Wall Street is going 23 hours. Who takes the keys from a blind algorithm at 2 a.m.?
- Nasdaq aiming to launch near-constant 23-hour trading cycle by December 6.
- SEC scrambling to draft rules for market-wide circuit breakers in the dead of night.
- Growing fears over 'blind' AI algorithms running wild when human oversight is fast asleep.
- Liquidity risks loom as machines trade in the 2 a.m. vacuum.
Brief Summary
Nasdaq is moving to turn Wall Street into a 24-hour casino, with plans to implement a 23-hour trading schedule as early as December 6. While the exchange builds the infrastructure for round-the-clock market access, regulators are playing catch-up, trying to figure out how to stop the bleeding if a market-wide crash happens in the middle of the night.
Why This Matters
When the markets stay open, the machines never stop hunting for profit. If you have money in the market, your portfolio is now subject to the whims of algorithms operating in the low-liquidity, high-risk hours of the early morning. Without human traders to pump the brakes, a flash crash at 2 a.m. could wipe out value before you even wake up to check your phone. You are essentially betting on whether the code is smart enough to handle a crisis when the rest of the world is offline.