The New York Stock Exchange is open from the hours of 09:30 to 16:00, Monday to Friday. Likewise, the Irish stock exchange is open from 08:00 to 16:30, Monday to Friday, the same times as the London Stock Exchange.
This gives both professional and retail investors plenty of time off when they don’t have to think about the markets. You can enjoy your evenings and weekends. If there is a bank holiday, you can have the time off like most other people.
Crypto currency is the new asset class in town. It is decentralised so unlike equities and bonds, the hours you can trade it aren’t set out by a regulator. You can trade it 24/7. While trading volumes does decrease over the weekends, this can actually have a big impact on the value of crypto.
With less people trading, any big selloffs can have a bigger impact on the market. Like we saw recently when Bitcoin fell by -29% and Ether fell by -37% over a 24 hour period during a weekend. Traders are unable to access institutional funds like they can at during the week, so less trades can be placed.
While crypto is getting a lot of attention these days, it is still a pretty small asset class when compared to bonds and stocks. And it is not as easy to buy crypto as people think. But it is easy to trade stocks on apps such as Robinhood and Revolut. While you can place trades after hours, the orders won’t be filled until the markets open up.
It could never be a good thing if regulators opened up trading 24/7. Even with time zones, traders in Australia and Asia would have an advantage over other regions just by the fact that they’d start work first. Then you’d get people working 7 days a week so they can always be reacting to movements in the markets. What is that going to do to someone’s health and family life? People working Christmas Day while others are eating turkey.
The dieticians tell us “everything in moderation”. I think the same can be applied to trading…and that means 08:00 to 16:30, Monday to Friday.
Steven Barrett
13 December 2021