Today’s Chart of the Day comes from Bespoke Investment Group showing stock market returns since 1993. The green line shows the returns if you only own stocks when the market is closed, vs. the red line of only owning stocks when the market is open. The “closed” return is 855% vs. the “open” return of only 12%. This is because most of the events that move the market, such as earning announcements, GDP, jobs, and inflation, happen before or after the market closes. Since most movement takes place in the after-trading hours, that is also when to greatest growth occurs.