Nasdaq Extends Trading Hours - Exchange's Move Has Wide Implications
N E W Y O R K, May 27 — Come autumn, investors could be buying and selling
shares of Microsoft Corp. and 99 other companies on the Nasdaq Stock Market
while watching Ally McBeal.
The National Association of Securities Dealers, which governs Nasdaq, today approved a plan to extend trading hours from the current 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Eastern time schedule. A second session of the day would likely start at 5:30 p.m. and end at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. The changes are expected to take effect around September,after a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission and discussions with industry leaders.
“This business of extended hours is a serious market-quality question, and it needs
to be addressed with a great deal of seriousness,” said Frank Zarb, chairman and
chief executive of the National Association of Securities Dealers.
The SEC has been urging restraint, proposing a delay until next year so that the
securities industry would not be extending trading hours at the same time it is
confronting the Year 2000 computer bug and preparing to shift from reporting
stock prices in fractions to the use of decimals.
But Zarb said Nasdaq is still sticking with its plans for starting night trading
around September.
“It is clear the marketplace needs this kind of innovation, and we are going to
provide the leadership to get us from here to there,” Zarb said...
abcnews.go.com
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Here's a guy in a VERY nice suit who has been told NOT to take this unnecessary risk
right now (just delay it a few months), because the SEC wants to ensure that the other
major "changes" (like, oh, Y2K) are managed well, and he's going to just forge ahead.
Tell me again how smart all those senior execs are, and how they're not going to
override the recommendations of their project teams, subject matter experts, and other
advisors.
"Against Stupidity, the very gods Themselves contend in vain." --- Schiller, The Maid
of Orleans
-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), May 28, 1999
DISCUSSION:
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