The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will hold a public roundtable on Sept. 17 to examine preparations for expanded trading hours in U.S. equity markets. The event will focus on overnight trading, market operations, resiliency, and the challenges of moving toward near-continuous trading.

The SEC confirmed the agenda and panelists on Sept. 1. The roundtable will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET at the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters and will also be livestreamed.

The session follows momentum building across the industry. NYSE and Cboe have filed proposals with the SEC to extend U.S. equity trading to nearly 24 hours on weekdays, and retail brokers including Robinhood and Interactive Brokers have already launched overnight trading sessions for customers.

Overnight Trading Takes Center Stage

The first panel will examine how exchanges and broker-dealers are preparing for 24-hour markets. Discussions will cover overnight surveillance, closing-price processes, clearance and settlement, investor protections, and expected liquidity conditions.

Participants include representatives from Robinhood, NYSE, BlackRock, Virtu Financial, Cboe, UBS, and FINRA. According to the SEC, the discussion will assess what firms have already completed and what work remains before expanded trading can begin.

The initiative could bring U.S. equities closer to markets that already operate for extended or continuous periods, such as the 24-hour cryptocurrency market. It also reflects growing retail-investor interest in reacting to news that breaks outside the traditional 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET session.

Resiliency and Infrastructure Remain Key

A second panel will focus on whether the financial infrastructure can support a market that operates around the clock. Topics will include system readiness, Regulation SCI requirements, failover planning, capacity, market-data continuity, cybersecurity, and overnight staffing.

Regulation SCI, adopted in 2014, sets standards for the integrity and resilience of key market systems, and extending it to round-the-clock operations is among the questions regulators and firms will need to resolve.

Representatives from Jane Street, State Street, Samsung, Charles Schwab, Nasdaq, Interactive Brokers, and DTCC are scheduled to participate.

The SEC will then examine the broader effects on liquidity, capital formation, and market participation. The agency will also consider future steps toward 24-by-7 trading and the infrastructure required to support it.

The roundtable does not itself establish a launch date for 24-hour stock trading. Instead, it provides a public forum to evaluate operational readiness, investor protections, and the potential market-structure implications before any further expansion. Comments and discussion from the event may inform subsequent rulemaking or exchange filings, though the SEC has not committed to a timeline.