US Markets Don't Take Korean Holidays Off — What Is a Price Gap?

It was the last night of the Chuseok holiday. You finally opened your US stock app — and the price that was sitting at $130 before the break is now showing $112. You refresh twice. Still $112. You hadn't touched anything. But while you were away, something happened.

US Markets Don't Take Korean Holidays Off

Korean exchanges — the KOSPI and KOSDAQ — were closed for the Chuseok holiday (September 24–27). But the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq? Fully open, business as usual. US markets don't follow the Korean holiday calendar. And Korean retail investors — known as 'seohak-gaemi,' or overseas investment ants — kept right on buying. Over those four days, they snapped up roughly ₩51.7 billion worth of Meta stock alone, with Nvidia and Apple close behind. Even as US Treasury yields spiked and indices swung up and down, the buying didn't stop.

What Is a Price Gap?

A price gap is the difference between a stock's closing price on one day and its opening price the next. Say a stock closed at $100 before the holiday. When trading resumes, it opens at $110 — that's a gap up. If it opens at $91 instead, that's a gap down. Honestly, the gap exists because trading didn't actually stop — it just moved to markets that were still open. Everything that happened while Korean markets were closed gets baked into that first price when they reopen.

So What Should You Do When There's a Gap?

There are trading strategies built entirely around exploiting gaps — but for a beginner, the most important thing isn't to profit from them. It's to not panic. Gaps are normal. They happen every time there's a meaningful stretch between trading sessions. Surprisingly, a lot of people see a gap down after a holiday and sell immediately out of fear — locking in a loss that might have recovered within hours. Simply knowing what you're holding before a long holiday can save you from that kind of reactive move.