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Chart of the Day: Day or Night Trading

Samuel A. Kiburz, Senior Vice President, Chief Investment Officer Nov 25, 2025
Overnight versus intraday returns for the SPDR S&P500 ETF (SPY).

Contents

The topic of Today’s Chart of the Day is something that often crosses my mind in the morning when I look at how the market is going to open. The chart is from a research paper called “Night Moves: Is the Overnight Drift the Grandmother of all Market Anomalies?” published in the Journal of Investment Management in 2024. 
 
In a nutshell, the chart, dated from 1991 to 2024, shows 2 separate $1-investment strategy examples: the first is only owning the S&P 500 shares when the market is closed (so buy at the close and sell at the open) vs. only owning the shares when the S&P 500 is open (so buying at the open and selling at the close).
 
The difference is startling.  The return for when the market is closed is $17 and only $1 when it is open. This shows us that nearly all of the returns happen at night while the market is closed, and almost zero returns during the day when it is open. 
 
Why is this? Well, normally, most market information is released right before or after the market is closed, and since most of the time the information is positive, this is when prices adjust upward.
Chart of the Day

About the Author

Samuel A. Kiburz, Senior Vice President, Chief Investment Officer
Samuel A. Kiburz, Senior Vice President, Chief Investment Officer

Samuel serves as Senior Vice President, Chief Investment Officer for the Crews family of banks. He manages the individual investment holdings of his clients, including individuals, families, foundations, and institutions throughout the State of Florida. Samuel has been involved in banking since 1996 and has more than 20 years experience working in wealth management.

Investments are not a deposit or other obligation of, or guaranteed by, the bank, are not FDIC insured, not insured by any federal government agency, and are subject to investment risks, including possible loss of principal.

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