Do You Know What Daylight Saving Time (DST) Is?

<p>&nbsp;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.</p><p><br /></p><p>Why can this change happen?</p><p><br /></p><p>This situation is due to the Daylight Saving Time (DST) factor which is influenced by seasonal changes.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>In Malaysia it does not happen, but most foreign countries practice this time change.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>DST was implemented by a New Zealand scientist, George Hudson who studied insects.</p><p><br /></p><p>In 1895, Hudson introduced a proposal for longer daylight hours in the summer.</p><p><br /></p><p>That will allow him to find and collect insects after work.</p><p><br /></p><p>This idea was not liked by many until the first world war when European countries wanted to save energy.</p><p><br /></p><p>Germany became the first country to implement this DST change in 1916 before being followed by the United States 2 years later.</p><p><br /></p><p>So until today, DST is still used around the world when the season changes in the countries that practice it.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p>