Explainer
What is RTH vs ETH?
RTH is regular trading hours, 09:30 to 16:00 ET in our runs; ETH is extended trading hours, which covers everything outside that window.
Updated
The short answer
RTH stands for regular trading hours. For equity-index futures it is the stock-market day. In our runs RTH is 09:30 to 16:00 ET, which is 6.5 hours.
ETH stands for extended trading hours: everything outside RTH. Index futures keep trading through the evening, overnight and early morning, so most of the clock is ETH.
- RTH
- Regular trading hours. 09:30 to 16:00 ET in our runs.
- ETH
- Extended trading hours: every hour outside RTH.
- Globex
- The name our builder uses for the overnight window, from the 18:00 ET reopen to the 09:30 ET RTH open.
- Full session
- From 18:00 ET to 17:00 ET the next day, which is 23 hours.
The hours we use
All times are America/New_York, including the daylight-saving changes.
- RTH: 09:30 to 16:00 ET. The builder anchors an RTH session at the 09:30 ET open.
- Full session: 18:00 ET to 17:00 ET the next day. The week opens at 18:00 ET on Sunday.
- Globex overnight: 18:00 to 09:30 ET. It is the union of Asia, 18:00 to 03:00, and London, 03:00 to 09:30. The builder anchors it at the 18:00 ET reopen.
- The stretch from 16:00 to 18:00 ET is in none of the named windows. A full or custom session covers it.
A rule written for one set of hours is a different test on another. State the hours in the rule.
Why the hours change a backtest
The same rule gives different trades in RTH and in the full session. An opening-range rule anchored at 09:30 ET looks at a different range from one anchored at 18:00 ET. A rule restricted to RTH skips every setup that forms overnight.
Time stops follow the same logic. A time stop at 17:00 exits at the close of the 16:59 bar, the last bar that finishes before the stated time. So a rule meant to be flat by the RTH close needs a time before 16:00, not 17:00.
Gold and RTH
RTH, 09:30 to 16:00 ET, is an equity-index session. In our builder, gold (GC) has no RTH option. For gold you choose the full session or a custom window.
Holidays and early closes
On a holiday or an early close, the shortened session is what runs. If a setup’s own range window did not trade that day at all, the day is skipped rather than forced into a partial or invented range.
The futures angle
The Trade Lab replay lets you step to the next 09:30 ET or to the next session, so you can watch the move from the overnight session into RTH one 1-minute bar at a time. Replay it on real NQ data, free, in the Trade Lab.
Questions and answers
What does RTH stand for in trading?
Regular trading hours. In our runs, for equity-index futures, that is 09:30 to 16:00 ET.
What does ETH stand for in futures trading?
Extended trading hours: every hour outside regular trading hours.
What are the RTH hours for NQ and ES?
In our runs, 09:30 to 16:00 ET. The full session runs from 18:00 ET to 17:00 ET the next day.
Do futures trade outside RTH?
Yes. In our runs the full session starts at 18:00 ET and ends at 17:00 ET the next day, and the week opens at 18:00 ET on Sunday.
Should a backtest include extended hours?
It depends on what the rule is about. What matters is that the rule says which hours it uses, because the same rule on RTH and on the full session is two different tests.