The After-Hours Grift Is Over: 24/7 Trading Threatens to Make Brokers Actually Compete

The closing bell has long been a lucrative business model. For decades, Wall Street's version of "we're closed" has been less a signal of rest and more a polite suggestion that retail traders should go touch grass while the real players quietly move the goalposts. Round-the-clock trading aims to change that—and Wall Street's middlemen are not thrilled about it.

As the NYSE, Nasdaq, CME and Cboe race to introduce 24/7 trading, the question of who stands to gain and lose is straightforward. Mati Greenspan, CEO and founder of Quantum Economics, put it bluntly to CoinDesk: "The biggest losers in 24/7 stock trading won't be traders: they'll benefit massively. It'll be the middlemen who've long made money when traders can't trade." In other words, the grifters are about to have their playground taken away. Poor them.

Greenspan alleged that when markets reopen after major events, a handful of firms decide the first tradable price. Often, they use prices that trigger stop losses for their clients, closing them out at a loss while the broker profits from trading against them. It's almost like having the house control the slot machines AND peek at your cards. The conflict of interest here is so obvious it's almost charming in its audacity.

When asked whether brokers coordinate around pricing during market closures, Greenspan didn't mince words: "Yes, manipulation outright." He added that brokers "basically get to control prices, often with hours to strategize" and "often hunt stop losses." Weekend news is particularly ripe for abuse: "When big news happens on weekends, the house tends to take liberties with pricing at the opening bell." Nothing says fair markets like a three-day weekend where nobody can trade while institutions apparently hold a planning session to decide how to screw the retail guys on Monday.

The timing is relevant. The NYSE is seeking SEC approval for 24/7 trading. Nasdaq announced similar plans in December. CME plans 24-hour crypto futures in 2026, and Cboe recently expanded U.S. index options to 24/5 trading. The old guard is finally realizing that if you can't beat the 24/7 crypto markets, you might as well join them—or at least pretend to care about your customers having equal access to get rekt at any hour.

After-hours markets present obvious vulnerabilities. When trading closes at 4 p.m. ET, liquidity vanishes. "People have gone home and the liquidity is not there, so you're going to see larger spreads," said Joe Dente, a floor broker at the NYSE. Wider spreads and thinner order books create conditions where price movements get exaggerated. It's