Charles Schwab has significantly expanded the list of securities available for overnight trading, enabling all retail clients to trade over 1,100 securities 24 hours a day, five days a week, through the company's thinkorswim platform.
Schwab said Monday it added the securities, primarily popular exchange-traded funds, in response to client demand.
Ameritrade, which Schwab acquired in 2020, pioneered around-the-clock trading in 2018 as the first U.S. retail broker-dealer to offer it, the company noted. Schwab announced in February that it had expanded the list of securities available in the overnight session to include the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 stocks, as well as hundreds of additional ETFs following a successful pilot last fall.
“Since launching the broad availability of expanded overnight trading earlier this year, we have seen tremendous client engagement and received great feedback, and this further expansion is driven by what clients are telling us they want,” James Kostulias, Schwab managing director and trading services head, said.
“As the pace of interconnected global markets activity increases and market-moving news and events happen outside of regular U.S. market hours, 24-hour trading gives investors flexibility and access that can be critical to take advantage of potential opportunities — as well as helping to manage risk," he added.
Since launching broad access to expanded overnight trading, Schwab has seen significant, growing client engagement, especially among international clients, according to Schwab.
Schwab clients engaged heavily in overnight trading on April 7, driving then-record trading volume overnight amid government tariff announcements, the company said. The record was surpassed on June 12 as Middle East tensions escalated and clients engaged in more than twice the average nightly volume overnight.
“We continue to see that trading behavior in the overnight session looks a lot like trading behavior during standard market hours, which is a good thing,” Kostulias said.
Schwab clients can access 24/5 trading by selecting the EXTO order type for eligible securities on thinkorswim trading platforms.
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