2025 year-end holiday trading blog (holiday calendar)

As 2025 winds down, it’s hard not to feel that familiar December shift. Markets start to exhale. Traders wrap up their books. Volume thins out. And yet-if you’ve been around long enough, you know the quiet can sometimes create its own fireworks. Low liquidity, combined with year-end positioning, often results in unexpected swings, particularly in forex, commodities, and indices.

The holiday season brings its own rhythm to the markets, and knowing when things are open, closed, or moving a little differently can make all the difference. Whether you’re trading full-time or simply keeping an eye on the screens between festive plans, here’s everything you need to know about market behaviour, trading sessions, and what to expect as we wrap up 2025.

A quick look at holiday market behaviour

Not all markets slow down in December. Some barely sleep. Others follow strict regional exchange calendars. Here’s the lay of the land:

Where to find the full 2025 trading schedule

Instead of stacking pages of trading hours into this blog, we’ve compiled the full holiday trading timetable-including early closes, full closures, late opens, and platform-specific sessions-into a single document.

Holiday highlights by market

Here’s a trader-friendly breakdown of the key things to know before stepping into the final stretch of 2025.

Synthetic Indices

On Deriv, synthetic indices are available for 24/7 trading, including during holiday seasons and on public holidays.

They don’t follow exchange calendars, so while other markets might pause, synthetics keep ticking-ideal if you still want volatility when traditional assets go quiet.

Cryptocurrencies

Crypto doesn’t care about the calendar-and for the most part, neither does crypto trading on Deriv.

On Deriv Trader and Deriv GO, cryptocurrencies are available 24/7, including over the holidays. On CFD platforms, trading is almost continuous, with a small daily break in the schedule for maintenance.

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Holiday liquidity may dip, but volatility? That rarely takes a day off.

Basket indices

Basket indices give you exposure to groups of currencies or metals in a single trade and mostly run on familiar weekday hours, with a few key holiday exceptions.

Gold Basket has early closes and full closures around Christmas and New Year, while the AUD, EUR, GBP, and USD baskets keep near-regular hours but are closed on the main holiday dates.

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Tactical indices (RSI Metals & Forex RSI)

Our RSI-based tactical indices for metals and forex pairs follow regular weekday schedules but observe strict closures on major holidays.

Silver RSI indices close early on Christmas Eve and are shut on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, while Gold and Forex RSI indices also close on the core holiday dates.

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Forex

Forex remains one of the most liquid markets globally, trading 24 hours a day, five days a week. That continues into the holiday period-but with a few calendar caveats.

All forex pairs close on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. CFD forex pairs also feature early closes at the end of December, and Zero Spread accounts follow their own refined schedule.

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Expect quieter markets overall, with the potential for sudden moves when liquidity thins out.

Stock indices

Stock indices follow the underlying exchange calendars, so their holiday schedules vary by region.

US indices like US SP 500, US Tech 100, Wall Street 30, US Small Cap 2000, and US Mid Cap 400 trade on regular days, with early closes on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, and full closures on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

Asian and European indices have their own combinations of early closes and multi-day breaks, especially between 24–26 December and on 1 January.

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All Zero Spread Account symbols under Stock Indices follow uniform trading hours, which differ from the regular account trading hours:

(Sun)

• ‍23:20:00 GMT - 24:00:00 GMT

(Mon - Thu)

• 00:00:00 GMT - 21:50:00 GMT
• 23:10:00 GMT - 24:00:00 GMT

(Fri)‍

• 00:00:00 GMT - 21:40:00 GMT

Because these are tightly linked to local exchanges, this is one of the key areas where traders should cross-check the PDF for exact timings.

Indices (VIX & DXY)

Two popular macro indicators are also affected by the holidays:

• VIXUSD (Volatility Index)
  
• DXYUSD (US Dollar Index)
  

Both trade on Deriv MT5-only CFD schedules, with early closes on Christmas Eve and full closures on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

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Commodities

Commodity markets often experience lower activity in the year-end period, but this also means prices can react more strongly to unexpected headlines.

Metals like gold, silver, palladium, and platinum, along with energy sources such as NGAS, UK Brent Oil, and US Oil, all have detailed holiday-adjusted schedules. Soft commodities, such as coffee, cocoa, sugar, and cotton, typically run on daytime sessions and close fully on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, with some early closes on Christmas Eve.

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Stocks & ETFs

Equity trading follows the underlying exchange rules, with early closes and non-trading days around Christmas and New Year.

US stocks and ETFs see regular trading for most of December, with an early close on Christmas Eve and full closures on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

EU stocks observe multiple holiday closures between 24–26 and 31 December and 1 January, while certain names like Airbus SE and Air France KLM SA have specific early close rules. ADX stocks in the UAE also have their own holiday calendar.

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Platform accessibility at a glance

Different markets are available on different platforms, and that doesn’t change just because it’s December. What does change are trading hours around the holidays.

Here’s how market access is structured:

• Deriv MT5: CFDs across forex, commodities, stocks, indices, cryptos, tactical indices, and macro indices
  
• Deriv Trader / Deriv Bot / Deriv GO: Options and multipliers on selected markets, plus crypto and derived products
  
• Deriv cTrader: CFDs for forex, commodities, indices, stocks and ETFs
  

Crypto and synthetic indices (excluding Forex Synthetic, Basket, and Tactical Indices) remain available 24/7, even on holidays.

Wrapping up the year: trade smart, rest well

December is a unique period in the trading calendar. Markets slow down-but they don’t sleep. A well-timed trade can still present itself, but so can unexpected volatility.

A few insights as you navigate the final stretch of 2025:

• Know the hours. Don’t get caught with open positions as a market heads into an early close.
  
• Mind the liquidity. Lower volumes mean wider spreads and slippage-plan entries and exits carefully.
  
• Use the downtime wisely. Backtesting, strategy refinement, and reviewing your trading performance can be more valuable than forcing trades in thin conditions.