Key Highlights:
- Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) are making strides to provide 24/7 trading in response to the demands of global investors.
- Nasdaq has initiated discussions with regulators, while the NYSE has received approval to extend its trading hours.
- Continuous trading could enhance liquidity and volume, allowing trades outside conventional time constraints.
Stock traders globally are increasingly advocating for the ability to trade assets throughout day and night, prompting moves by significant U.S. markets like Nasdaq and NYSE to enable round-the-clock trading soon.
“We definitely see that this is where the markets are moving,” said Giang Bui, Nasdaq’s head of U.S. Equities & Exchange-Traded Products, speaking at the Digital Asset Summit in New York on Thursday. “There’s a lot of demand globally for U.S. stocks and people want to trade within the hours that they’re typically awake, and I think a lot of it is because people are used to trading crypto 24/7.”
Both Nasdaq and NYSE are working on receiving official permissions to allow their exchanges to operate non-stop for up to seven days a week. Nasdaq has recently begun engaging with regulators regarding the proposed changes, and NYSE has already secured the necessary approvals.
The move to round-the-clock trading could offer numerous advantages for the trading landscape, including improved market efficiency as traders can operate without being limited by time zones. Currently, the traditional U.S. stock market runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET.
“We’re hearing it across the board from global broker dealers, clients who they’re servicing, even within the U.S., there’s a number of U.S. brokers that already are offering overnight trading because their customers are used to trading crypto in those hours,” added Bui.
In recent developments, Nasdaq has introduced several crypto-related financial products, including the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), a spot ETF launched by BlackRock, which made headlines as the most successful ETF debut in U.S. history. Furthermore, the exchange also announced the listing of two Solana (SOL) futures ETFs issued by Volatility Shares.
