(P1) The U.S. stock market’s push toward 24/7 trading represents a direct challenge to broker practices, with at least four major exchanges moving to dismantle a system experts claim facilitates after-hours price manipulation against retail investors.
(P2) "The biggest losers in 24/7 stock trading won’t be traders: they’ll benefit massively. It'll be the middlemen who’ve long made money when traders can’t trade,” Mati Greenspan, CEO and founder of Quantum Economics, told CoinDesk.
(P3) The move for round-the-clock trading involves the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, CME, and Cboe, all of which have announced plans or are seeking approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The effort follows a 2026 FINRA report citing firms for failing to properly supervise after-hours trading activity for potential manipulation.
(P4) At stake is the "plausible deniability" brokers have allegedly used to hunt stop-losses in illiquid sessions. A shift to continuous trading would transfer power from these intermediaries to investors, who could react to market-moving news instantly rather than being exposed to potentially manipulated opening prices.
The core issue lies in the structural vulnerabilities of trading outside the standard 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET session. With lower volume and fewer participants, liquidity dries up, leading to wider bid-ask spreads. "After the 4 p.m. closing bell, you simply don’t have the same liquidity," said Joe Dente, a floor broker at the NYSE, noting this environment can exaggerate price moves.
This thin liquidity creates opportunities for what Greenspan called "outright manipulation," where a few firms can influence the opening price to trigger client stop-losses at a loss for the trader but a profit for the broker. Academic research supports these concerns. A joint study from UC Berkeley and the University of Rochester found that price discovery after hours is "much less efficient," while an SSRN study detailed how brokers can use large, quickly canceled orders in pre-open auctions to create distorted opening prices.
Regulatory bodies have taken notice. In late 2025, the SEC settled charges over a spoofing scheme in thinly traded securities. More directly, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) highlighted in its 2026 Annual Regulatory Oversight Report that firms were failing to supervise against "potentially manipulative activity conducted in after-hours trading."
Proponents argue that a 24/7 market is a significant victory for retail investors, who are currently sidelined when major news breaks after the closing bell. In today's high-speed markets, algorithms have a structural advantage that is amplified when the market is closed to individuals. Continuous trading would remove this vacuum.
"Broker coordination may often show up as industry-wide alignment around routing and execution practices," said Pranav Ramesh, head of quantitative research for options at Nasdaq, in his personal capacity. He added that outside regular hours, "scrutiny can be harder because the market is thinner."
The demand for round-the-clock access to traditional assets is already visible in decentralized finance. The decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, which operates 24/7 on the blockchain, has seen weekly derivatives volume top $50 billion from traders betting on assets like oil, gold, and the S&P 500 during weekends when conventional markets are shut.
While it remains to be seen how quickly the transition will occur, the direction is clear. By moving to a 24/7 model, exchanges stand to gain from increased trading fees while empowering a new generation of investors.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
