Xetra Holidays 2026 and 2027: Full Trading Calendar

The Frankfurt Stock Exchange, known to most investors by its electronic order book Xetra, is Germany’s main equity market and the home of the DAX index. Xetra trades Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm CET (3:00 am to 11:30 am Eastern Time, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm London), with the Boerse Frankfurt venue running later into the evening, to 8:00 pm CET. The next full closure is Christmas Eve, Thursday December 24, 2026, when there is no trading on either Xetra or Boerse Frankfurt, followed by Christmas Day on Friday December 25, 2026. The trading calendar is set and published by Deutsche Boerse, the exchange operator, on its Xetra trading calendar and trading hours page.

German market closures matter beyond Germany. The DAX 40, MDAX and a large share of European exchange traded fund (ETF) turnover price on Xetra, so when Frankfurt is shut, liquidity across the euro area thins out and price discovery for European equities shifts to whichever venues remain open. If you follow the macro calendar, closures also change how markets absorb data: a US release landing on a German holiday reaches European investors with no cash market to trade it. See the US CPI report and US jobs report schedules for the releases most likely to collide with a European closure.

Xetra holidays 2026

The dates below are the remaining scheduled closures in 2026. Deutsche Boerse’s 2026 calendar states that trading takes place Monday to Friday with the exception of January 1, April 3, April 6, May 1, December 24, December 25 and December 31, and that December 24 and December 31 remain settlement days.

Note that December 26, 2026, Boxing Day in the UK and the second Christmas holiday in Germany, falls on a Saturday, so no separate closure is needed. The final trading session of 2026 is therefore Wednesday December 30, 2026.

Xetra holidays 2027

The Easter closures create a four-day weekend in 2027: the market is shut on Friday March 26 and reopens on Tuesday March 30. In December 2027, Christmas Day falls on a Saturday and December 26 on a Sunday, so the only weekday closures in the Christmas period are December 24 and December 31. Deutsche Boerse notes that its published overviews are for information only and that changes for future years cannot be excluded, so check the official calendar close to the date.

Early closes and half days

Xetra’s approach differs from that of US exchanges, which run shortened sessions on days such as Christmas Eve. In Germany, December 24 and December 31 are treated as full non-trading days on both Xetra and Boerse Frankfurt, rather than half days. Deutsche Boerse issues a separate announcement each year for the final trading session of the year, confirming auction and settlement arrangements around the turn of the year.

There is a second category to understand. Some German public holidays are not exchange holidays at all. When a public holiday in Germany or in the State of Hesse (the federal state where Frankfurt sits) is a normal trading day under the exchange calendar, trading in shares and exchange traded products on Boerse Frankfurt ends earlier than usual, at 8:00 pm CET, while structured products such as certificates and warrants continue to 10:00 pm CET. That is the closest thing Frankfurt has to an early close, and it affects the floor venue rather than the Xetra order book.

A separate point often confused with an early close: on some closure days settlement still runs. Deutsche Boerse’s 2026 calendar treats December 24 and December 31 as settlement days even though there is no trading. In plain English, no new trades can be struck, but existing trades can still be delivered and paid for.

Trading hours on Xetra

Xetra continuous trading runs from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm CET (CEST in summer). The opening auction begins at 8:50 am and the closing auction starts at 5:30 pm, which is when the official DAX closing prices are set. Boerse Frankfurt, the specialist-supported venue often called the Frankfurt floor, quotes from early morning until 8:00 pm CET.

Germany observes summer time from late March to late October, and the United States and the United Kingdom change clocks on different dates. For roughly two weeks each spring and one week each autumn the usual six-hour gap between Frankfurt and New York, and the one-hour gap between Frankfurt and London, shifts. During those windows Xetra’s close can land an hour earlier or later in ET than the table above suggests, so check local time if you trade the European close.

There is no formal pre-market or after-hours session on Xetra in the US sense. Instead, German investors get extended access through Boerse Frankfurt’s longer quoting hours, through Tradegate and other regional exchanges, and through DAX futures on Eurex, which trade almost around the clock on business days. On exchange holidays, Eurex derivatives trading also follows the exchange holiday calendar for German products, so a Xetra closure typically means the DAX futures market is closed too.

How holidays affect settlement, dividends and options

European cash equities currently settle on a T+2 basis: a trade struck on Monday settles two business days later, on Wednesday. Exchange holidays are not business days for settlement in most cases, so a closure pushes the settlement date out by one day. That matters in three practical ways.

• Dividends and the ex-dividend date. To receive a dividend you must own the shares by the record date, which is tied to the settlement cycle. A holiday sitting between your trade date and the record date can move the last day to buy earlier than you expect.
• Cash timing. Sale proceeds arrive one business day later than usual across a holiday period, which matters if you are funding another purchase or a withdrawal over Christmas and New Year.
• Corporate actions and index changes. Rights issues, tender offer deadlines and DAX index review effective dates are all set in business days and shift around closures.

One structural change is coming. Deutsche Boerse states that ESMA, the European Securities and Markets Authority, recommended in November 2024 that the EU move to a T+1 settlement cycle by October 11, 2027, and market bodies report that the EU, UK and Switzerland have all aligned on that date. From then, a trade will settle one business day after execution, which makes holiday calendars more important, not less: with only one day of slack, a single closure absorbs the entire buffer between trade and settlement.

For derivatives, Eurex equity index and single-stock options expire on set monthly and quarterly dates, most commonly the third Friday of the month. When that Friday is a holiday, for example Good Friday in some years, expiry moves to the preceding business day. Good Friday falls on March 26 in 2027, which is not a third Friday, so the March 2027 expiry is unaffected, but the general rule is worth knowing if you hold options into month end.

Other markets

When Xetra is closed, other parts of the financial system may not be. German government bonds (Bunds) trade largely over the counter between banks, and while activity collapses on German public holidays, TARGET2, the euro payment system, and Eurex Clearing follow their own published calendars. Foreign exchange is a 24-hour, five-day market, so the euro keeps trading against the dollar, sterling and the yen even with Frankfurt shut, usually in thinner conditions that can exaggerate moves. Cryptocurrency markets never close, which is why bitcoin sometimes appears to lead equity sentiment over long European holiday weekends.

The main international exchanges only partly align. Christmas Day and New Year’s Day close almost every major venue: New York, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Sydney. Good Friday and Easter Monday close Frankfurt, London and much of Europe, and Good Friday also closes the New York Stock Exchange, but Easter Monday is a normal trading day in the United States and in Japan. December 24 and December 31 show the sharpest contrast: Frankfurt shuts entirely while New York holds a shortened session on Christmas Eve and a full session on New Year’s Eve. Asian markets follow their own lunar and national calendars, so Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong can be closed for days when Europe is trading normally.

The practical takeaway for anyone watching global markets: a closure in one region does not pause the news flow. US data such as the US GDP report or the US PCE report, and European Central Bank communications, can land while German cash equities are shut, and the reaction shows up in futures, currencies and then in the Xetra opening auction on the next trading day.

What It Means for Your Money

Most of the time an exchange holiday is an administrative detail. It becomes a money question in a handful of situations.

• Orders and pensions. If you invest through a workplace pension, an ISA or a German Sparplan, a buy instruction placed on a closure day is queued rather than cancelled, and it is executed at the next available auction price. That price may be well away from where the market last closed if news broke in between. If you care about the price you pay, avoid placing market orders across a long closure and consider a limit order, which sets the maximum you will pay or the minimum you will accept.
• Gap risk. With no trading on December 24, 25, 28 (weekend aside) and 31, 2026, positions cannot be adjusted for several days over the festive period. Leveraged products such as contracts for difference and turbo certificates are the most exposed, because a large reopening gap can trigger a stop or a knockout at a much worse level than expected.
• Cash arriving later. Selling shares just before a holiday cluster means settlement money reaches your account later than usual. Plan around it if you are paying a bill or a tax deadline.
• Mortgages, savings and jobs. Exchange holidays themselves do not move interest rates. What matters for your mortgage rate, savings rate and job security is central bank policy and the data flow, and closures only affect the timing of when markets reprice that news. Sterling, euro and dollar exchange rates keep moving on holidays, so holiday spending abroad is unaffected by whether Frankfurt is open.
• Thin liquidity costs money. The days either side of a closure often carry wider bid-offer spreads, meaning the gap between the buying and selling price is larger, so the same trade quietly costs more. Long-term investors can simply wait for a normal session.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Frankfurt Stock Exchange open today?

Xetra trades Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm CET and is closed at weekends and on the dates in the tables above, the next being December 24, 2026. Deutsche Boerse publishes a live market status indicator alongside its official trading calendar.

What time does Xetra close on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve?

It does not close early: December 24 and December 31 are full non-trading days on Xetra and Boerse Frankfurt, although Deutsche Boerse treats both as settlement days in 2026.

Is the bond market open when Xetra is closed?

German government bonds trade mostly over the counter rather than on the exchange, so some dealing can continue, but volumes are minimal on German public holidays and clearing and payment systems follow their own published calendars.

How many holidays does Xetra observe each year?

Typically seven weekday closures: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Labour Day on May 1, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. The number falls when one of those dates lands at a weekend, which is why 2027 shows five weekday closures.

Where is the official Xetra holiday calendar published?

On the Deutsche Boerse cash market site, under trading calendar and trading hours, together with a downloadable annual trading calendar PDF and year-end announcements.