What is the trading hour of NYSE and NASDAQ?

Rezwan: What is the trading hour of NYSE and NASDAQ?
Are NYSE and NASDAQ open 24 hours a day? Or, is there limited trading hours? Can online trading in NYSE and NASDAQ be made 24 hours a day?
I also heard that an investor can sell almost immediately after buying a stock? Is not there any 1 or 2 day lock-in?

Answers and Views:

Answer by jeff410
9:30 am 4:00 pm EST are the regular hours. Generally you can sell right after you buy a stock. But you may not have access to the proceeds for 3 days, until the trade settles.

Answer by Jayson D
9:30-4 with some stocks on NYSE trading pre and post market. You can put in a trade order 24 hours a day, but unless there is volume (trading action) going on at the time your order can not be filled right away.

You can sell a stock immediately after buying, i.e within a second if you are fast enough. There is no “lock in” time period.

Answer by Jonathan Perreira
The NYSE trading sessions are between the hours of 9:30 am to 4:00 pm Eastern Time. NYSE after Hours runs from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
The NASDAQ stock market trading sessions, Pre-market trading hours from 7:00 am to 9:30 am, Market hours from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm, After-market hours 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm Eastern Time.