24/5 Trading Is Moving From Concept to Market Infrastructure Reality
We recently attended an FISD event featuring a panel on 24/5 trading. Participants discussed how extended trading hours are reshaping expectations across the trading lifecycle, from order flow and clearing to market data, risk controls, and technology infrastructure.
The discussion made one thing clear: the industry is no longer debating whether trading hours will expand. It is now working through how to support that expansion safely, consistently, and at scale.
What Is Driving the Move Toward 24/5 Trading?
The move toward 24/5 trading is being driven by two forces: global demand for access to U.S. equities and rising expectations shaped by always-on digital asset markets.
Retail and institutional participants in APAC and other regions increasingly want the ability to trade U.S. securities during their local market hours. Panelists noted that overnight trading activity has already become more meaningful, particularly around U.S. news events that build over the weekend or outside the regular trading session. As U.S. equities move closer to a near-continuous market, liquidity is beginning to form outside the traditional core session rather than waiting for the next day’s open.
Crypto markets have also changed expectations for market access. Digital asset markets operate continuously, creating a reference point for investors accustomed to 24/7 access, automated workflows, and infrastructure that does not depend on a traditional open and close. While U.S. equities are not moving directly to a crypto-style market structure, digital assets have helped normalize the idea that market data, trading systems, and operational processes may need to function across a much longer trading day.
How Is Market Infrastructure Adapting to Extended Trading Hours?
That demand is now being matched by infrastructure change. DTCC’s National Securities Clearing Corporation recently extended clearing availability to a 24×5 model, operating from Sunday at 8:00 p.m. ET through Friday at 8:00 p.m. ET, a major step toward reducing counterparty and operational risk in overnight trading. Exchanges are also preparing for longer trading windows, with Nasdaq planning a 23-hour trading day, five days a week, pending regulatory approval.
Yet, longer trading hours introduce new complexity. With a shortened maintenance window, the need for real-time clearing, continuous risk management, more resilient market data infrastructure, and better mechanisms for handling reference prices increases. The move to 24/5 trading changes assumptions firms have long used to manage trading, operations, and market data workflows.
Why Does 24/5 Trading Create New Market Data Challenges?
For buy-side firms, one near-term question is how to consume and interpret overnight data. As more venues support extended trading, firms will need a clearer view of liquidity, pricing, and execution quality across fragmented overnight markets. That shift creates new demand for normalized, reliable market data that can support both trading decisions and post-trade analysis.
Coordination is another challenge. Clearing, exchange operations, SIP coverage, market data distribution, and risk systems all need to evolve together. Without alignment, firms face gaps between when trading activity occurs and when operational controls are designed to function.
This is especially important because the traditional NBBO does not apply in the same way outside regular market hours. As overnight activity grows across venues, firms need consistent reference points to understand where the market is trading, evaluate execution quality, and manage risk.
How Will Firms Manage Risk in an Always-On Market?
As markets become more continuous, risk management must also become more continuous. Panelists discussed the importance of real-time clearing, reference prices, circuit breakers, and other safeguards that can support trading activity outside the traditional session.
The challenge is not only market risk. It is also operational risk. Firms that previously relied on the end of the trading day for reconciliation, maintenance, batch processing, or manual review will need to rethink those workflows. A shorter reset window means systems must be more resilient, automated, and observable across the full trading week.
AI may play a role in this transition. It could support anomaly detection, reconciliation, fraud prevention, predictive analytics, and operational monitoring as firms manage longer trading windows with fewer natural pauses. However, AI also introduces new governance questions. Automated systems operating across extended hours will require clear controls, escalation paths, and human oversight.
What Comes Next for 24/5 Trading?
Ultimately, the shift toward 24/5 trading is not just about market access. It is about market readiness. As U.S. equities become more accessible to global investors, firms will need infrastructure that can support real-time operations across time zones, trading sessions, and venues.
That includes market data. As overnight trading grows, firms need a reliable way to monitor fragmented liquidity and understand best available prices outside the traditional core session. Exegy’s Axiom, including its Overnight Best Bid and Offer (OBBO), helps address this visibility gap by providing normalized, real-time insight into overnight market activity as firms prepare for a more continuous trading environment.
Join the Discussion
Exegy is continuing the conversation on July 22 at 10:00 a.m. ET with an executive roundtable on 24/5 trading, featuring leaders from Blue Ocean, Bruce, and BMLL and moderated by Exegy CTO Arnaud Derasse.
Register here to explore how firms are preparing for extended trading hours, evolving overnight liquidity, and the infrastructure demands of more continuous markets.
