Nasdaq is preparing to file documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow near-24-hour trading, in line with the increasingly global nature of financial markets and investor behavior, Reuters reported on Monday.
Under the proposal, Nasdaq would expand trading hours for stocks and exchange-traded products (ETPs) from 16 hours a day to 23 hours a day, five days a week. The new schedule includes a daytime session from 4 a.m. ET to 8 p.m. ET, followed by a one-hour break, followed by an evening session from 9 p.m. ET to 4 a.m. the next day. Trading for the week will begin at 9pm on Sunday and end at 8pm on Friday, with the traditional opening and closing bells of 9:30am and 4pm unchanged, Reuters reported.
Most publicly traded crypto companies, such as Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood (HOOD), Strategy (MSTR) and many Bitcoin mining companies, trade on the Nasdaq exchange, making these stocks more accessible to traders around the world.
“The trend toward globalization has been around for some time, and we've seen the U.S. market itself become more global,” Chuck Mack, Nasdaq's senior vice president for North American markets, told Reuters.
The move follows previous indications that both the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) were considering extending business hours. Jiang Bui, Nasdaq's head of U.S. equities and exchange-traded products, said in March that this change is “where the market is moving.” He also noted that Nasdaq was already in talks with regulators at the time, and the New York Stock Exchange later received SEC approval for its own after-hours expansion.
Currently, the U.S. stock market operates from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time, with limited pre- and post-market trading hours. In contrast, cryptocurrencies are traded 24/7, and that dynamic may have reshaped investor expectations. “Customers are used to night trading, so there are a number of U.S. brokers that already offer night trading,” Bui said in March.
Trades executed between 9 p.m. and midnight during the night session will be counted toward the next calendar day, Nasdaq said. The new structure allows broader access to U.S. markets across time zones and could appeal to institutional and individual traders active in global and crypto markets.
A filing with the SEC is expected soon, according to the report. Representatives for Nasdaq could not be reached for comment.
