Holidays, shortened sessions and the clock-change weeks

The days Eurex is closed, and those when it should be

Eurex is closed a handful of days a year: January 1, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May 1, and the Christmas and year-end days according to the calendar published each autumn. That is all. Most German public holidays (Ascension, Whit Monday, October 3) are trading days: Xetra and Eurex trade, but the German desks are partly away, and the DAX book is thinner than usual.

Those days are not no-trade days, they are reduced size and maximum confluence days: fewer people to defend levels, therefore fewer reloads, therefore fewer reliable signals.

The year's Eurex calendar, published on eurex.com, is the reference; it is read once in January and copied into the diary.