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Good Friday and Easter Monday: a long weekend with half the market missing

Easter is an odd one for FX. On Good Friday, most European markets are closed, but the US is often open, and in some years US jobs data lands on that day. Easter Monday has Europe closed again while the US trades normally.

That means two sessions where liquidity is much lower than usual. Spreads widen, especially in the European morning, and moves can be jumpy. If big US data comes out on Good Friday, the reaction happens in a thin market and can overshoot, then sometimes reverse on Tuesday when Europe returns.

My approach is mostly to step back. I don't trade the European morning on either day. If there's major US data on Good Friday, I don't hold anything into it, and I'm wary of reading too much into the reaction, since a lot of participants weren't around.

Some brokers change trading hours for indices and commodities over Easter, and a few close FX early on Good Friday. Their holiday schedule email usually covers it. Pending orders left over the long weekend face the same gap risk as any weekend, but with an extra day of potential news.

Tuesday after Easter is often when the market properly resets. That's where I'd focus rather than trying to squeeze trades out of the holiday days.

The dates move each year because Easter follows the lunar calendar, and different countries observe different days. Australia and New Zealand take Good Friday and Easter Monday too, so the Asian session is also thinner than usual. I'd put the exact dates in the calendar at the start of the year, along with any US data scheduled on those days. It's easy to forget that a jobs report can land on a day when most of Europe is closed, and the reaction on those days doesn't always tell you much about the following week.

If you hold swing positions, check the swap schedule around Easter. The extra day off can mean triple swap falls on a different day than usual, because the value dates shift around bank holidays. It's a small detail and doesn't affect intraday scalpers, but it surprises people holding carry positions. Brokers usually mention it in their holiday notice. Also, prop traders on time limited evaluations should count whether the holiday days are included in their trading days, since some firms don't count days with reduced hours. Brokers usually publish a holiday schedule a week or two ahead, and it lists any changes to trading hours and swap days for that week.

Easter weekends can be confusing, especially in years when US data falls on Good Friday. Liquidity is thin, and a surprise in the data can move the market sharply with wide spreads.

Many traders simply skip those days. For those who trade, smaller size and a clear understanding of which markets are open help. Checking the broker's holiday schedule is essential, since some instruments may have shortened hours.

A pending order left to run over the weekend sits in a market that is closed for about forty-eight hours. When trading reopens on Sunday evening, the first prices can be a long way from Friday's close.

Picture a buy stop placed above the market on Friday afternoon, at a level that looked sensible. News breaks over the weekend, and the pair opens thirty pips higher. The order triggers at the opening price, not at the level, and the fill is thirty pips worse than planned. The position is immediately in trouble, with a stop that now sits far closer than intended, or already behind price.

Limit orders behave differently. A buy limit below the market that gaps down through it fills at the better price, which sounds like a gift but often means a position opened in the middle of a collapsing market, with nothing to suggest the move has finished.

Expiry settings are where platform defaults and trader expectations clash. "Good till cancelled" means exactly that, across weekends, holidays and maintenance windows. "Good till day" ends at a server-specific time that isn't necessarily the end of the trading day the trader has in mind. Some brokers cancel all pending orders before the weekend, some keep them, and some change the rules for specific instruments.

Another detail is the margin check. A pending order doesn't use margin until it triggers, so an account can look comfortable on Friday and breach its limits the moment several orders fill at once on Sunday.

Checking what the broker does with pending orders over the weekend takes one email. The answer should be saved, because policies change.

The simplest habit of all is cancelling everything before the close on Friday and rebuilding the orders on Sunday, once the first hour has passed and prices have settled.

What does the broker actually do with pending orders over the weekend, and when was that last verified?

Pending orders over the long weekend deserve a look. With markets closed or thin for several days, a lot of news can build up, and the reopening on Monday or Tuesday can gap. A buy stop or sell stop left from Thursday might fill at a very different price from where you placed it. I'd cancel pending orders on Thursday evening unless I'm comfortable with them filling on a gap. Positions with stops are the same story. The stop protects you in normal conditions, but a gap can jump right over it.

Should you trade Easter Monday at all? London and most of Europe are closed, but some markets are open, and the FX market itself technically runs. Liquidity is thin, spreads can be wider, and moves can be erratic. I've generally stayed away, unless there's something important from the US or Asia that day. The few trades I've seen people take on Easter Monday seem to be either very quiet or caught in odd spikes. Treating it as a half day at best, and planning for low activity, seems sensible. Most of the time, a day off is the better use of it.