E-Paper
Why are Swedish traders asking Nasdaq to trim trading hours?
The Stockholm exchange has the longest trading session, i.e it opens at 9 am and closes at 5:30 pm.
Several Swedish traders have been calling the US stock market Nasdaq, asking it to trim trading hours due to a reason which might people would agree with- work-life balance.
The Stockholm exchange has the longest trading session, i.e it opens at 9 am and closes at 5:30 pm. The Nasqaq in US opens for pre-trading session from 4 am Eastern Time (ET) to 9:30 am (ET). The trading time is from 9:30 am to 4 pm (ET). The after-trading session is from 4 pm to 8 pm (ET).
“I’ve never heard such a cohesive majority being positive about the idea of shorter hours than for the past year,” Elisabeth Beskow, the Swedish head of Norwegian lender DNB Bank ASA, told Bloomberg.
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Beskow added that it becomes ‘impossible’ to have a reasonable family life and a job in equities. Finance professionals said the mothers working in equities are the worst-hit due to the long trading hours.
Per Flostrand, head of equity sales at Nordic investment bank ABG Sundal Collier, said that focusing on only the exchange active hours actually misses the work traders need to do before the opening bell and after the last trade.
At ABG Sundal Collier’s trading desk, a normal working day starts at 7:25 a.m. and ends at 5:40 p.m. — a less-than-appealing deal for both current staff and future potential hires, Flostrand added.
How stock exchanges across the world function?
In India, the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange open for pre-trading from 9-9:15 am. The markets open for trading at 9:15 am and close at 3:30 pm.
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq are the two major stock exchanges in the United States. The NYSE opens for pre-trading session from 4 am Eastern Time (ET) to 9:30 am (ET). The trading time is from 9:30 am to 4 pm (ET). The after-trading session is from 4 pm to 8 pm (ET). Nasdaq has the identical trade timing.
The Euronext exchange is the largest in Europe and has locations in Lisbon, Paris and Amsterdam. The trading hours are 8 am to 4:30 pm (GMT).
