If the closing bell has long been a business model, then 24/7 trading is an attempt to break it. As the NYSE, Nasdaq, CME and Cboe rush to introduce 24-hour trading, the question is who will win and who might lose.
The answer is quite simple, Mati Greenspan, CEO and founder of Quantum Economics, told CoinDesk: “The biggest losers in 24/7 stock trading will not be the traders: they will benefit greatly. They will be the middlemen who have long made money when traders cannot trade.”
Greenspan, also a market analyst, alleged that when markets reopen after what he called a major event, “a handful of firms decide the first tradable price. Often, they explicitly use a price that triggers losses for their clients, closing them out at a loss and making a profit for the broker who is essentially trading against the client.”
When Greenspan was asked if brokers coordinate prices during market closures, he was blunt in his statement: “Yes, absolute manipulation.”
“They basically control prices, often with hours to strategize,” he said. “The hunt often stops losses. When big news happens on the weekends, the house tends to take liberties with prices at the opening bell.”
His comments come as several major US exchanges look to offer 24-hour trading services. The New York Stock Exchange said it is seeking approval from the SEC to operate 24/7. Nasdaq announced similar plans in December. CME plans to launch 24-hour crypto futures in 2026, pending approval, and Cboe recently expanded US index options to 24/5 trading.
‘Plausible deniability’
While Greenspan’s comments could be considered accusatory, it is not difficult to see why such practices could be prominent in the night market. When regular trading hours come to an end at 4 pm ET, low liquidity can make it easier to influence prices.
“After the 4 p.m. closing bell, you just don’t have the same liquidity,” said Joe Dente, a trader at the New York Stock Exchange. “People have gone home and there is no liquidity, so we will see higher spreads.”
Wider spreads and tighter order books, he said, create an environment where price movements can be exaggerated compared to the regular session.
Academic research also supports the view that long trading sessions are structurally different from core market hours. A widely cited joint study from UC Berkeley and the University of Rochester found that after-hours price discovery is “much less efficient,” citing lower volume and tighter liquidity that limit the speed at which information is incorporated into prices.
When asked if manipulation already occurs during those periods, Dente said it is “possible,” but also noted that “the 24-hour trading event will leave things open to manipulation,” referring to conditions already seen in after-hours markets.
Greenspan, for his part, noted that these alleged manipulative practices “are not exactly sincere, so [brokers who might be taking part in such actions] They tend to maintain plausible deniability.”
This is where the line between actual manipulation and proof that such practices occur begins to blur.
A widely cited SSRN study on opening price manipulation shows how brokers can influence prices during the pre-open auction by submitting and canceling large orders, temporarily moving stocks away from their fundamental value before broader liquidity returns.
The investigation found that such manipulation can create distorted opening prices that are then corrected once the entire market begins trading, leaving investors who bought at an inflated price with losses. Because these distortions occur before normal trading volume returns, the resulting price movements may appear indistinguishable from ordinary market volatility.
Yet another trader, familiar with overnight trading practices and who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said poor overnight liquidity can sometimes make it easier for coordinated strategies to influence the prices of less traded stocks.
And this is not just anecdotal evidence.
In late 2025, the SEC settled charges over a multi-year spoofing scheme involving deceptive orders used to move the prices of thinly traded securities. Regulators also fined Velox Clearing $1.3 million for failing to detect “layering” and “spoofing” in volatile stocks.
Meanwhile, the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), in its 2026 Annual Regulatory Oversight Report, cited the firms for “failing to maintain reasonably designed supervisory systems and controls, including with respect to the identification and reporting of potentially manipulative activities conducted in after-hours trading.”
A victory for retail?
If it’s hard to point out how widespread these accusations are, one thing is certain: if trading runs 24/7, traders will be the ultimate winners, particularly retailers.
In today’s electronic markets, traders who respond faster to market news have a structural advantage.
“There is always an advantage to whoever has the fastest computers and the best program writers,” Dente said, noting that algorithms can react to news and orders “in a nanosecond.” For individual investors, he added, maintaining that pace is difficult. “How can the human person keep up with that?”
And reacting to these events becomes even more difficult for smaller investors when the market is closed, leaving retail or smaller traders at a huge disadvantage.
Pranav Ramesh, head of quantitative options research at Nasdaq and co-founder of Leadpoet, said thin markets can amplify those risks.
“Broker coordination can often appear as industry-wide alignment around routing and fulfillment practices, especially when a large portion of the retail flow ends up with a small number of wholesalers,” he said. “After hours, scrutiny can be more difficult because the market is smaller and there are fewer easy benchmarks for investors to compare the quality of execution,” Ramesh said in his personal capacity.
Sources familiar with brokers’ liquidity and routing practices told CoinDesk that the pricing power in thin sessions is real, particularly when major news is released while markets are closed. According to those sources, coordination around routing, spreads and execution practices during prolonged gaps has historically been easier precisely because retail traders cannot participate.
This is precisely what 24/7 trading will solve for traders, according to Greenspan, who said 24/7 markets would reduce the advantage of fintech companies by completely eliminating the weekend gap.
The recent Middle East conflict has been a perfect example of how this can open up more business opportunities when markets remain closed. Decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, which operates on the blockchain 24/7, has seen increasing interest from traders betting on traditional financial assets, including oil and gold, over the weekend, when traditional exchanges are closed.
It has become so popular that the weekly derivatives trading volume on the platform exceeded $50 billion, while it generated $1.6 million in revenue over 24 hours, surpassing the revenue of the entire Bitcoin blockchain. The platform also recently added an S&P 500 perpetual contract.
Needless to say, major exchanges will likely also benefit from trading fees if they open for 24/7 trading.
It remains to be seen whether round-the-clock trading ultimately weakens brokers’ influence on pricing. What is clear is that stock markets and investors will benefit from markets that never close.
“Traders can react in real time without being at the mercy of middlemen,” Greenspan said.
Read more: Bitcoin’s weekend sell-off may have ended CME’s 24/7 cryptocurrency trading movement
