You Don't Have to Wake Up at 3AM to Trade From Hawaii
A trader hopped on a call with us this week and opened with one question before we could even say hello: "Do I have to wake up at 3am to do this?"
Short answer: no.
Long answer is this post. Because that question is the reason a lot of people in Hawaii never start. They picture the New York open, they do the time-zone math, they see 4:30am on the clock, and they close the tab. The market feels like it belongs to the mainland. It doesn't. You just have to know where the doors are.
Why does everyone think Hawaii traders have to be up before sunrise?
Because the loudest trading content on the internet is built around the New York stock market open. 9:30am Eastern. In Hawaii that's 3:30am in winter and 4:30am when the mainland is on daylight time. If the only market you know is the one on CNBC, then yes, trading from the islands looks like a job for insomniacs.
Here's what that content leaves out. The stock market keeps banker's hours. Futures don't.