On Friday evening Beijing time, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced plans to extend the trading hours of its fully electronic exchange, NYSE Arca, to 22 hours per weekday, pending regulatory approval.

The NYSE explained that the extended trading hours will start at 1:30 a.m. Eastern Time each day and continue until 11:30 p.m. All stocks, ETFs, and closed-end funds listed in the United States will be subject to this "22-hour" trading system.

For Chinese investors, this change means that future NYSE stock trading (during daylight saving time) will close at 11:30 a.m. alongside A-shares, and then reopen at 1:30 p.m.

It is understood that the extended trading hours still fall under the commonly referred to pre-market and after-market trading. Trading outside the normal trading session (9:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.) requires regulatory approval. The NYSE stated that the clearing for the extended trading hours will continue to be conducted by DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation), which has also recently announced an extension of its operating hours.

NYSE Market Head Kevin Terrill said that the decision to extend trading hours highlights the growing global demand for U.S. stocks. The NYSE is pleased to provide U.S. stock trading services to traders in all time zones around the world, continuing to lead market development.

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Perhaps influenced by the "cryptocurrency 7x24 trading," the demand for extended trading hours among market participants has become increasingly high after the pandemic. The advantage of this type of trading is that investors can quickly respond to events outside traditional trading hours.

In fact, a number of internet brokers, such as Robinhood Markets, Interactive Brokers, Samsung Securities, and those more familiar to domestic investors like Futu and Tiger Brokers, have already launched 24-hour U.S. stock trading on weekdays by cooperating with third-party system service providers (such as Blue Ocean).

Due to natural liquidity constraints, these "night trading" sessions currently only support highly liquid targets such as Apple, Microsoft, and SPY (S&P 500 ETF). Even so, during the "Black Monday"冲击 triggered by Japan's interest rate hike in August this year, brokers offering night trading still could not escape collective downtime.

Undoubtedly, compared to Blue Ocean, which is less than a decade old, the century-old NYSE entering this race will undoubtedly greatly change the U.S. stock trading ecosystem.

In response to the global traders' call for extended trading hours, the NYSE conducted a consultation with market participants in April this year. Group President Lynn Martin said in May that if the implementation of (night trading) is to be responsible, many things need to be considered, especially in terms of infrastructure.Fun Fact: The Evolution of U.S. Stock Market Trading Hours

While it may sound like a significant event for stock exchanges to change their trading hours, in the United States, such changes are quite common.

Take the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as an example. Their continuous trading began in 1871, when the market typically opened at 10 a.m. and closed between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., depending on the situation. In 1887, market participants unanimously decided to set the trading hours from Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with an additional half-day session on Saturday mornings. The history of Saturday trading continued until it was abolished in 1952.

An interesting change occurred in 1968 due to a surge in trading volume, which was not yet accompanied by the widespread use of computers. The increased paperwork led to a backlog in processing all transactions. Starting in June of that year, the NYSE closed trading on Wednesdays, a practice that continued until it was resumed after New Year's Day in 1969.

Over the next decade or so, with the advancement of computer technology, both the NYSE and the NASDAQ gradually standardized their trading hours to 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., which remains the normal trading session today.

Against the backdrop of competition among exchanges, the NYSE introduced after-hours trading in 1991. Initially, it was only for one hour, but it was later extended to four hours (from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.). Subsequently, pre-market trading was gradually opened, and it has now expanded to start at 4 a.m.