If the nyse or nasdaq succeed in buying the LSE that is the proposed schedule. Can you handle it? Would you be able to handle it? Alot of futures traders do it all the time, with longer hours. But would that mean sacrificing a personal life. Girlfriends and life out of trading? How about brokerages, would they have to hire more brokers, and thus raises costs. There are million implications about a transatlatic stock market. And would there be dead periods, where people will manipulate stock prices, b/c of lack buyers or sellers, just b/c of the hour of the day. Aka northamerican traders go home. http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid={466481A8-0F30-4E3B-A4CF-2B75FBA648A5}&siteId=mktw WEEKEND EDITION Burning the midnight trade station How an LSE buyout could bring continuous trading E-mail | Print | | Disable live quotes By David Weidner, MarketWatch Last Update: 5:38 PM ET Mar 17, 2006 NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Imagine a trading day in which market openings and closings are a formality and trading volume moves around the globe with the sun. In this scenario a profit warning by a major multi-national corporation has sent its shares tumbling in Hong Kong. Fearing their shares will bottom out before Wall Street awakens, bankers in London begin to place orders at 8 a.m. British time. Meanwhile, the early morning shift of brokers in New York have trudged in at 3 a.m. to find the stock in a freefall. They phone bleary-eyed managers at Fidelity Investments at home, waking them with the news. On the West Coast, the graveyard shift at Merrill Lynch begins to sell. Buyers are found in Paris, a seller in Frankfurt. That vision could be a step closer to reality should a U.S. exchange win the battle to buy the London Stock Exchange (UK:LSE: news, chart, profile) . The NYSE Group Inc. (NYX : NYX News , chart, profile, more Last: Add to portfolio Analyst Create alertInsider Discuss Financials Sponsored by: NYX, , ) and Nasdaq Stock Market are either bidding or considering bids for the LSE. Europe's next-biggest exchanges, the Frankfurt -based Deutsche Bourse and Paris-based Euronext are also considering merging as global competition heats up and trading increases. The possibility of a continuous New York-London stock market creates a staggering array of opportunities -- and challenges. Under their current trading schedules, the market would open at 8 a.m. London time (3 a.m. in New York) and close at 4 p.m. in New York. That's a 13-hour trading day. But it would probably just be the beginning. The coming wave of mergers signals that the progressive evolution to the 24-hour trading day is well underway. Big brokerages such as Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER : MER News , chart, profile, more Last: Add to portfolio Analyst Create alertInsider Discuss Financials Sponsored by: MER, , ) and Morgan Stanley (MS : MS News , chart, profile, more Last: Add to portfolio Analyst Create alertInsider Discuss Financials Sponsored by: MS, , ) have been moving their order books from Europe to North America to Asia for years, following the open, liquid markets around the globe. Now, that availability would extend to retail investors. "If the NYSE can merge electronic trading with floor-based trading than we can merge anything with anything," said Michael Goldstein, a former visiting economist at the NYSE and Nasdaq advisory board member. But though most agree it can be done, some question whether there is an incentive to create a global market. "The cost of trading U.S. stocks outside of U.S. hours is too high because the liquidity is not there," said Ben Steil, a senior fellow and director of international economics. Yet some say a move to a perpetually open market may come sooner than you think. Just 10 years ago, online-trading platforms were in their infancy. In the few years that have followed, came wide acceptance, intense competition and a wave of consolidation. Bar car to Greenwich By creating a global marketplace, U.S. buyers in theory could trade with investors in Germany, China or anywhere and have that trade executed in the market that's open, be it the NYSE, LSE or Tokyo Stock Exchange. The major impediment to a global, 24-hour market is demand. Doug Atkin, chief executive of Majestic Research and former head of Instinet, said that the technology already exists to create a 24-hour marketplace. Retail brokers such as TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (AMTD : AMTD News , chart, profile, more Last: Add to portfolio Analyst Create alertInsider Discuss Financials Sponsored by: AMTD, , ) and Charles Schwab & Co. (SCHW : SCHW News , chart, profile, more Last: Add to portfolio Analyst Create alertInsider Discuss Financials Sponsored by: SCHW, , ) could provide access to global exchanges, if not for all issues, then at least for the top 40 or 50 publicly traded global corporations. "They could do it tomorrow," Atkin said. "That's easy to put in if you want to. The reason they don't is they don't feel there's enough demand." For U.S. stocks extended after-hours trading is available today, but volume can be thin. After-hours trading represented less than 2% of the volume seen during the regular session at major markets, according to Dow Jones Newswires. "If the NYSE bought the LSE they could merge their Archipelago platform with the electronic mechanism at the LSE," Goldstein said. "There would still be an opening in New York because there's evidence that trading interest begins when the market opens." The NYSE is considering expanding its trading hours by opening as much as an hour earlier. But that move is only aimed at capturing trading volume in U.S. stocks and foreign companies listed on the NYSE. As for staying open later, Atkin recalled the old joke about why the NYSE closes at 4 p.m. - because the last train with a bar car to Greenwich, Ct., leaves at 4:45 p.m
13-hours?? That's nothin'! I've traded the forex for 18,000-hours straight (it's open 24-hours a day) apart from sleep that was about 80% less than what is normal. x
Ah, and what a better life it would be(for ETers) if the quality of your posts kept up with the quantity.
I crave that......I live for that, I have been awake all nite on positions of just 250K ...because I love it.....so bring it on.........I have traded forex most of my life and that is the way forex is....always open, phone next to you and the "clicker" a.k.a. the FX Alert pager...........DISCLAIMER: I am getting older and lazier!!!