(Bloomberg) -- Investors in Asia ramped up their trading of US stocks outside of normal market hours last year, according to data from a popular platform, a sign of the increasing shift to all-hours equities trading.
Volumes at after-hours trading platform Blue Ocean Technologies LLC, which generates around 80% of its revenues from Asian clients, quadrupled in 2024, the company said.
The surge of after-market trading among Asian investors in part reflects their increasing need to trade macro news, with policy announcements from Beijing a key factor in the performance of Chinese stocks listed in the US last year. President Donald Trump’s all-hours social media habit is also encouraging a move to after-hours trading, according to market participants.
“There’s a shift to the mindset of 24/5 or 24/7 in a lot of investors’ minds,” said Fabian Rijlaarsdam, chief executive officer of Asia at Flow Traders Ltd., a liquidity provider. “There seems to be an increased demand for immediacy whenever Trump tweets something, or whenever there is an Nvidia earnings release.”
There are downsides to off-peak trading. The still-tiny activity relative to trading during US market hours means the stocks and exchange-traded funds being swapped overnight are far less liquid. When trading volumes are lower, because there are fewer buyers and sellers, the spread between the bid and the ask tends to widen.
After-hours trading can resemble “the Wild West” in the absence of adequate liquidity, said Louis Navellier, founder of Navellier & Associates Inc., an asset manager and family office that manages more than $1 billion.
Global exchanges are experimenting with longer trading hours, a nod to the rising importance of investors outside the US. Nasdaq Inc. said last week it was planning to offer 24-hour equities trading, following a similar move by Cboe Global Markets Inc. The New York Stock Exchange has asked for regulatory approval to extend trading to 22 hours.
The popularity of after-hours trading has grown among both retail and institutional accounts in Asia. Flow Traders said its request-for-quote volumes from Asian institutional investors for US exchange-traded funds have nearly doubled since 2021. Request-for-quote trades allow investors to ask for prices from multiple market makers.
