NYSE Moves Opening Trading Bell To 9:30 A.M. 37 Years Ago Today

Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened: On this day in 1985, the New York Stock Exchange moved its opening bell from 10:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

Where The Market Was: The Dow closed at 1,328.63 and the S&P 500 traded at 182.08.

What Else Was Going On In The World: In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev replaced Konstantin Chernenko as leader of the Soviet Union. Nintendo NTDOY released the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in North America. The fed funds interest rate was 10.75%.

9:30 Open: In September 1985, the NYSE pushed its daily opening bell up from 10:00 a.m. ET to 9:30 a.m. ET. It certainly wasn’t the first time the exchange had changed its trading hours.

Way back in 1871, the NYSE set its first regular daily trading hours to begin at 10 a.m. and end some time between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. These market hours were held six days a week from Mondays through Saturdays, with the market remaining closed on Sundays.

In 1887, the hours were adjusted to 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and only 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

In fact, it wasn’t until 1952 that the NYSE closed on Saturdays. In addition to eliminating Saturday morning trading, the NYSE extended the Monday through Friday sessions by 30 minutes from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Trading was extended by another half hour to six hours in 1974, still opening at 10 a.m. but closing at 4 p.m.

The current 6.5-hour regular trading session today’s traders know and love was first implemented in September 1985 and has not been modified since.