If you are an investor or trader, you must have noticed that there are times when the market opens early, but there are times when the market opens 1 hour later.
Why can this change happen?
This situation is due to the Daylight Saving Time (DST) factor which is influenced by seasonal changes.
DST is the practice of speeding up the time by 1 hour during the summer so that the daylight hours will be longer and will be restored by the fall.
In Malaysia it does not happen, but most foreign countries practice this time change.
In Europe, this DST is called European Summer Time. Time is accelerated in March and will revert back to the original at the end of October.
The idea of DST was first proposed in 1784 by Benjamin Franklin so that the night time would be shorter with the aim of saving candles and kerosene.
DST was implemented by a New Zealand scientist, George Hudson who studied insects.
In 1895, Hudson introduced a proposal for longer daylight hours in the summer.
That will allow him to find and collect insects after work.
This idea was not liked by many until the first world war when European countries wanted to save energy.
Germany became the first country to implement this DST change in 1916 before being followed by the United States 2 years later.
So until today, DST is still used around the world when the season changes in the countries that practice it.
Because of that, investors and traders will face changes in trading hours such as market opening and closing times or when economic data is published according to the calendar schedule.
For example, US NFP employment data in September is still published at 8.30pm, but in November the data is published 1 hour later, at 9.30pm.
