NYSE Finds No Interest in Extending Trading Hours

The chairman of the New York Stock Exchange said Tuesday that the Big Board would start off-hours trading if companies and investment firms want it, but no demand exists.

John J. Phelan Jr. said there has been no interest among New York stock market participants to extend trading at the world’s second-largest exchange beyond 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“The reason we have not done it is that our customers have said they don’t want it,” Phelan told a meeting of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

But he added: “If there is any sign of interest out there at all, we will try at least some off-hours trading.”

In 1986, the NYSE surveyed securities brokerages and companies listed on the exchange, Phelan said, and “99% of all those people said, ‘For God’s sake, don’t do it. We are not interested in that now.’ ”

The 197-year-old NYSE, second in size to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, recently announced that it would meet with customers, traders, institutional investors, listed companies and securities firms to re-gauge demand for off-hours trading.

Under such a system, securities theoretically can be bought and sold when the exchange floor is shut down, via computers that automatically match buyers and sellers from points around the world.

The tiny Cincinnati Stock Exchange last month announced plans to start computerized 24-hour trading in the next 19 months. Chicago’s two futures markets have also announced that they are developing after-hours trading systems.

Phelan played down fears expressed by some securities industry experts that markets in foreign countries could siphon away business from New York. He said the idea of a global market had not taken hold and that overseas “there’s more potential than actual” competition.