Stock and bond markets keep slightly different holiday calendars. On Columbus Day and Veterans Day the cash Treasury market is closed while the stock exchanges run a full session. The bond market also closes early ahead of some holidays when stocks do not. These days are easy to miss on a calendar and they trade differently.
What is missing
Treasury yields are one of the main inputs into stock prices through the day. On a normal session a move in yields shows up in the index within moments, which the 10-year yield tell describes. When the cash bond market is closed, that signal is absent.
There is also no government data on those days. Federal agencies do not publish on federal holidays, so the economic calendar is empty.
Who is not at the desk
Banks observe both holidays. Many institutional desks run light, and funds that manage stocks and bonds together have less reason to trade one without the other. Participation in the stock market tends to be lower as a result.
Lower participation does not have to mean a smaller range. A thin market moves further on a given order, as thin liquidity and volatility explains. The usual outcome is a slow session. The less common one is a sharp move on little volume.
What the options do
Stock options trade and expire as normal on these days. A same-day option is priced for a full session with no scheduled events, so its expected move is usually modest. That is a statement about the calendar. It leaves aside how little liquidity stands behind the tape.
Dealer hedging works as usual. With fewer other participants, hedging flow can be a larger share of what moves the index. In positive gamma that tends to mean a tighter pin. In negative gamma it can mean a move that runs.
The day after
When the bond market reopens it has a full day of news to catch up on. Yields can open at a different level, and stocks adjust to it. A quiet holiday session can be followed by a livelier one for that reason alone.
It also means a move made while bonds were shut was made without their vote. Treat it as provisional until the next session confirms or reverses it.
Keeping the calendars straight
These are not the same as the half days around major holidays, when the stock market itself shuts early, covered in the half-day session playbook. The holiday expiration schedule sets out what happens to option expiries when the stock market is closed.
The Trader dashboard runs as normal on these sessions, with net GEX, the gamma flip, the walls and the expected move on SPY, QQQ and IWM, and Dr. NoVo’s written reads on the map.