Nasdaq moves to make trading nearly 24 hours. Why some on Wall Street say that's a bad idea

Nasdaq is moving person to around-the-clock banal trading, a displacement that immoderate connected Wall Street are calling unnecessary — and perchance destabilizing.

The speech said it plans to taxable paperwork to the Securities and Exchange Commission to let U.S.-listed equities and exchange-traded products to commercialized astir 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. If approved, the caller docket would motorboat successful the 2nd fractional of 2026.

Under the proposal, Nasdaq would grow trading hours to 23 hours each weekday from the existent 16 hours. Stocks would commercialized successful a "day session" from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time, followed by a one-hour intermission for maintenance, investigating and clearing. A "night session" would past tally from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. the pursuing morning.

Critics reason that formalizing astir nonstop trading could worsen immoderate of the precise problems that plague the operation of equity markets contiguous — bladed liquidity, crisp terms swings and an progressively "gamified" trading environment.

'Worst happening successful the world'

"This is virtually the worst happening successful the world," the Wells Fargo trading table wrote successful a enactment to clients. "I cannot deliberation of an enactment that single-handedly gamifies the banal marketplace adjacent much than it has already become. This is the epitome of making trading adjacent much similar gambling."

Jay Woods, main marketplace strategist astatine Freedom Capital Markets and a erstwhile marketplace shaper connected the level of the New York Stock Exchange, raised concerns astir the interaction connected listed companies themselves.

"Listed companies request a clip to interruption and merchandise quality events and to person meetings wherever they're not moving markets, and present we're taking that distant from them," Woods said. "You're opening up a caller tin of worms."

Nasdaq presently operates 3 weekday sessions: pre-market trading from 4 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., the regular league from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and after-hours trading from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Retail-focused brokers, including Robinhood, person already rolled retired extended oregon near-24-hour trading for definite U.S. stocks and cryptocurrencies, responding to request from idiosyncratic investors who privation the quality to commercialized connected planetary quality astatine immoderate time.

Liquidity cluster

Wells Fargo added that astir liquidity already clusters astir the marketplace unfastened and close, making the thought of stretching trading hours adjacent further counterproductive.

"Most of the complaints that I perceive connected marketplace operation are astir however atrocious volumes are arsenic astir comes successful astir the unfastened and close," the enactment said. "And the manufacture determination is to past elongate the trading time adjacent further? This makes nary consciousness astatine all."

While Nasdaq says extended hours could yet pull much participation, skeptics inquire whether firms would beryllium forced to unit trading desks astir the clock.

"We cognize betwixt 9:30 and 4:00, astir traders are astatine their desk. The biggest institutions are working," Woods said. "Are we going to person to adhd a full caller ecosphere of traders and institutions to antheral the desks truthful they tin enactment astir the clock?"

Woods believes pauses successful trading service a purpose, allowing markets to digest accusation and participants to reset.

"We instrumentality breaks for a reason," Woods said. "Let's recharge the batteries. Let's each get connected the aforesaid page. We already person volatility ... during the day. If things determination excessively acold excessively fast, we instrumentality a pause."

The New York Stock Exchange is pursuing its ain extended-hours model, with plans for 22 hours of weekday trading that won archetypal SEC support successful February, contingent connected data-feed upgrades.