you lose $40CIt is cancelled because the price skipped it

Go deeper: Slippage in forex · Forex market hours · Where to place a stop loss