#TradingSignals
Farewell to the closing bell
Stock exchanges are getting ready to trade all night. The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq have both applied for regulatory permission to do so; the London Stock Exchange is reportedly considering something similar. Nasdaq expects to be open around the clock by the second half of 2026.
They are late to the party. Currencies, American Treasury bonds and crypto assets have been traded through the night for years. Online stockbrokers, meanwhile, have already started to let clients execute orders outside of exchanges’ opening hours, through alternative platforms.
But open-all-hours exchanges will be a logistical nightmare. The witching hours are currently when all manner of dull, yet vital, post-trade processes take place, from settlement and valuation to the reconciliation of mistakes. With no pause to trading, there will be no time for the financial plumbing to clear—nor for traders to rest in the knowledge that the market is resting with them. The old-fashioned trading day will be much missed.