The World Federation of Exchanges has published research assessing how extending exchange trading hours could affect market functioning, concluding that the benefits of longer or round-the-clock trading depend on coordinated changes across trading, clearing, settlement and regulatory arrangements. The paper argues that without parallel adjustments to the broader financial ecosystem, extended hours could create operational frictions and settlement mismatches, particularly around weekends and holidays. The research maps trading hours across 60 securities exchanges and notes significant regional variation and evolving session design. It also reviews exchange-led proposals in the United States, including extended-hours models put forward by NYSE Arca, Nasdaq and Cboe Global Markets, and identifies key post-trade pinch points where central securities depositories, central counterparties and real-time gross settlement systems operate on asynchronous windows. Case studies on foreign exchange and Continuous Linked Settlement are used to illustrate temporal misalignments, while cryptocurrency markets are cited as evidence that 24/7 trading is feasible but can coincide with lower liquidity, higher volatility and greater market-manipulation risk during off-peak periods. The paper notes that US initiatives are being supported by industry work with SIFMA and regulators to align extended trading hours with required post-trade process changes, and that any move to 24/7 trading in a jurisdiction would require more substantial transformation across the post-trade ecosystem.

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