Check market sessions, holidays and overrides

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Distinguish market hours from economic events#

The trading calendar describes sessions, holidays, closures and overrides. The economic calendar describes scheduled releases such as inflation and employment data. A major economic release does not itself establish that an exchange is open; a weekday is not proof that every instrument trades normal hours.

Open the Calendar rail menu and choose the trading calendar. Its canvas item supplies Overview, Sessions and Day detail panels. Keep the selected exchange/instrument and timezone visible while comparing markets. A London display clock and a New York exchange calendar follow different daylight-saving dates for part of the year.

Choose and compare schedules#

1. Open Exchanges… to choose the available exchanges/schedules to inspect.
2. Use Overview to see the selected markets and their state.
3. Open Sessions and choose Month, Week or Sessions.
4. Navigate using the month/week arrows, Today or This week, or a date-range preset.
5. Select a day to populate Day detail with its sessions, source and any override.
6. Review open, close, pre/post-market and break information before assuming an instrument should be generating live bars.

The Week view can show Pre/post-market, Breaks and High-impact events where data is available. The Sessions table provides Columns, Closures and Overrides only filters. Reload range reloads the selected range. Copy day as text is useful for sharing the actual dated schedule instead of a screenshot without zone context.

Interpret the calendar's authority#

The app owns an automated US-equities calendar and can consume instrument/provider schedules for other supported markets. Provider-specific metadata and a manual override can have different provenance. Read the source indicator in Day detail. A broad exchange schedule does not necessarily capture a broker CFD's maintenance break or the exact hours permitted for your account.

For example, an equity might have a regular cash session and extended hours; a related index future can trade overnight with a daily break; a cTrader index CFD follows its broker's symbol schedule. Cryptocurrency's continuous weekly availability does not guarantee a venue never pauses. Check the exact provider instrument when diagnosing missing ticks or rejected out-of-session orders.

Add a deliberate override#

1. Select the exact date and calendar/market.
2. Choose Add override…, or Edit override… if one already exists.
3. Confirm the Date.
4. Choose Manual trading day to set custom Open/Close, or Manual closure for a full-day closure.
5. Add a Note explaining the reason and evidence.
6. Compare the Automated base and Override previews. Resolve invalid ranges.
7. Choose Save override, then confirm Day detail and the Sessions view show the intended change.

Use an override to record an exceptional schedule that is actually required. Do not change the calendar simply to force an order through a closed broker market or hide a historical data gap. Calendar edits can affect consumers of that schedule; validate the exact scope and test dependent research where appropriate.

Remove an override and refresh automation#

Choose Delete override on the selected day. The confirmation previews what applies after deletion; removing the override returns the effective day to its automated base rather than deleting the date itself. Read the post-delete schedule before confirming.

Refresh automated calendar refreshes the generated base calendar. It is separate from Reload range, which reloads the UI's selected interval. Manual overrides remain deliberate user input rather than being silently treated as generated holiday rules. If you no longer need one, remove it explicitly and document why.

Use session context in research and execution#

Review the same dated calendar when comparing a backtest, replay and live chart. A holiday or early close can explain fewer bars; a genuine missing/corrupt file still requires data repair. For a strategy, inspect its configured session and allowed-hours policy as well as the trading calendar. Merely displaying a calendar does not automatically give every algorithm identical session constraints.

Record named timezones in trading notes, for example “09:30 America/New_York”, instead of assuming it is always the same UTC/London hour. Futures schedules often use Chicago time; broker metadata can define its own timezone. A saved fixed offset is not a substitute for a daylight-saving-aware zone.

Troubleshoot missing, stale or disputed sessions#

Check the selected market, visible date range and filters first. A table with Overrides only selected can be correctly empty. A stale banner means the last readable schedule remains visible; use Retry or Details to capture the actual request error. Check server connection before repeatedly refreshing the calendar.

If an instrument is closed according to the broker but open in a general exchange view, compare its exact symbol schedule and account permissions. Preserve the date, timezone, source label, expected open/close and error message for support. Use Copy day as text so the disagreement is reviewable. Treat the broker/exchange's actual current execution availability as separate from an editable planning calendar.

Continue with related tasks#

Follow economic events and release history, Navigate charts and review trading records, Configure appearance, safety and saved preferences.