ABCNEWS.com:

Nasdaq Extends Trading Hours>

Exchanges Move Has Wide Implications

N E W Y O R K, May 27  Come autumn, investors could be buying and selling shares of Microsoft Corp. and 99 other companies on the Nasdaq Stock Market while watching Ally McBeal.

The National Association of Securities Dealers, which governs Nasdaq, today approved a plan to extend trading hours from the current 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Eastern time schedule. A second session of the day would likely start at 5:30 p.m. and end at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. The changes are expected to take effect around September, after a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission and discussions with industry leaders.

This business of extended hours is a serious market-quality question, and it needs to be addressed with a great deal of seriousness, said Frank Zarb, chairman and chief executive of the National Association of Securities Dealers.

The SEC has been urging restraint, proposing a delay until next year so that the securities industry would not be extending trading hours at the same time it is confronting the Year 2000 computer bug and preparing to shift from reporting stock prices in fractions to the use of decimals.

But Zarb said Nasdaq is still sticking with its plans for starting night trading around September.

It is clear the marketplace needs this kind of innovation, and we are going to provide the leadership to get us from here to there, Zarb said...

Here's a guy in a VERY nice suit who has been told NOT to take this unnecessary risk right now (just delay it a few months), because the SEC wants to ensure that the other major "changes" (like, oh, Y2K) are managed well, and he's going to just forge ahead. Tell me again how smart all those senior execs are, and how they're not going to override the recommendations of their project teams, subject matter experts, and other advisors.

"Against Stupidity, the very gods Themselves contend in vain." --- Schiller, The Maid of Orleans

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), May 28, 1999

Answers

Could it be they want to make the markets more available to the small time traders so they can sweep up a bit more of the money from the clueless?

-- Shelia (Shelia@active-stream.com), May 28, 1999.

I'd say that could be a big *yes*. Although, it's not like they don't have plenty to choose from already. This guy is a perfect example of who the masses are willing to depend upon with not only thier own lives, but the lives of thier loved ones as well. Y2k is about to bring on quite a new wave in the old gene pool!

-- will continue (farming@home.com), May 28, 1999.

Good idea. Bad timing. IMNSHO the idea of 24X366 on-line trading isn't all that bad. Just jump on the internet and trade. Eventually, we'll probably get there. The first exchange to offer world trading will have a market advantage. However, implementing this just before Y2K would be as poor of an idea as starting to introduce the Euro only a year before Y2K. A good systems rule of thumb is to not change more than you have to at one time so that (a) you can insure that the change is made properly, (b) you can minimize the complexity of the change, and (c) that you can find introduced bugs in the least possible time.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), May 28, 1999.

Oh yeah, let's watch this one. 24hour selling in the panic.

Great Idea.

-- Jim the Window Washer (rational@man.com), May 29, 1999.