Hedge-fund billionaire and New York Mets owner Steven A. Cohen is backing a startup that wants to let investors trade stocks 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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The Casino Is Open

Please note Steven Cohen’s Venture Firm Backs 24-Hour Stock-Trading

Point72 Ventures, Mr. Cohen’s early-stage venture-capital fund, is leading a $14.25 million funding round for 24 Exchange. The companies announced the transaction Wednesday after it was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.

Founded in 2018, 24 Exchange has already launched foreign-exchange and cryptocurrency-trading platforms. It is seeking Securities and Exchange Commission approval to run a round-the-clock stock exchange.

Point72 Ventures partner Pete Casella said 24-hour equities trading has a large potential market, including nonprofessionals trading from home and overseas investors with an appetite for U.S. stocks.

“When you look at the growth of equities trading over the last couple of years, a lot of that has been the increased role of retail,” Mr. Casella said in an interview. “These are people with day jobs, so they want to trade at night and on weekends.”

Still, it may take some time for 24 Exchange to launch round-the-clock stock trading, in part because of the lengthy SEC approval process, Mr. Casella said. The startup has shorter-term plans that Point72 Ventures is optimistic about, including crypto-linked financial products that could be attractive to banks and traditional asset managers, he said.

24x7 Trading? Why Not?

Bitcoin always trades. Algos arguably run the market anyway. But the real reason is that Goldman Sachs and the other market makers do God's work.

Right now, God's work of skimming the bid-ask spread only happens 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time excluding weekends and holidays.

Clearly that's a travesty of justice and morally unfair as well, to anyone having a real job that interferes. 

And I haven't figured out why yet, but I am sure a case can be made that the current schedule is racist.

Stephanie Pomboy at Macro Mavens offers this thought on God's work.

"The fact that they want to trade 24-7 is the ultimate sign of a top. When the mean reversion finally comes, no one will want to trade 5 days a week, much less 7!"