Chicago Exchange Seeks Longer Trading Hours

Accelerating a move toward longer trading days, the Chicago Stock Exchange said Friday it will seek to extend its hours into the late afternoon to snare a growing number of investors who want to buy and sell outside traditional market times.

“The driving factor here is listening to investor needs,” exchange Chief Executive Bob Forney said. Investors “don’t believe that the only time to buy is between 9 o’clock and 4 o’clock [Eastern].”

The nation’s third-largest stock exchange--which accounts for only 3% of U.S. stocks traded daily--would beat the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq to the punch in shaking up the way markets have done business for decades. The shift needs Securities and Exchange Commission approval.

Nasdaq and the NYSE plan to extend their hours, but have put off implementation until at least next year.

Starting in October, the Chicago exchange hopes to allow trading of several hundred of the most active stocks between 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Pacific time. Only “limit” orders--specifying price restrictions--would be allowed.