The New York Stock Exchange announced plans to expand after-hours trading.

Pending approval from regulators, the NYSE’s Arca electronic platform could be accessible 22 hours a day, Monday through Friday – up from 16 hours a day previously – with a break between 11:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. ET.

While the lights are on at the New York Stock Exchange from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, an increasing volume of trades are ordered outside of these regular hours on Arca, according to Evan Rawley of the University of Connecticut.

“People in Asia, in Europe, you know, some people in the United States after work want to go there and trade,” he said.

The NYSE wants to extend the Arca window by a few more hours; as Rawley noted, established exchanges face increased competition.

“They’re afraid that people will go to, say, Robinhood,” he said.

The app allow Users can trade certain stocks 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday, so extended after-hours hours could allow more trading to take place on New York platforms.

There is a relatively small constituency Justin Schack of Rosenblatt Securities supports this change: “And these are mainly retail investors. »

But these non-professional traders could end up paying higher transaction fees at irregular times.

Institutional investors and thousands of companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange “may not be as excited about the prospect of 22-hour trading,” Schack said.

Part of the reason, Schack added, is that they’ll need to add staff to respond to price movements late at night.