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The US Securities and Exchange Commission has published the agenda and confirmed panelists for its September 17, 2026, roundtable on extended trading hours, a full-day event focused on the operational requirements of near-continuous trading. The session runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET at SEC headquarters in Washington, D.C., and will be webcast live. The commission first flagged the event on July 23, 2026, and has now filled in the details that matter: who is in the room, and what they will be asked to address.
What is actually on the table
The day opens with remarks from 10 to 11 a.m., followed by three panels stretching through the afternoon. Panel topics cover exchange and broker-dealer operational readiness, surveillance capabilities for overnight sessions, and the clearance and settlement mechanics that underpin every trade. Reg SCI, the SEC rule that holds critical market infrastructure to strict systems-reliability standards, also features prominently.
Representatives from Robinhood, NYSE, and BlackRock are confirmed, bringing together the retail brokerage, the incumbent exchange, and the asset management worlds under one roof.
Why 24-hour trading is moving from concept to policy conversation
Several major trading venues have already moved toward sessions running close to 23 hours, nudging the industry toward a new normal before regulators have formally blessed, or constrained, the shift.
A major policy announcement out of Tokyo or Frankfurt at 2 a.m. Eastern currently lands in a market that cannot formally respond until morning, compressing volatility into the opening minutes of the regular session. A 24-hour window distributes that price discovery across more time, which can reduce wild swings at the open but introduces its own complications around thin liquidity in the overnight hours.
The operational mountain behind the policy conversation
The US currently runs on a T+1 settlement cycle, meaning trades settle the business day after execution. Extending trading into overnight and weekend hours raises a straightforward but thorny question: when does the settlement clock start? A trade executed at 11 p.m. on a Friday under a 24-hour framework exists in a regulatory gray zone under current rules. The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation and its counterparties would need to agree on how to handle weekend and holiday periods.
Reg SCI requires designated market participants to maintain, test, and report on the capacity and resilience of their systems. A broker-dealer that adds overnight trading without demonstrating it can handle the load, and recover quickly from outages, would face regulatory exposure.
Public comments on these questions are being accepted under File No. 4-913, giving market participants, academics, and individual investors a formal channel to weigh in.
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