The International Organization of Securities Commissions has published a consultation report on the evolution of market liquidity during the trading day in equity markets and a separate report on extended trading hours for equity venues. The consultation focuses on the growing concentration of trading at the close in many jurisdictions and proposes good practices for regulators and trading venues on monitoring intraday liquidity shifts, operational resilience, market manipulation and volatility controls. The report on extended trading hours finds that trading outside core hours remains uneven across jurisdictions, is typically venue-led rather than regulator-mandated, and is still mainly retail-driven with lower liquidity, wider bid-ask spreads and different execution conditions than regular sessions. IOSCO’s stocktake on intraday liquidity found that the share of daily value traded in closing auctions ranged from 6.5% to more than 45% in 2025 and generally increased between 2020 and 2025, with some jurisdictions also seeing rising use of mechanisms that guarantee execution at the closing price outside the closing auction. The proposed good practices include continued monitoring of end-of-day auctions and post-close sessions, stress testing and cyber resilience for periods of concentrated liquidity, surveillance calibrated to intraday liquidity metrics such as volume, spreads and order book depth, closer attention to cross-asset manipulation risks around closing auctions and derivatives expiry, and volatility control mechanisms that reflect different liquidity conditions during the day. On extended trading hours, IOSCO found that regulators have mostly assessed whether existing frameworks for market integrity, disclosure, surveillance, operational resilience and post-trade processing are sufficient, while venues have focused on risk controls, staffing, operational capacity and the implications of shorter settlement cycles including T+1. Comments on the consultation report are due by 21 August 2026. IOSCO said the feedback will inform potential future work in this area, and the extended trading hours report notes that further work is not ruled out on related areas affected by the practice, including asset management, valuations, risk management and derivatives.
IOSCO2026-05-21
International Organization of Securities Commissions launches consultation on intraday equity liquidity risks and publishes report on extended trading hours
The International Organization of Securities Commissions has issued a consultation on intraday equity market liquidity and a report on extended trading hours. IOSCO proposes good practices for regulators and venues on monitoring liquidity shifts to the close, strengthening operational resilience and surveillance, and calibrating volatility controls. It finds extended hours trading remains uneven, venue-led and typically retail-driven, with lower liquidity and wider spreads than core sessions. Feedback will inform IOSCO’s potential future work, including on asset management, valuations, risk management and derivatives.