London Stock Exchange has announced plans for LSE 24, a 24/5 trading venue designed for digital, algorithmic and agentic trading, with client testing due by the end of 2026 and Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) as the first asset class in H1 2027, subject to regulatory approval.
The venue will run near-continuously from Monday to Friday – operating from 17:00 to 07:50 with a 30-minute pause between 18:30 and 19:00 for end-of-day processing – while the exchange’s Main Market continues trading between 08:00 and 16:30. LSE 24 will sit separately from the Main Market, which the exchange says preserves the resilience and integrity of regular hours while opening participation outside the traditional UK trading day.The timing places London inside a shift already well underway on the other side of the Atlantic. NYSE Arca received SEC approval in February 2025 to extend its session to 22 hours a day, five days a week, and Nasdaq secured approval for a 23/5 schedule in April 2026, with both targeting launches in late 2026 subject to infrastructure readiness at the Securities Information Processors and DTCC. What has driven the US moves – international demand to react to market events outside local hours, and the growth of always-on digital platforms – applies to London too, and the exchange frames LSE 24 in similar terms of cross-time-zone access and flexibility.
“The launch of LSE 24 marks an important step in the evolution of our markets, providing clients with greater flexibility beyond traditional trading hours and supporting more digital, connected global markets,” says Julia Hoggett, CEO of LSE plc and Head of Digital and Securities Markets, LSEG. “By integrating with LSEG’s digital markets infrastructure, LSE 24 will help support deeper liquidity, greater efficiency and broader participation in our markets, reinforcing London’s position as a leading global financial centre.”
Whereas the US filings have been framed largely around extending hours for existing participants, LSEG is targeting agent-based trading as part of its round-the-clock access and machine-driven execution proposition. The exchange promises secure native connectivity that lets clients interact with market data, order management and execution workflows in more automated ways while retaining the governance and controls of a regulated market.LSE 24 will draw on elements of central limit order book and request-for-quote functionality, combining continuous price formation with on-demand liquidity, a mix that suits an order book likely to be thin during overnight hours. Off-hours sessions can be sparsely traded, and some market participants have warned that continuous trading risks price moves on low volume outside the deep liquidity of the main session. The Main Market’s separation from LSE 24 is one answer to that concern, ring-fencing core hours.
The venue also connects to LSEG’s broader digital-markets build-out. Subject to regulatory approval, LSE 24 will leverage the group’s Digital Securities Depository (DSD), itself under construction, which LSEG describes as the foundation for digitised issuance, settlement and asset servicing, with plans to expand across asset classes. The dependency ties LSE 24’s reach to the DSD’s progress and to interoperation with other market participants, both of which the exchange presents as work in train rather than settled infrastructure.
By pairing round-the-clock access with agentic connectivity and tying the venue to the DSD, LSEG is positioning LSE 24 as infrastructure for a more automated, digitally settled and globally connected trading day. The client-testing milestone at the end of 2026 will be the first signal on how that ambition lands with participants, and on whether London can convert an established ETP franchise and three centuries of market infrastructure into a lead in the next phase of continuous trading.
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