Nasdaq Pushes Longer Options Hours: Trade All Day, Every Day?
Published Date: 3/31/2026
Notice
Summary
Nasdaq MRX wants to let people trade certain stock and index options for longer hours, beyond the usual market times. This change affects traders who deal with popular options like NDX and some multi-listed equity options, giving them more chances to buy and sell. If approved, these extended hours could start soon, offering more flexibility and possibly more trading opportunities (and money moves) throughout the day.
Analyzed Economic Effects
9 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 4 costs, 1 mixed.
Options Trade Hours Extended
You may be able to trade certain Nasdaq MRX options outside normal market hours. The Exchange proposes an Early ETH session from 7:30 a.m. ET to 9:25 a.m. ET and an Extended Close extending trading beyond 4:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. for eligible option classes, including NDX, NDXP, and XND, and up to 100 equity option classes that the Exchange designates.
Which Equity Options Qualify
Only actively traded equity options will be eligible for ETH: an option must have average daily volume of 150,000 contracts, the underlying stock must have a market capitalization of $50 billion, and the underlying stock must average 10 million shares traded per day. The Exchange may list up to 100 equity option classes for ETH, may waive criteria for an IPO if the underlying has at least $3 billion market cap in the three days after IPO, and will review eligibility bi‑annually on January 1 and July 1 with new qualifiers trading on February 1 and August 1.
Market Maker Rules and Clearing Guarantees
Market Makers may optionally participate in ETH and will retain the same appointments across RTH and ETH; if they choose to quote in ETH, their continuous quoting obligations are measured across all sessions. Any Market Maker effecting transactions during ETH must have one or more Letters of Guarantee from a Clearing Member filed with the Exchange accepting financial responsibility.
Different Halt Protections in ETH
Certain protections that apply during Regular Trading Hours, such as limit‑up/limit‑down (LULD) trading pauses and market‑wide circuit breakers, do not apply during the Early ETH Session. The Exchange may manually halt or resume trading during ETH and will nullify transactions that occur during a halt.
Some Order Types Disallowed in ETH
You cannot use Market Orders during Extended Trading Hours, and Add Liquidity Orders are not allowed in the Early ETH Session. The Exchange also proposes to remove Good‑Til‑Canceled (GTC) and Good‑Til‑Date (GTD) times‑in‑force designations from its rulebook so those order types would no longer persist between sessions.
Orders Not Routable; Must Be DNR
During Extended Trading Hours all orders on Nasdaq MRX must be entered as Do‑Not‑Route (DNR) and will not be routable. Orders may be repriced to comply with the national Linkage Plan's trade‑through and locked/crossed market rules.
Required Risk Disclosures to Customers
If you place an order to be executed during Extended Trading Hours, a Member must first disclose material trading risks. Required disclosures include the possibility of lower liquidity, higher volatility, wider spreads, changing prices, exaggerated effects from news, and absence of updated underlying index values during ETH.
No Live Index Values During ETH
The Exchange will not disseminate a recalculated value of an underlying index during Extended Trading Hours; Members who trade during ETH will have the previous trading day's closing index value available instead. The Exchange states it will not repeatedly broadcast intraday index values during ETH.
Reporting, Clearing, and Surveillance During ETH
The Exchange will report best bids/offers and executed trades to the Options Price Reporting Authority (OPRA) during ETH, will have surveillance coverage and staff available during ETH, and the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) has indicated it can clear and settle ETH transactions. These functions will operate in the same manner as during Regular Trading Hours.
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