The head of equity dealing at London-based Morley Fund Management, Ekers, 45, has begun a letter-writing campaign to persuade European bourses to shorten trading hours.
“We,re spending more time in front of our screens, but there is virtually no buying and selling at 8:00 a.m., when most of Europe,s markets open, and there is equally little volume at the end of the day,” asserts Ekers. “People do most of their trading in their domestic markets, so all you wind up with are unreliable prices and higher operating costs.” To try to take advantage of closing times in the U.S. and Asia , and steal a bit of business , most European exchanges open earlier and close later than their American and Asian counterparts.
Ekers proposes that European exchanges slice a half hour off their opening and closing times. The London Stock Exchange, Euronext and Deutsche Börse all do business for at least eight and a half hours a day, he points out, while the world’s most liquid market, the New York Stock Exchange, operates for a mere six and a half hours.
“With my plan,” says Ekers, “we would still be open for a full hour longer than the U.S. but hopefully be making some progress toward that elusive target of an improved quality of life.” The LSE is “taking soundings” on the idea.
