Reading the market regime before prices move
The US market opens in your afternoon and closes before midnight. The contract you buy loses value every day, even on your days off. Many contracts expire on Friday, a day off in most of the Gulf. This page explains it with your country's numbers and shows you what to read before you open a trade.
Next session Oct 14, 2026: from 13:30 to 20:00 UTC.
| Country | Opens | Closes | Weekend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia Riyadh | 16:30 Wednesday | 23:00 | Friday and Saturday |
| UAE Dubai | 17:30 Wednesday | 00:00 Thursday | Saturday and Sunday |
| Kuwait Kuwait City | 16:30 Wednesday | 23:00 | Friday and Saturday |
| Qatar Doha | 16:30 Wednesday | 23:00 | Friday and Saturday |
| Jordan Amman | 16:30 Wednesday | 23:00 | Friday and Saturday |
Source: official NYSE trading hours, converted to each capital's time when the page opens. US market holidays and a live clock for every city are in US market hours in your time zone.
The session closes at 23:00 Riyadh time. The worst decisions get made tired, late at night. Write your plan before the open: where you enter, where you exit, and the most you will lose.
Time decay (Theta · Θ) It is what a contract loses every day from the passage of time alone. A contract expiring in a week melts much faster than one expiring in three months. And your day off does not stop the melting.
Before earnings, options get expensive. After the report, that extra price drops all at once. This is the Volatility Crush. Example: you bought a contract for $5, the stock rose a little, and the contract became $3.
Most weekly options expire on Friday in New York. In Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Jordan, Friday is a day off. Decide on Thursday: close the contract or let it expire.
Look up your broker's name in your country's regulator register before you transfer money. Finviro is a data and education platform; it does not execute trades or hold funds.
How we calculate these numbers: Methodology · and a record of what we published and what happened next: Performance record.
Opens at 16:30 and closes at 23:00 Riyadh, Kuwait, Doha and Amman time in the next session. The time shifts by an hour twice a year because New York switches between summer and winter time, and your countries do not.
Opens at 17:30 and closes at 00:00 Dubai and Abu Dhabi time in the next session, one hour after Riyadh.
Yes. Time eats into a contract's value every day, even when the market is closed, and the effect of Saturday and Sunday usually shows in the price on Friday or Monday morning. So a short-dated contract held over the weekend pays for days with no movement.
Before the report, option prices rise because the market expects a big move. After the report, the waiting is over and that part of the price drops all at once. This is called a Volatility Crush. If the stock moves less than the market expected, the buyer loses even with the right direction.
Yes. Most weekly and monthly options on US stocks expire on Friday, New York time, which is a full trading day there. In Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Jordan, Friday is a day off, so decide what to do with your contract before then.
The Saudi riyal, Qatari riyal, UAE dirham and Jordanian dinar are pegged to the dollar at a fixed rate, so currency moves are usually very small. The Kuwaiti dinar is pegged to a basket of currencies, so it moves slightly against the dollar. What counts is your broker's conversion fee.
Look up your broker's name in your country's regulator register: the Capital Market Authority in Saudi Arabia, the Securities and Commodities Authority in the UAE, the Capital Markets Authority in Kuwait, the Qatar Financial Markets Authority, and the Jordan Securities Commission. Finviro is a data and education platform and does not execute trades.
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