The rulebook does not change at 8 am, and CIX Trading now trades until 5 pm ET
Extended hours trading carries the same CIRO rules, marketplace rules and securities legislation that apply between 9:30 am and 4 pm ET.
Guidance Note GN-3100-26-001, published by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) on October 8, also directs dealers to examine their own controls before giving clients access.
“Dealer members should consider whether additional controls, disclosures, policies and procedures are appropriate when providing clients with access to extended hours trading,” the guidance reads.
CIRO requires dealers that offer the service to disclose its risks to clients, and says extended hours are not available through all investment dealers.
Kevin McCoy, senior vice-president of market regulation at CIRO in Toronto, said the aim is transparency that could lead to “better decision making” among investors, in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“For a certain segment of investors, this is going to probably be perceived as something that’s really good, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all where every investor is going to benefit from it,” McCoy told the publication.
He said “there’s less trading” and “less volume.” He said the difference between the buy price and the sell price “may be” greater than in the regular trading session.
CIX Trading Inc. began live trading on September 21 as the first new standalone Canadian equity marketplace in more than a decade, the company said.
CIX operates from 8 am to 5 pm ET and has approval to run 7 am to 8 pm ET in late in the fourth quarter of 2026, with extended hours limited at the outset to securities listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and Cboe Canada.
“For too long, Canadian equity markets have operated in the shadow of structural and technological advances that investors and institutions in the United States have come to take for granted,” said Jeff Foster, founder and CEO of CIX in Toronto, in the company’s July regulatory approval announcement.
In the US, the Nasdaq Stock Market is preparing to trade 23 hours a day, five days a week, in early December, McCoy told The Canadian Press.
Nasdaq, NYSE Arca, 24X National Exchange and Cboe EDGX plan to add a 9 pm to 4 am New York session on December 6, Bloomberg reported, citing overnight volume of around 1 percent of US equity trading in the second quarter, up 358 percent year over year.
Only 14 percent of buy-side equity traders are enthusiastic about 24/7 trading and 60 percent have no interest in around-the-clock (ATC) trading, Crisil Coalition Greenwich found in interviews with US equity traders in the third and fourth quarters of 2025.
The firm reported that 63 percent worry about overnight market quality and 62 percent expect ATC trading to worsen liquidity during core hours.
Jesse Forster, senior analyst at Crisil Coalition Greenwich and author of the report, said “the market already has long hours” from the buy side’s perspective.
He said the market needs “deeper liquidity, stronger resilience and better outcomes when participation is concentrated.”
James St. Clair of ViewTrade told Wealth Professional in August that overnight sessions matter most for portfolio hedging rather than routine rebalancing, adding that spreads were tightening and liquidity was present, especially in larger names.
Wealthsimple has offered 24/5 trading on select US-listed stocks and ETFs since May 2025, as Wealth Professional reported in a piece on Canadian investors already trading around the clock.
