Nasdaq Trades 23 Hours a Day: Whose Business Is It Taking?

The most active instruments during Asian hours are not tech stocks, but U.S. market ETFs

On December 6, 2026, Nasdaq plans to launch stock trading for 23 hours a day, five days a week. The SEC has approved Nasdaq’s rule changes for 23/5 trading, but the official launch still depends on the readiness of market data infrastructure such as the Securities Information Processor (SIP) and the implementation of supporting rules.

The new overnight session runs from 9:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. the next day, Eastern Time. During December’s standard time, this corresponds to 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Beijing time. Asian investors can trade U.S. stocks directly during their daytime.

This reform appears to be merely an extension of trading hours. Behind it lies a battle for orders. Nasdaq aims to recapture trading volume from overnight platforms, brokers’ internal trading systems, and other exchanges. It also intends to ensure that global investors use the U.S. market first to execute trades after major events occur in any time zone.

In the short term, Nasdaq is competing for orders from ATS overnight platforms, brokers’ internal execution systems, and other exchanges. In the medium term, it is vying for nighttime price discovery for ETFs and large-cap tech stocks. In the long term, it seeks to become the gateway for global asset pricing during the Asian daytime.

Nasdaq’s extension of trading hours is not designed to keep American investors up late trading stocks. It aims to turn the Asian daytime into U.S. stock trading hours.

Asian Daytime Becomes U.S. Overnight Session

The core trading hours for U.S. stocks are only six and a half hours. Pre-market and after-hours trading have long existed. Nasdaq’s new arrangement fills the gap from 9:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. the next day, Eastern Time, leaving only one hour daily for maintenance.

Note: Distribution of Nasdaq’s 23-hour trading across days in Beijing time

This newly added time slot 恰好 covers the daytime of major Asian markets. Investors in China, Japan, and South Korea no longer need to wait until late at night. Following Federal Reserve policy announcements, geopolitical conflicts, or corporate news, Asian capital no longer needs to wait for the New York open.

What Are Investors Buying During Asian Hours?

Nasdaq released a set of data on U.S. overnight trading. The statistical period was January to June 2025. These transactions mainly occurred during Asian hours. The data cannot identify investors’ nationalities, nor can all transactions be attributed to Asian capital. It is more suitable for observing trading preferences and instrument choices during Asian hours.

There are approximately 11,300 ticker symbols in the U.S. market. Only 1,403 saw transactions during overnight hours. Only 644 had daily trading volumes exceeding $10,000. The top 15 instruments accounted for about 53% of total overnight trading volume, which Nasdaq summarized as nearly 55%. Among these, 12 were ETFs, and only three were individual stocks. This indicates that the overnight session is not a migration of liquidity across the entire market, but rather concentrated trading in a few macro-risk tools and mega-cap assets.

SPY, IVV, and VOO are all S&P 500 ETFs, collectively accounting for 25.6% of overnight trading. QQQ accounted for 4.5%. TQQQ (3x Long QQQ) and SQQQ (3x Short QQQ) together accounted for 2.9%.

The three most active individual stocks were Tesla, NVIDIA, and Alibaba, collectively accounting for 12.7%. Other active instruments included gold, Indian stocks, international stocks, and corporate bond ETFs.

Note: Data is from January–June 2026

Investors during Asian hours trade the U.S. market first, and U.S. companies second. The protagonist of the overnight session is not company research, but risk management.

Nasdaq Is First Competing for Orders

SPY, IVV, VOO, and Alibaba are not listed on Nasdaq. They can still be traded on Nasdaq. This fact illustrates that 23-hour trading is primarily not about competing for listed companies, but for trading orders.

After U.S. exchanges close, orders do not disappear. They flow to overnight platforms like Blue Ocean, brokers’ internal systems, and other trading venues. The New York Stock Exchange and Cboe are also pushing for longer trading hours. The London Stock Exchange is preparing to build a new extended-hours trading platform, starting with ETFs. Supporters argue that bringing these orders back to regulated exchanges can improve transaction transparency, quote visibility, and market surveillance capabilities.

Exchange revenue comes not only from fees. Orders generate market data revenue, attract market makers, and form reference prices. Whoever captures orders first incorporates information into prices earlier.

Longer trading hours will also enhance the attractiveness of the U.S. market to overseas companies. However, this effect ranks after order competition. When choosing a listing venue, companies still compare valuations, liquidity, investor structure, and regulatory costs.

Nasdaq competes for orders first, then for pricing. Only after mastering pricing can it attract more companies.

Who Pays for 23-Hour Trading?

Exchanges are extending more than just their matching systems. The entire financial infrastructure must operate for longer hours.

Exchanges need to continuously provide market data and monitor trading. Brokers need to arrange customer service, compliance, and risk control. Market makers must extend their quoting hours, tying up more capital. Clearing houses, banks, data vendors, and technology providers must also work in sync. System maintenance time is compressed, leading to increased cybersecurity risks.

Existing pre-market and after-hours trading already bear part of the cost. The new overnight session will still increase personnel, system, capital, and compliance expenditures. The issue is that overnight trading for most stocks is very thin. Numerous institutions must maintain a full suite of services for a few ETFs and large-cap tech stocks.

Costs will ultimately be passed on to investors. This may not necessarily appear as a specific overnight commission. Bid-ask spreads may widen. Financing costs may rise. Brokers may restrict market orders and tradable instruments. Market makers will also factor in capital usage and hedging risks into their quotes.

Exchanges extend time; investors bear the spread. Trading hours are not a free public service; they are a financial product whose costs must be paid by trading volume.

Faster Price Formation Does Not Mean More Accurate Prices

23-hour trading improves market reaction speed. It does not automatically create liquidity.

With fewer overnight participants, market depth is insufficient. Trading hours for stocks, futures, and options are not fully synchronized. After market makers sell stocks, they may not be able to immediately hedge using other instruments. Quotes will be more conservative, and spreads wider.

After major news breaks, the overnight session will quickly form a price. This price may reflect new information, or it may simply be the result of a small number of orders. When the main trading session opens, more institutions enter, and overnight prices often need to be re-evaluated.

Investors gain the freedom to trade at any time, but also the freedom to make mistakes at any time. The overnight session is more suitable for mitigating sudden risks than for chasing short-term price movements. Limit orders are more important than market orders. Waiting for liquidity to recover is sometimes cheaper than acting immediately.

23-hour trading solves the problem of “whether you can sell,” but not “at what price you should sell.”

The U.S. Exports Not Just Capital, But Prices

The dominance of ETFs in overnight trading reveals a deeper change. Global investors can trade U.S. stocks in the U.S. market, as well as gold, Indian stocks, global bonds, and market risks from other countries. These assets may not belong to the U.S., but trading and pricing are increasingly concentrated there. After major events, global capital first adjusts positions through U.S. ETFs. Before local markets open, the U.S. market has already formed a reference price.

This leaves a question for Asian markets. If Indian stocks are traded via U.S. ETFs, who determines the international price of Indian assets? Chinese tech stocks trade simultaneously in Hong Kong and the U.S.; which market reflects global expectations earlier? When Asian markets open, do they price independently, or do they correct the answer already given by the U.S. market?

The U.S. exports not just capital, but prices.

Does the HKEX Need to Copy Nasdaq?

The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) has already studied extending trading hours. The cash market has discussed opening at 9:00 a.m. and eliminating the lunch break. The current focus remains on extending overnight trading for derivatives. In the short term, Hong Kong stocks are better suited for limited extensions and pilot programs for specific instruments, rather than directly replicating 23-hour cash trading.

The Stock Connect program is the biggest constraint. Southbound capital accounts for a significant proportion of Hong Kong stock trading. If the HKEX opens an overnight session independently, mainland capital cannot participate synchronously. Trading volume could be split into two markets. Financial institutions’ operating costs would certainly increase, with no guarantee of new orders. A more realistic path is to first generate incremental growth around derivatives overnight trading, ETFs, a few large dual-listed stocks, and facilitation of RMB trading and settlement.

Hong Kong’s true advantage is not its business hours. Hong Kong hosts a group of Chinese internet, consumer, pharmaceutical, and artificial intelligence companies that global investors cannot access directly in other markets. The HKEX’s more important task is to increase the supply of high-quality assets, expand mutual market access, and improve RMB trading and settlement.

Nasdaq brings global orders to the U.S. market. The HKEX brings Chinese assets to global investors. The two compete for pricing power, but their paths are different.

Conclusion: It’s Not About Who Keeps the Doors Open Longer

23-hour trading 表面上 appears to be a change in trading rules. Behind it lies a competition among trading platforms, financial intermediaries, and major capital markets for global orders.

Trading hours are merely an amplifier. With global demand, extending hours can increase trading volume and expand pricing power. Without sufficient demand, extending hours only increases costs and disperses liquidity.

Without assets worthy of continuous trading by global investors, extending business hours only prolongs thin trading. What exchanges are truly competing for is not who keeps the doors open longer, but who defines the next global price.

Source: Chen Li lichen

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