The push towards near-continuous trading in US equities is moving beyond the question of whether execution venues can remain open overnight. Increasingly, attention is turning to whether the market infrastructure surrounding those venues, from clearing and market data to routing, risk management and operations, can support the same extended trading window.
That shift is reflected in ABN AMRO Clearing USA’s expansion of its 24×5 US equities offering to support client access to Bruce Markets, operator of the overnight trading venue Bruce ATS. The integration gives ABN AMRO Clearing clients an established clearing route for trading on Bruce, which operates from 8pm to 4am Eastern Time.For Bruce Markets CEO Jason Wallach, the significance goes beyond adding another connectivity option.
“Participation is not just a question of establishing a connection to an ATS,” he tells TradingTech Insight. “Firms need confidence that trades can move through the entire lifecycle with the operational strength, reliability and risk management they expect from the regular trading day.”
The development comes as the broader US equities market moves rapidly towards longer trading hours. In June, DTCC’s National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) extended its clearing operations to 24×5, running continuously from Sunday at 8pm ET until Friday at 8pm ET. Crucially, the change means NSCC can apply its central counterparty guarantee immediately to transactions executed during extended hours, addressing one of the significant post-trade limitations of overnight trading.
At the execution layer, the major US exchanges are moving in the same direction. Cboe has SEC approval to introduce 23×5 trading on EDGX, with a planned December 2026 launch subject to industry readiness. Nasdaq has SEC approval for a new 9pm-to-4am ET Global Trading Hours session, creating a 23-hour trading day, and is targeting the same December 2026 launch, while NYSE Arca is likewise targeting extended-hours trading from December 2026, the three converging on an industry-wide go-live of 6 December, subject to SIP and DTCC readiness.
Building Out the Ecosystem
Clearing represents an important part of the infrastructure required to support this transition, but it is only one component.
“The biggest remaining gaps revolve around consistency across the ecosystem,” says Wallach. “Market data, multi-venue connectivity, smart routing and institutional operating models are all improving, but they are not yet as mature or ubiquitous as they are during the regular session. The goal should be to bring the same level of resilience and execution discipline investors expect during the day into the overnight market.”
That becomes increasingly important as overnight liquidity spreads across more venues. During the regular US trading session, fragmentation is managed through consolidated market data, smart order routing and established execution-quality processes. According to Wallach, comparable capabilities now need to develop for overnight trading so that firms can see available prices and liquidity across venues rather than treating each venue as an isolated pool.
Aggregated overnight data products and more sophisticated routing are already emerging, he says, while broader participation from liquidity providers, brokers and institutions should help deepen liquidity and improve price discovery.
The result is that 24×5 needs to be viewed less as a capability offered by an individual exchange or ATS and more as an industry-wide infrastructure challenge.
“24×5 should not be viewed as something one venue can provide on its own,” says Wallach. “The U.S. equity market already operates across exchanges, ATSs, market-data providers, brokers, clearing firms and routing technology, and extended-hours trading is no different.”
The Missing Hour
One important question is whether the eventual market will actually operate 24 hours a day.
Much of the exchange industry is converging around 23×5 rather than true 24×5 trading. Cboe’s planned EDGX schedule, for example, runs from 9pm to 8pm ET, with a one-hour operational pause between 8pm and 9pm. NYSE Arca is adopting the same basic model, with NYSE saying the break is required for trade clearance, system maintenance, securities processing and transition to the next trade date.
Bruce ATS, by contrast, begins its overnight session at 8pm. Wallach argues that the distinction matters because the missing hour coincides with the beginning of the trading day for Asian investors seeking to react to US earnings, geopolitical events and other market-moving developments. Bruce’s own trading data, he says, indicates that the first hour is frequently one of the most active periods of its overnight session.
The difference highlights a broader tension in the transition towards continuous markets. Investors may want uninterrupted access, but much of the technology and operational infrastructure supporting equities trading has historically depended upon periods when markets are closed. For trading firms, that could ultimately prove to be the bigger technology challenge.
Rethinking the Daily Close
Moving from a conventional trading day to effectively continuous markets affects processes well beyond execution. Systems may currently rely on downtime for software maintenance, overnight batch processing, reconciliation and corporate actions. Risk and operational procedures are similarly designed around defined market sessions.
“You can’t necessarily take systems and processes built around a defined daily market close and extend them to the overnight market,” says Wallach. “Firms need to look at where they currently rely on downtime for maintenance, batch processing, reconciliation, corporate actions and other operational functions, and determine how those processes work in a continuous environment.”
The challenge extends to people as well as systems. Wallach argues that sustainable 24×5 trading cannot simply involve stretching existing trading, operations and risk teams across a longer working day. Firms will need staffing, supervision and escalation procedures capable of operating across time zones alongside technology designed for greater continuous availability.
The transition is unlikely to happen in one step. Exchange trading hours, consolidated market data, clearing, routing and firms’ internal systems are evolving on different timetables. But the direction of travel is increasingly clear.
As overnight US equity trading develops from a collection of extended-hours venues into a more mature institutional market, a key question is whether the infrastructure supporting them can operate with the resilience, connectivity and controls that participants expect during the traditional trading day. The ABN AMRO Clearing integration with Bruce ATS is one part of that wider build-out.
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