Key Takeaways
- • Steve Cohen's Point72 Ventures is leading a $14.25 million funding round for 24 Exchange, a startup developing a 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week stock trading platform seeking to disrupt traditional market hours (9:30 a.m.–4 p.m. Eastern, weekdays only).
- • The investment targets retail traders with day jobs who trade during off-hours; Point72 Ventures partner Pete Casella cited the surge in retail equity trading over the past two years as evidence of demand for extended trading windows.
- • 24 Exchange is positioning itself as an independent stock exchange model comparable to the NYSE and NASDAQ, requiring SEC approval to operate.
- • Traditional Wall Street professionals oppose extended trading due to concerns about thin volume and increased market volatility during off-peak hours, presenting regulatory and operational headwinds for the venture.
- • The investment reflects Cohen's bet on the sustained retail trading boom accelerated during COVID lockdowns and amplified by social-media-driven trading communities (GameStop, AMC rallies).
Summary
Hedge fund billionaire and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is backing a venture to fundamentally reshape U.S. equity market hours. Through his early-stage venture capital firm Point72 Ventures, Cohen is leading a $14.25 million funding round for 24 Exchange, a startup seeking to enable continuous stock trading around the clock and across all seven days of the week. The announcement came on December 1, 2021, signaling a significant institutional bet on the structural modernization of retail trading infrastructure.
Currently, U.S. equity trading operates under strict time constraints: weekday sessions only, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time, with limited pre- and post-market trading windows and a complete halt on weekends and federal holidays. 24 Exchange aims to eliminate these boundaries by operating as an independent stock exchange modeled on established players like the NYSE and NASDAQ, pending SEC regulatory approval.
The timing of Cohen's investment reflects his conviction that retail trading demand has reached a scale to sustain extended market hours. Pete Casella, a partner at Point72 Ventures, articulated the thesis to the Wall Street Journal: "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. These are people with day jobs, so they want to trade at night and on weekends." The COVID-era explosion in retail participation, supercharged by social-media communities coordinating trades in heavily shorted stocks like GameStop and AMC, has created a cohort of armchair traders hungry for off-hours access.
However, the venture faces entrenched skepticism from traditional Wall Street institutions. Professional traders and market participants have publicly opposed 24/7 trading, citing material risks: thin trading volumes during off-peak periods could trigger outsized price swings and destabilize markets. These structural concerns, combined with regulatory hurdles, represent meaningful obstacles to 24 Exchange's execution and adoption.
Currently, U.S. equity trading operates under strict time constraints: weekday sessions only, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time, with limited pre- and post-market trading windows and a complete halt on weekends and federal holidays. 24 Exchange aims to eliminate these boundaries by operating as an independent stock exchange modeled on established players like the NYSE and NASDAQ, pending SEC regulatory approval.
The timing of Cohen's investment reflects his conviction that retail trading demand has reached a scale to sustain extended market hours. Pete Casella, a partner at Point72 Ventures, articulated the thesis to the Wall Street Journal: "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. These are people with day jobs, so they want to trade at night and on weekends." The COVID-era explosion in retail participation, supercharged by social-media communities coordinating trades in heavily shorted stocks like GameStop and AMC, has created a cohort of armchair traders hungry for off-hours access.
However, the venture faces entrenched skepticism from traditional Wall Street institutions. Professional traders and market participants have publicly opposed 24/7 trading, citing material risks: thin trading volumes during off-peak periods could trigger outsized price swings and destabilize markets. These structural concerns, combined with regulatory hurdles, represent meaningful obstacles to 24 Exchange's execution and adoption.
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