Nasdaq overnight session in Taiwan time: NQ hours and backtests
NQ trades almost 23 hours a day. In Taiwan time it opens at 06:00 in US summer and 07:00 in US winter. A sound backtest stores bars in exchange time, picks a session template on purpose and charges more slippage at night.
By Soren Huang · Published · updated · Editorial policy
Contents
- What are NQ trading hours in Taiwan time?
- Which part is the "overnight" session for a trader in Taiwan?
- How does US daylight saving time shift the hours?
- Do overnight and regular hours behave differently?
- How should a backtest set the session template and the daily bar break?
- How much do liquidity and costs change at night?
- How does this fit a strategy search?
- Frequently asked questions
What are NQ trading hours in Taiwan time?
NQ futures trade on CME Globex nearly 23 hours a day, Sunday to Friday. In Taiwan time the trading day runs from 06:00 to 05:00 during US daylight saving time. In US winter both times are one hour later, 07:00 to 06:00. A backtest should store bars in exchange time and treat overnight and regular hours separately.
CME Globex is CME Group's electronic trading platform, where the E-mini Nasdaq-100 (NQ) and the Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 (MNQ) trade. CME publishes the hours in US Central Time: 17:00 to 16:00 the next day, with a one-hour pause. In US Eastern Time that is 18:00 to 17:00. Taiwan uses UTC+8 all year. The US Eastern offset changes between UTC−5 in winter and UTC−4 in summer. Because of that change, the Taiwan times move twice a year.
| Segment | US Eastern Time | Taiwan time, US summer (EDT) | Taiwan time, US winter (EST) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Globex trading day opens | 18:00 | 06:00 next day | 07:00 next day |
| Overnight session, before the cash open | 18:00–09:30 | 06:00–21:30 | 07:00–22:30 |
| US cash market regular session | 09:30–16:00 | 21:30–04:00 | 22:30–05:00 |
| Futures after the cash close | 16:00–17:00 | 04:00–05:00 | 05:00–06:00 |
| Daily maintenance break | 17:00–18:00 | 05:00–06:00 | 06:00–07:00 |
Over a full week, trading starts on Sunday evening in New York. That is Monday 06:00 in Taiwan in summer and Monday 07:00 in winter. The week ends on Friday at 17:00 Eastern, which is Saturday 05:00 or 06:00 in Taiwan. Exchanges can change hours and contract terms, so confirm them on CME Group's E-mini Nasdaq-100 contract page. To see the current times in your own time zone, use the futures market hours tool. It also shows other exchanges' sessions.
Which part is the "overnight" session for a trader in Taiwan?
The US "overnight" session happens mostly during the Taiwan day. The US regular session falls on the Taiwan night. The overnight session is the part of the Globex trading day outside the US cash market's 09:30–16:00 Eastern hours. Platforms also call it electronic trading hours (ETH). In Taiwan time it runs from early morning until 21:30 or 22:30.
Many Taiwan traders say "Nasdaq night session" (那斯達克夜盤, nq 夜盤) when they mean the US cash hours. These are the hours they watch from about 21:30 until past midnight. Both meanings are common. Before you set up a test, decide which window you mean and write it down in Eastern Time. Stocks listed on the Nasdaq exchange also have their own pre-market and after-hours sessions. Those sessions belong to the stock market and follow their own schedule, so they are separate from NQ futures hours.
How does US daylight saving time shift the hours?
US daylight saving moves every NQ session one hour earlier in Taiwan time from March to November. A rule that uses a fixed Taiwan clock time therefore means two different things during the year. The US starts daylight saving on the second Sunday in March and ends it on the first Sunday in November. Taiwan does not change its clocks. So the gap between Taipei and New York is 12 hours in summer and 13 hours in winter.
Hypothetical example
A trader writes the rule "enter at 21:30 Taiwan time" after testing it in July. In July, 21:30 is the moment the US cash market opens. In January, 21:30 is one hour before the cash open, in a quieter part of the overnight session. The rule has not changed, but it now trades a different market moment. The backtest mixes nearly eight months of "open" trades with about four months of "pre-open" trades.
Write time-based rules in Eastern Time, or better, relative to the session open ("first 30 minutes after 09:30 ET"). Then a backtest over many years tests one idea, not two. US data releases follow the same logic. The jobs report and the CPI report come out at 08:30 Eastern. That is 20:30 Taiwan time in summer and 21:30 in winter, inside the overnight session, one hour before the cash open.
Do overnight and regular hours behave differently?
Yes. Treat the overnight session and the regular session as two markets that share one price. Volume in equity index futures is concentrated in US cash hours, most of all near the open and the close. Overnight trading is usually thinner. Price can drift slowly for hours and then jump at a scheduled release or at the cash open.
Check this in your own data instead of trusting general claims. Here is a simple method:
- Convert your NQ bars to Eastern Time.
- Group the bars by hour of the day.
- For each hour, compute the average bar range (high minus low) and the average volume.
- Repeat this for at least two different years, for example one calm year and one volatile year.
The result shows which hours carry the movement and the volume. A breakout rule that works during cash hours often needs different filters, or different stop distances, at night. If a strategy's profit comes almost entirely from one session, test that session on its own. Then you know where the edge is. Indicators that reset each session, such as VWAP, give different values depending on where your session starts. That is one more reason to fix the session before you test anything.
How should a backtest set the session template and the daily bar break?
Choose the session template on purpose, and keep your bar data in exchange time. These two steps prevent most NQ session errors. A session template is the list of start and end times that a platform or backtester uses to decide which bars belong to a session and where each daily bar begins and ends. The daily maintenance break is the 60-minute pause each afternoon, 17:00–18:00 Eastern, when Globex stops trading NQ.
| Template | Hours (Eastern Time) | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Full electronic session | 18:00 to 17:00 next day | The strategy may trade at any hour or hold positions through the night |
| Regular hours only | 09:30 to 16:00 (some platforms end at 16:15) | The rules depend on the cash open, the cash close or cash-hours volume |
| Overnight only | 18:00 to 09:30 | You want to test whether an idea works in the thin hours on its own |
The template also changes the daily bar. A CME trading day for NQ starts at 18:00 Eastern on the previous evening. The exchange dates it by the day on which it ends. So the "Monday" daily bar includes Sunday evening trading. In Taiwan time, in summer, it runs from Monday 06:00 to Tuesday 05:00. A regular-hours daily bar for the same Monday has a different open, high, low and close. Any rule built on daily bars, such as an ATR stop or a daily moving average, gives different signals with each template.
Run these checks before a large test:
- Confirm the time zone of your data file. Prefer Eastern or Central Time, and convert to Taiwan time only for display.
- Check that the template's time zone matches the data's time zone. Data stored in Taiwan time with a fixed template is wrong by one hour for part of every year.
- Look at one week just before and one week just after the March change. The first bar of each session should start at the same Eastern time in both weeks.
- Check that daily bars and intraday bars use the same break. If they do not, rebuild the daily bars from the intraday data.
- Decide what happens at the 17:00 Eastern break: hold the position, or exit before it. Then test exactly that rule.
The contract details, rolls and cost setup for NQ and MNQ are covered in NQ and MNQ futures backtesting.
How much do liquidity and costs change at night?
Commission stays the same at every hour, but slippage is usually larger in thin overnight trading. A backtest that uses one slippage value for all hours flatters night trades. Slippage means you fill at a worse price than the one the backtest assumed. With fewer orders resting near the price, market and stop orders move further through the book. This is most visible around the 08:30 Eastern releases.
One NQ tick is worth $5.00 and one MNQ tick $0.50, which sets the unit for every slippage estimate below. To turn ticks into money for your own trades, use the futures contract calculator.
Hypothetical example
An NQ strategy has an average gross trade of $60. The trader sets commission and fees at $5 per round trip. During cash hours the trader assumes one tick of slippage per side, so 2 × $5 = $10. Overnight the trader assumes two ticks per side, so $20. The net average trade is $45 in cash hours and $35 overnight. If overnight slippage doubles again to four ticks per side ($40), the night trades net only $15. The edge at night depends heavily on the slippage estimate.
Set slippage by session. If your tool takes one value per test, run the overnight test separately with a higher value. Then rerun it with double that value. If the strategy only survives with cheap night fills, you have learned something useful before trading it. The guide to trading costs in backtests explains the average-trade check in more detail.
How does this fit a strategy search?
Fix the session first, then search. Session choice changes bars, daily values, indicator resets and costs at the same time. If you search on full-session data and then trade only cash hours, the strategy you tested is not the strategy you trade. In AlphaPrime (Valynox), the backtesting settings include trading sessions, fees and slippage, and backtesting always uses next-bar execution. Every candidate in a search is evaluated with the same session and cost assumptions. You load your own historical NQ or MNQ bar data. A clean way to compare is to run one search on regular hours and one on the overnight session, each with its own slippage setting. Then compare which ideas survive in each. AlphaPrime's strategy generation takes rules, indicators and parameter ranges, so the same search can be set up twice, once for regular hours and once for the overnight session.
What this means if you use AlphaPrime: set the NQ session and a session-appropriate slippage before the first search, and keep your data in exchange time. Then the results reflect the hours you will actually trade.
Frequently asked questions
What time does the Nasdaq futures night session start in Taiwan?
If you mean the US cash hours that Taiwan traders watch at night, they start at 21:30 Taiwan time in US summer and 22:30 in US winter. The NQ futures trading day itself reopens much earlier, at 06:00 or 07:00 Taiwan time, after the daily break. Check the current times on CME Group's contract page, because exchanges can change them.
Does Taiwan use daylight saving time?
No. Taiwan stays on UTC+8 all year. The one-hour shift in NQ hours comes from the United States, which uses daylight saving time from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
Can I trade NQ on Saturday in Taiwan time?
Only in the early morning. The Friday close in New York is 17:00 Eastern, which is Saturday 05:00 in Taiwan in summer and 06:00 in winter. Trading then pauses until Monday 06:00 or 07:00 Taiwan time.
Should I backtest NQ with full-session or regular-hours data?
Match the data to the hours you will trade. Use full-session data if the strategy can trade at any hour or holds positions overnight. Use regular-hours data if the rules depend on the cash open or close. Daily bars, indicators and gaps differ between the two, so results from one template do not carry over to the other.