What Do Traders Do When The Market Is Closed?

Each week, Benzinga conducts a survey to gather relevant data from traders of all walks of life. With the markets closed for Independence Day, we wanted to find out how traders were spending their day off. Accordingly, we asked the following question to over 500 traders:

What do you do to scratch the trading itch on days when the market is closed?

• Trade cryptos
• Trade the FOREX market
• Trade foreign stock markets/indices
• Nothing, I enjoy my day off!  

After tallying the results, the top response was "Nothing, I enjoy my day off!" Overall, 60% of respondents opted for this selection.

Ever since the initial r/WallStreetBets meme stock phenomena began at the start 2021, more eyes than ever have been on the stock market. This has resulted in more new traders getting in on the action to trade hot stocks such as GameStop Corp. GME and AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. AMC.

Despite this recent trading frenzy, 60% of traders will put down the charts and enjoy a market holiday.

While most traders took the holiday off, 23% of traders said that they will be trading the cryptocurrency markets. 

Over the last month or so, many cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD have seen their values decline by over 50%.

Furthermore, the interest in Dogecoin has declined recently, with daily transactions down 93% in under a month. Despite this, traders are not taking their eyes off of the crypto market, as many are instead pivoting to altcoins.

Accordingly, it's no shock that nearly one in four traders said they would trade the cryptocurrency markets over the holidays.

The crypto market isn’t the only tradable currency market on market holidays, and 9% of respondents indicated that they would instead be trading the foreign exchange (FOREX) market.

The foreign exchange market allows funds, banks and individuals to buy and sell various currencies. The FOREX market is actually the largest financial market in the world, with a daily volume of over $6 trillion.

The foreign exchange market also operates 24 hours a day, 5.5 days a week. Essentially, the market opens at 8 a.m. Monday local New Zealand time (2 a.m. EST Sunday) and closes at 5 p.m. EST on Friday.

Last but not least, 8% of respondents indicated that they plan to trade foreign stock markets/indexes on the holiday.

While Independence Day is a national holiday in the United States, this is not the case elsewhere. As a result, there are multiple stock markets open for trading just like any normal Monday.