When the market is open

Nepal's market week does not look like the ones in most textbooks, which are written for markets that run Monday to Friday.

Holidays are the part that catches people out. Nepal has a lot of them, and they do not fall on the same Gregorian dates each year. A market that is open Sunday can still be shut on a Sunday that happens to be a festival.

How does the pre-open session work?

Between 10:30 and 11:00 the exchange collects orders but does not trade them continuously. Orders accumulate and are matched in an auction to establish an opening price. During this window you may see a price ticking that is not yet a real traded session price.

Pre-open exists to absorb the overnight imbalance. News arrives when the market is shut; if trading simply switched on at 11:00, the first few trades would swing wildly as everyone reacted at once. The auction gathers that demand and settles it into a single opening number.

What can you do outside market hours?

Most of the useful work happens when the market is shut. Reading a quarterly report, checking a company's dividend history, deciding what you would pay for it — none of that needs a live price, and all of it is done better without one moving in front of you.