Nasdaq Inc., one of the big stock market names, is about to shake things up. They’re planning to let people trade stocks 24 hours a day, five days a week, starting in late 2026, if regulators say yes. Because folks all over the world can’t get enough of U.S. stocks, and they’re tired of waiting for the market to open.
Why Nasdaq Is Doing This
More and more everyday investors, not just Wall Street pros are trading stocks. They live in different time zones and want to buy or sell whenever they feel like it. Nasdaq’s boss, Tal Cohen, says this could let more people join in, which sounds cool. But there’s a catch: trading at odd hours might get wild with prices jumping around, and it could cost more when fewer people are trading.
Other exchanges are jumping on this too. Cboe Global Markets is also going 24/5, and the New York Stock Exchange wants 22-hour days. To pull this off, Nasdaq has to tweak its tech—like the system that shows the best prices, so everything runs smoothly day and night.
Crypto Started This Craze
This idea didn’t just come out of nowhere. Crypto, like Bitcoin, trades all day, every day. Recently, on March 2, President Donald Trump dropped a bombshell as he announced a plan for a U.S. Crypto Reserve . People went nuts online, especially since it was a Sunday and stock markets were closed. Crypto traders could react right away, but stock folks had to wait.
Eric Trump loved it. He said his dad was smart to announce it when Wall Street was snoozing. “Retail investors win,” he bragged . “Traditional finance better catch up, or it will quickly become extinct. The world no longer runs on a Mon-Friday, 9 to 5.” He’s got a point—crypto never stops, and it’s pushing regular markets to keep up.
Nasdaq’s chasing a world where markets never sleep, and crypto’s showing the way. People want in on the action all the time, not just when Wall Street says so. It’s a wild shift, blending old money rules with new digital vibes. Will it work? We’ll see—but trading’s about to get a lot less boring.
