Pacific Stock Exchange to Extend Hours : Securities: The change will permit investors to trade for 50 minutes after the major exchanges close in the East.
The Pacific Stock Exchange said Tuesday that it will extend its trading day by 20 minutes to 1:50 p.m. West Coast time starting Oct. 24 to give brokers and investors a “second crack” at the market.
The exchange, with trading floors in San Francisco and Los Angeles, already permits the trading of many stocks listed on East Coast exchanges until 1:30 West Coast time and 4:30 p.m. eastern time. That is half an hour after the eastern exchanges close.
With the additional West Coast trading time, investors will be able to continue negotiating prices and transacting trades for a full 50 minutes after the major exchanges close in the East.
Under an electronic after-hours trading system begun June 13, the New York Stock Exchange allows shares to trade until 5 p.m., but only at 4 p.m. prices. An imbalance of buy and sell orders during this trading hour cancels a transaction.
At the PSE, the after-hours trading will be conducted as an auction market, so that prices could change from those set as of the 4 p.m. East Coast close.
“This is a great opportunity for brokers and investors to have a ‘second crack’ at the market,” PSE Chairman and Chief Executive Lee Korins said in a statement.
Dale A. Carlson, a PSE spokesman, said the West Coast exchange hopes during the next few years to gradually close the 3 1/2-hour gap that exists between the PSE close and the opening of the Tokyo market.
Most PSE brokers prefer later rather than earlier trading. Last summer, PSE opposition helped defeat a New York Stock Exchange effort to open half an hour earlier, at 9 a.m. Eastern time, saying it would wreak havoc with brokers’ sleep and commuting habits in the West. As it is, many West Coast brokers rise by 3:30 a.m. to get to 4:30 meetings to prepare for the day.
