# Futures hours, flat time and the Sunday open > CME equity index, energy and metals futures trade almost 23 hours a day, from Sunday 6:00 pm ET to Friday 5:00 pm ET, with a daily break from 5:00 to 6:00 pm ET. A prop account adds a flat time: positions close automatically at 4:15 pm ET on Rithmic, 4:45 pm ET on Tradovate, without failing the account. By StarTrading Team · Published 2026-09-08 · Updated 2026-09-24 · Source: https://startrading.io/blog/futures-trading-hours-and-flat-time ## The CME week The main contracts traded on StarTrading accounts, ES, NQ, YM, RTY and their micros, CL, GC and theirs, trade on CME Globex almost around the clock: | | Time (ET) | | --- | --- | | Weekly open | Sunday 6:00 pm | | Daily maintenance break | 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Monday to Thursday | | Weekly close | Friday 5:00 pm | | US cash equity session | 9:30 am to 4:00 pm | The “day session” that most traders think of, 9:30 am to 4:00 pm ET, is when equity index futures are most liquid. Overnight, the same contracts trade on lower volume with wider spreads and bigger reactions to Asian and European news. Exchange holidays shorten some sessions; the exchange publishes the calendar and the [economic calendar](https://startrading.io/rules/news-trading) lists the releases that matter. ## Flat time on a prop account A funded or evaluation account cannot carry positions through the maintenance break or the weekend. StarTrading enforces this with a [flat time](https://startrading.io/rules/flat-time): 4:15 pm ET on the Rithmic stack, 4:45 pm ET on Tradovate. At that moment, every open position is closed at the market and working orders are cancelled. The account is not failed and no penalty is applied; the fill is simply whatever the price is. Two consequences: - **No overnight positions.** A trade that “needs more time” at 4:10 pm ET on Rithmic does not get it. Plan exits before flat time, or do not enter late. - **The auto-close is not a stop.** It closes at the price of 4:15 pm, which can be worse than your stop if you were counting on a level being hit first. Close by hand a few minutes early on days that matter. Why two different times? The flat time follows the platform’s own risk cut-off, not the account type. Rithmic-based accounts close earlier; Tradovate-based accounts get thirty more minutes. Both are before the 5:00 pm break. The choice is made at checkout with the rest of the configuration on the [pricing page](https://startrading.io/pricing). ## The Sunday open Trading resumes at 6:00 pm ET Sunday. The first minutes price in everything that happened since Friday 5:00 pm: weekend news, Asian futures, statements. Gaps are common and the book is thin. Three practical points for a prop account: 1. The [Daily Loss Limit](https://startrading.io/rules/daily-loss-limit) day starts at the open. On a Cycle 50K that is $1,200 of loss before trading pauses until the next session; a gap trade can spend a large part of it in seconds. 2. The end-of-day [Max Loss Limit](https://startrading.io/rules/max-loss-limit) was recalculated from Friday’s close. Check the room before the first order, not after. 3. No position was carried over, so there is nothing to defend. Treat the Sunday open as a new market, or skip it: many funded traders simply start Monday. Put it into practice on a Cycle account $172One-time fee, no subscription, no time limit. Profit target $3,000 Max Loss Limit $2,000 [Start the 50K Cycle evaluation](https://startrading.io/pricing?f=cycle&s=50k&p=rithmic)[About Cycle accounts](https://startrading.io/accounts/cycle) ## News releases inside the session Scheduled releases, NFP, FOMC, CPI, land inside the session and move prices by tens of ticks in a second. Trading through them is allowed on every account except funded Stream accounts, which must be flat from one minute before to one minute after. The [news trading rule](https://startrading.io/rules/news-trading) has the exact list and the times. On a small account the more useful habit is a personal flat window around the top-three releases whatever the account type. ## The clock decides which account fits you The flat time is the same on every size, but it does not weigh the same on every style. A trader who holds a position for hours loses more to a 4:15 pm auto-close than a scalper who is flat by lunch. Two questions settle the choice at checkout: - **Do you trade the last hour?** If yes, the thirty extra minutes on Tradovate are worth more than they look, and the auto-close lands after the cash close rather than fifteen minutes before it. - **Do you trade the releases?** Funded Stream accounts must be flat one minute either side of red-folder news, which is a scheduling constraint as much as a trading one. [Choosing your account type](https://startrading.io/blog/choosing-your-account-type) compares the four types on the rules that bind in practice, and a session that ends badly is usually a clock problem before it is a strategy problem, as [why most evaluations fail](https://startrading.io/blog/why-most-evaluations-fail) sets out. ## A session plan that respects the clock | Time (ET) | What to do | | --- | --- | | Before 9:30 am | Compute the room to the Max Loss Limit; set the daily stop | | 9:30 to 11:30 am | Most of the liquidity and most of the opportunities | | 8:30 am, 10:00 am, 2:00 pm | Common release times: know which ones are today | | 3:45 pm | Last entries; anything opened later must close before flat time | | 4:15 pm (Rithmic) or 4:45 pm (Tradovate) | Flat, automatically | | 5:00 to 6:00 pm | Maintenance break, no trading | The flat time and the break are the same on every size and type; the parameters that differ by account are on the [comparison page](https://startrading.io/accounts/compare). ## Sources - CME Group, [Globex trading hours](https://www.cmegroup.com/trading-hours.html) and [holiday calendar](https://www.cmegroup.com/trading-hours.html#holiday). - Federal Reserve, [FOMC meeting calendar](https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomccalendars.htm): the announcement times referenced above. - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, [economic news release schedule](https://www.bls.gov/schedule/news_release/): the 8:30 am ET release slot for CPI and the employment report. ## Questions on this topic ### Does flat time fail my account? No. Open positions are closed automatically at flat time at the market price and the account continues. Only the Max Loss Limit and a prohibited practice fail an account. ### Why do Rithmic and Tradovate have different flat times? The flat time depends on the platform stack, not on the account type: 4:15 pm ET on Rithmic, 4:45 pm ET on Tradovate. Both are before the 5:00 pm ET maintenance break. You choose the stack at checkout. ### Can I trade the Sunday open? Yes, from 6:00 pm ET Sunday, on every account type. The open is thin and the first minutes often gap; the drawdown rules apply as on any other session.