When Is The Best Time To Buy Stocks? (2024)

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Stock traders rely on short-term price movements to drive profits. Knowing the best time to buy stocks throughout the trading day can help active traders create and execute a more successful trading strategy.

The Best Time of Day to Buy Stocks

Stock prices fluctuate throughout the trading day based on market sentiment.

A favorable earnings report might send a stock’s price higher, boosting investor demand almost as soon as the earnings press release drops. Conversely, negative news like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) not approving a biotech drug candidate can spark instant selling, as investors scramble to offload that biotech stock to limit their losses.

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Seasoned traders know that certain times of the trading day offer better buying and selling opportunities than others. Here are the key characteristics of each part of the trading day, and a look at why they are the best times to buy or sell stocks.

The Stock Market Open

The opening bell rings at 9:30 a.m. EST, which begins cash trading in the U.S. stock market. Stock prices typically see dramatic moves right after the open. The reasons may vary, but two of the most common causes of price volatility at this time include:

  • Overnight news. Company news that breaks after the closing bell on the prior day often drives after-hours trading. These trades are settled after the open, which can drive big gains or losses in stock prices.
  • Morning headlines. Similar to overnight news, new headlines before the open can drive plenty of pre-market trading, with similar effects as overnight news.

Professional traders know that the stock market open is one of the best times of the day to buy and sell stocks. In fact, traders often refer to the market open as being full of “dumb money”—a harsh phrase used to describe those who buy or sell at the worst possible times, usually on the heels of a bombastic early morning headline.

Traders know the price-moving news is old by the time the market opens. So they can buy and sell during these first few minutes and hours with the full knowledge that stock prices typically stabilize by midday.

The upshot: Early market trading between 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. ET—sometimes as late as 11:30 a.m. EST—is possibly the best time of the day to buy and sell stocks for those who are looking to capitalize on price volatility.

Afternoon Hours

After the morning mayhem, price movements and trading volume tend to settle down. Company news released during the midday or afternoon hours seldom creates the volatility seen after the open.

Without trading volume to drive strong price movements, plus a general lack of price-moving news, the hours between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. EST don’t typically offer traders much profit potential.

The upshot: Mid-day trading hours between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. EST aren’t the best times to buy and sell stocks for most traders, since stock prices tend to be more stable.

The Market Close

After the calm comes the storm—the final hour of the trading day brings a flurry of activity. From traders looking to get in on a late price rally to sellers who want to close out day trading positions, the 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST time slot offers plenty of volume and price movement.

Traders often find that the hour before market close brings inexperienced investors back into the market who make trades based on the day’s news. As a result, more experienced traders can capitalize on inexperienced traders’ poor timing, likely driven by news trends instead of strategy.

The upshot: Like early market trading, the hour before market close from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET is one of the best times to buy and sell stock because of significant price movements, higher trading volume and inexperienced investors placing last-minute trades.

The Best Day of the Week to Buy Stocks

Dan Casey, investment advisor and founder of Bridgeriver Advisors in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, says that Mondays offer some of the best conditions for buying and selling stocks.

“It’s because of the long span between trading opportunities where news, bad or good, can come out and affect certain stocks or industries,” he says.

Between the closing bell on Friday and the opening bell on Monday, a lot can happen that could cause the price of a stock to rise or fall. Unlike weekdays, when there’s only a few hours worth of news to affect stock prices, two days of news and events can fuel pre-market trading before the opening bell on a Monday.

The upshot: Experienced traders often view Monday as the best day of the week to buy and sell stocks because of the time and pent-up demand since the last trading session the previous Friday.

What Does “Buy the Dip” Mean?

Traders often want to add to positions they already hold, and they are willing to wait for the right time to score a bargain on more shares.

When a stock slips from a recent high due to company news or market sentiment, and inexperienced investors scramble to sell, experienced traders may use the opportunity to scoop up shares.

This strategy is called buying the dip. Traders add to their holdings at a favorable price, often lower than shares they’ve previously purchased. Over time, buying the dip helps traders lower the average price paid for all shares they own of a company, making the entire position more profitable.

You can buy the dip during any of the best times of the day or week to buy stocks. While it’s not a strategy used by all traders, it can prove beneficial for traders looking to increase their long-term returns on a position.

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4 Tips To Help Navigate The Best Time To Buy Stocks

While knowing the best times of the day to buy and sell stocks can help you navigate the market day, it’s not enough to build success as a trader. Instead, successful traders have a strategy that guides their overall portfolio and every transaction they make.

These four tips can help you shape a trading strategy to better capitalize on market fluctuations instead of being the investor who creates those market fluctuations with poor timing.

  1. Set goals. Know what you want to achieve with your portfolio before you start trading. Your goal can be a specific rate of return, a certain dollar amount in gains or even a better understanding of a particular market sector.
  2. Speak with a tax professional. When you’re an active trader in a taxable brokerage account, you’ll be subject to short-term capital gains taxes, which will impact your net returns. A little tax knowledge can help you avoid costly trading mistakes.
  3. Know your limits. The best traders hope to be right more than wrong. It’s important to have rules for handling losses, so you don’t imperil your other financial goals.
  4. Don‘t forget to diversify. You don’t want your entire portfolio in upheaval during active trading hours. Diversification can help you find gains even when entire sectors are in a downturn.

The Bottom Line

While there are better times to buy stocks, most investors are likely better sticking to a long-term buy-and-hold strategy than market timing strategies best left to professional traders.

Hank Smith, head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust, says that for the inexperienced trader, the hardest part of trading isn’t getting out of the market when there’s a downturn.

“The hardest part is getting back into the market,” says Smith. “Near the end of a bear market or correction, the headlines are at their gloomiest, making it virtually impossible to get enthusiastic about putting money back into the market.”

If you have questions about whether active trading fits your financial goals, reach out to a financial advisor for help. A conversation about your goals, time horizon and risk tolerance can help you make a more informed decision about trading.

When Is The Best Time To Buy Stocks? (2024)

FAQs

When Is The Best Time To Buy Stocks? ›

Best time of the day to buy stocks. The first few hours of the trading day tend to see the most trading activity. Traders have had a chance to process the news from the early morning or the evening before, like announcements from federal regulators or companies' earnings reports.

Is it best to buy stocks when they are down? ›

"If you are financially able, down markets provide an excellent opportunity to buy into your existing or new investments at generally lower levels," Sowhangar says. You are essentially buying in at discount prices, allowing the future growth potential of those investments to be even higher than what it once was.

When should you buy stocks high or low? ›

The “Buy Low & Sell High” investment strategy is all about timing the market. You buy stocks when they've hit a bottom price, and you sell stocks when their price peaks. That's how you can generate the highest returns. You buy a stock when the price is very low—say, $50.

What is the best day of the month to buy stocks? ›

The best days to trade stocks are Tuesdays, the first days of a month, the last days of a month, and the end of the year (4th quarter).

What time of year are stocks lowest? ›

August and September are traditionally known as the down months. Despite the record drops of 19.7% and 21.5% in 1929 and 1987 respectively, the average return in October is positive historically. What is this? The chart shows the monthly average returns for the S&P 500 over the period 1950 through 2017.

What day of the week is best to buy stocks? ›

The Best Time of the Week To Buy Stocks

And according to it, the best days for trading are Mondays. This is also known as “The Monday Effect” or “The Weekend Effect”. The Monday Effect – a theory suggesting that the returns of stocks and market movements on Monday are similar to those from the previous Friday.

Should I sell a stock if it goes up? ›

Here's a list of some of the situations in which it's inadvisable to sell your shares: Don't sell a stock just because its price increased. Winning stocks increase in price for a reason, and they also tend to keep winning. Don't sell a stock just because its price decreased.

At what price should I buy a stock? ›

The best time to buy stocks is when the share prices of a given stock are at a low. There is always a chance that they will drop even further, but buying at a low price is significantly safer than buying at a high price where the price of the stock is unlikely to climb much higher.

How do you know if a stock will go up? ›

We want to know if, from the current price levels, a stock will go up or down. The best indicator of this is stock's fair price. When fair price of a stock is below its current price, the stock has good possibility to go up in times to come.

Which is the best stocks to buy now? ›

Stocks to Buy Today
STOCKACTIONTRADE PRICE
GRAPHITEBUY415
DALBHARATBUY2255
M&MBUY1393
DABURBUY569
1 more row

What is the strongest month for stocks? ›

Best time of the year to buy stocks. With the turn of the year comes optimism and new cash infusions, making December and January months that have historically seen stocks rise. April also tends to be a strong month for stocks.

What is the 3 day rule in stocks? ›

The three-day settlement rule states that a buyer, after purchasing a stock, must send payment to the brokerage firm within three business days after the trade date. The rule also requires the seller to provide the stocks within that time.

What is the cheapest day to buy stocks? ›

However, some traders and investors believe that markets tend to trend downward on Mondays. This can mean much lower returns on Monday than there were to be had on Friday, making Monday traditionally known as a good day of the week to snaffle up potentially undervalued stocks and indices.

Which months are bad for stocks? ›

Worst Months: January, February, June, August, and September remain weaker periods.

What is the 10 am rule in stocks? ›

A trading rule states that you should never place a trade at 10 in the morning. This is because prices are much more likely to fluctuate in one direction or the other at that time due to the markets' typically higher volatility. As a result, it's frequently seen to be a bad time to make any trades.

Do stocks go up or down in January? ›

“Since World War II, if the market is up in January, it has continued to rise in the remaining 11 months of the year more than 85% of the time and average gain is about 11.5 %,” said Sam Stovall, chief market strategist at CFRA. ” So the old saying, 'as goes January, so goes the year,' popularized by the Stock Trader's ...

What time of day are stocks highest? ›

The opening 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) period is often one of the best hours of the day for day trading, offering the biggest moves in the shortest amount of time. A lot of professional day traders stop trading around 11:30 a.m. because that is when volatility and volume tend to taper off.

Do stocks usually go up or down on Friday? ›

Stock prices fall on Mondays, following a rise on the previous trading day (usually Friday). This timing translates to a recurrent low or negative average return from Friday to Monday in the stock market.

How many shares of stock should I own? ›

While it's easy to imagine how diversifying to avoid that risk is smart, there's no hard and fast number of stocks investors should own. Instead, researchers have generally concluded that owning 20 or more stocks is best for reducing the risk one lousy bet swamps a portfolio.

How long should you hold your stocks? ›

For a holding period of less than one year, any gains will be taxed at a person's marginal income tax rate. By holding onto a stock for more than one year, an investor will likely lower their tax burden. It can be helpful for investors to speak with a certified tax professional before adopting any tax strategy.

Which stocks to sell first? ›

Shares with the lowest cost basis are sold first, regardless of the holding period. Shares with a long-term holding period are sold first, beginning with those with the lowest cost basis. Then, shares with a short-term holding period are sold, beginning with those with the lowest cost basis.

Do you pay taxes if you sell stock at a loss? ›

The IRS allows you to deduct from your taxable income a capital loss, for example, from a stock or other investment that has lost money. Here are the ground rules: An investment loss has to be realized. In other words, you need to have sold your stock to claim a deduction.

How much money do I need to invest to make $1000 a month? ›

Investment Required To Make $1,000 In Monthly Income

However, the exact investment required will vary for every investor. Therefore, your precise amount will depend on your specific investments and your return on those investments. Thus, the money required will range from $240,000 to $400,000.

Is $500 enough for stocks? ›

You'd be surprised just how far $500 can go when it's invested in the stock market. Not only is it enough to start growing wealth in a meaningful way, but investing even a small amount can help you build positive investing habits that will help you to reach your future financial goals.

How much stock should I buy as a beginner? ›

Most experts tell beginners that if you're going to invest in individual stocks, you should ultimately try to have at least 10 to 15 different stocks in your portfolio to properly diversify your holdings.

Should I check my stocks everyday? ›

The most important thing is not how often you check your stocks. Instead, the important thing is how you react to the moves you're seeing. And checking stocks too often can lead to knee-jerk reactions. Specifically, checking their portfolios too frequently tends to make new investors sell stocks for the wrong reasons.

What is the 30 day rule in stock trading? ›

Q: How does the wash sale rule work? If you want to sell a security at a loss and buy the same or a substantially identical security within 30 calendar days before or after the sale, you won't be able to take a loss for that security on your current-year tax return.

How do you tell if a stock will keep falling? ›

3 Ways To Tell If Stock Is Bottoming
  1. Look For Increased Volume. As an investor or trader, there are clues you can use to determine if a stock is nearing a point bottom. ...
  2. Look For Prices To Reclaim Moving Averages. ...
  3. Confirm With Major Indicators. ...
  4. Look For a Higher Low. ...
  5. Bottom line.

What is the best stock to make money fast? ›

In addition to Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN), other Fast Money stocks that are widely held by elite hedge funds include Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Which stock will boom in 2023? ›

Performance of the top 5 stocks of 2023
Stock SymbolMarket Price Rs1-year Returns (%)
M&M1,172.0041.54
BRITANNIA4,301.8533.84
NTPC177.9024.38
HINDUNILVR2,535.0022.04
6 more rows
6 days ago

Which share is best to buy under $100? ›

stocks under 100
S.No.NameCMP Rs.
1.I O C L92.15
2.IDFC First Bank81.70
3.Union Bank (I)71.10
4.I R F C32.95
23 more rows

When should I sell my stock? ›

Occasionally, markets can get overly optimistic about the future prospects for a business, bidding its stock price to unsustainable levels. When the price of a stock reaches a level that cannot be justified by even the best estimates of future business performance, it could be a good time to sell your shares.

How soon can you sell stock after buying it? ›

Most stock trades settle two business days after the order executes. (Traders call this T+2, or the trade date plus two business days). An investor can trade on margin, but they'll pay interest on those borrowed funds during the settlement period.

Do stocks go down in December? ›

How stocks historically perform in December. The last month of the year tends to be a good one for stock investors. “December is historically a strong month for stocks, with only April and November better going back to 1950," says Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group.

What is 15 rule in stock? ›

The rule follows a series of three 15s to help investors get 7-figure returns. As per the rule, if you invest ₹15000 per month for 15 years in a fund scheme that offers a 15% interest annually, you can gather ₹1 crore at the end of tenure.

What is the 7 rule in stocks? ›

To make money in stocks, you must protect the money you have. Live to invest another day by following this simple rule: Always sell a stock it if falls 7%-8% below what you paid for it.

What is 90% rule in trading? ›

"90% of Newcomers lose 90% of their capital in first 90 days of trading" Is this Rule applies on you as well ? I don't think there is any such rule. Only part one of the rule- 90% of the newcomer traders lose money, in how many days or how much percentage is difficult to say.

Is it better to invest weekly or monthly? ›

When investing over a long period of time, SIP frequency, whether done on a day-to-day, weekly or monthly basis, has little impact on overall returns. Using historical data and analysing some numbers, we can see that sometimes a monthly SIP works well and sometimes a daily or weekly SIP works well.

What is the best time frame for beginners trading? ›

If you are a seasoned trader, trading within the first 15 minutes might not be as much of a risk. For beginners, it's recommended to wait until 9:30. The reason behind this is simple; in the first few minutes of the market opening, stocks are likely reacting to the previous night's news.

Is February bad for stocks? ›

A recent analysis by Bespoke Investment Group shows that historically, the stock market tends to gain in the first half of the month of February and lose in the second half. On average, the gains tend to be slightly larger than the losses: Between 1985 and 2022, the S&P 500 ended the month of February up 0.37%.

What is the average monthly return of the stock market? ›

Basic Info. S&P 500 Monthly Return is at 0.25%, compared to 1.46% last month and 0.01% last year. This is lower than the long term average of 0.50%. The S&P 500 Monthly Return is the investment return received each month, excluding dividends, when holding the S&P 500 index.

Should you keep stock for years? ›

One of the main benefits of a long-term investment approach is money. Keeping your stocks in your portfolio longer is more cost-effective than regular buying and selling because the longer you hold your investments, the fewer fees you have to pay.

Can you make money when stocks go down? ›

One way to make money on stocks for which the price is falling is called short selling (also known as “going short” or “shorting”). Short selling sounds like a fairly simple concept in theory: An investor borrows a stock, sells the stock, then buys the stock back to return it to the lender.

What is the 10 am rule in stock trading? ›

A trading rule known as the 10 a.m. rule states that you should never purchase or sell equities at that time. This is because prices can change drastically in a short amount of time during that period of time, when the market is typically quite volatile.

What happens to money when stocks go down? ›

Key Takeaways. When a stock tumbles and an investor loses money, the money doesn't get redistributed to someone else. Essentially, it has disappeared into thin air, reflecting dwindling investor interest and a decline in investor perception of the stock.

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