Could the Holy Spirit jinx your ETF Settlements?
In May, many countries have a public holiday to mark Pentecost, the seventh Sunday and the 49th day after Easter Day, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles of Jesus. In Europe there was a public holiday on Monday 20 May, when bourses were closed, but the UK (where the date is known as Whitsun, or Whit Sunday) instead had the Spring Bank Holiday on Monday 27 May, when the London Stock Exchange was shut, as were US markets - but for Memorial Day, remembering US military who died; the analogous UK date is Remembrance Day, on November 11, though this is not a public holiday.
Holidays and non-trading days for multiple ETFs - and different listings of the same ETF - always need to be carefully monitored. COSMOS is programmed to plan ahead for how orders, pricing and settlement dates are impacted by all sorts of holidays and factors all of this into business day count logic.
There are nearly always 104 weekend days, but some leap years can end up with 105 weekend days, though the current leap year, 2024, only has 104. In most countries the weekend is Saturday and Sunday, and some Islamic states such as Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai do observe the western weekend for equity markets. But in Israel and Saudi Arabia, the stockmarket is open from Sunday to Thursday. Jewish Sabbath starts at sunset on a Friday and continues into Saturday, while Friday is the holiest day for Islam.
Thus countries following two of the three Abrahamic religions have arrived at the same weekend days for different reasons, but they have different religious public holidays. Saudi Arabia marked Eid-al-Fitr with a long four day weekend between April 5 and April 9, and the equity market was shut for a whole week from Sunday April 7 to Thursday April 11. In contrast Israel’s Tel Aviv stock exchange was closed on April 22-23 and April 28-29 for Passover.
The Israeli stockmarket is shut for 17 days in 2024, the Saudi stockmarket for 12 days, and the US equity market for only 10 full days, though the US and UK also have some half days such as Christmas eve.
Independence days, which can also be called Emancipation, Evacuation, National, Liberation, Republic, Retrocession, Restoration, Revolution or Statehood days, are another reason for different public holidays around the world.
The award-winning COSMOS Creation/Redemption platform from ULTUMUS by SIX has always included a tool for tracking and viewing the impact of holidays and non-trading days, which is also now naturally also considered in the context of T Plus One settlement in the US and Canada. T Plus One could be relevant to where the ETF itself is listed, and/or where some or all of its holdings trade.
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