The Globex Session: How Overnight Futures Trading Shapes the Regular Session

ES and NQ keep trading when the stock market is closed, so the price you see at the 9:30 AM ET open is not where the day started. By then, an overnight session has already produced a gap, a high, a low and a reaction to news from other time zones. Measuring those before the open is the useful part of knowing the Globex session, whether or not you ever trade it.

Session hours

Typical CME Globex equity futures hours run from Sunday 5:00 PM CT to Friday 4:00 PM CT, with a daily maintenance break, usually Monday through Thursday from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM CT. Holidays, early closes and product-specific schedules change this, so check the CME holiday and product calendar for the dates you trade. The regular US equity cash open is 9:30 AM ET, which is 8:30 AM CT. Always label the time zone when you write down a time. Everything outside regular trading hours is the overnight session, and volume is usually much lower than during the day, which means spreads can be wider and individual orders can move price more.

Measure the gap in points and dollars

The gap is the distance between the prior regular-session close and where the market opens. Hypothetical example: the prior RTH close was 5,200 and ES opens at 5,220. That is a 20-point gap, about 0.38% of price. At $50 per point, it is $1,000 per ES contract, or $100 per MES contract at $5 per point. For NQ the same 20 points is $400 per contract, and $40 per MNQ contract at $2 per point.

Gap size labels such as small, large or significant are your own thresholds. Pick numbers in points for each product, write them down, and log what happened. Statements about how often gaps fill depend on the definition of the gap, the period, the day of the week and news, and I would not use a single figure without your own sample. A gap can also fill a few sessions later, not the same day, so decide in advance what counts.

Overnight high, low and midpoint

The overnight high and low are reference levels for the regular session. When RTH opens inside the overnight range, those edges are the first obvious levels. When it opens outside, the question changes to whether price accepts that area or comes back. As the session develops, note how price behaves near each edge and record it. Overnight prints happen in thin trade, which can make an overnight extreme either meaningful or just noise. Only your own log tells you which.

You can also look at where most overnight volume traded, using a profile on the overnight session, as an extra reference. Treat it as a candidate level to test, not a magnet.

Overnight activity and KPL

KPL are fixed reference prices anchored to the regular-session opening print. The standard ES/NQ map has four levels built from full-session and after-hours travel, and the levels do not move intraday. They are not predicted prices and not institutional order-flow levels. That means the overnight session is part of the input, but the levels cannot be completed before the RTH open, because the opening print is not known until then. The KPL trading page explains the method.

Should you trade Globex?

Many traders choose not to, for practical reasons: wider spreads, thinner books and slippage on stop orders, and the effect on sleep and morning focus. Strategies designed and tested for regular hours should not be assumed to behave the same overnight. If you are in a time zone where overnight hours are your daytime, or you have a rule set that has been tested on overnight data, that can change the decision. Either way, test it on overnight data with realistic costs before risking money.

A three-minute overnight review

1. Record the gap versus the prior RTH close in points and dollars.
2. Mark the overnight high and low.
3. Note what drove overnight movement if there was an identifiable catalyst, and the time it happened with its time zone.
4. Describe the overnight shape: one-directional, reversal or choppy.
5. Write the if-then rules you will use once the opening print sets the KPL, and what you will do if price is already beyond the overnight range.

None of these tell you where price will go. They tell you where you are starting and which levels are already in play, so the plan is written before the first candle.

Related Reading

• Pre-Market Preparation Guide covers the full morning routine.
• ES Gap Fill Strategy covers opening gap setups in more detail.

The YMI Intro membership is $97 per month after a 7-day trial and includes the course, daily ES/NQ KPL and the community. Start the 7-day trial to follow the daily levels alongside the overnight review.