Archipelago Exchange Initiates New Early Open - Electronic Exchange's Early Opening Coincides With European Trading Hours, Creating More Open, Transparent Markets

The Archipelago Exchange (ArcaEx), the world's largest all-electronic stock exchange, today initiated its plan to open for trading at 4 AM Eastern Time for all U.S. listed and OTC stocks, following Securities and Exchange Commission approval.

The earlier open coincides with European trading hours. By providing available access to liquidity in U.S. listed stocks during their trading hours, European investors can benefit from the order interaction and price discovery available on ArcaEx in the opening session. The early open is expected to be particularly important for trading ADRs and ETFs.

"Extending our trading hours to bring fairer and more transparent alternatives to the European trading community is a natural progression for ArcaEx as a fully-electronic market," said Mike Cormack, President of the Archipelago Exchange. "Since ArcaEx already had an earlier opening time than other U.S. exchanges and a process for handling orders before 9:30 am ET, extending the early session by four hours essentially required relatively minor systems changes to accommodate this expanded window for the trading of U.S. equities."

ArcaEx will disseminate quote and trading information via the consolidated tape, and ArcaEx's regulator -- the Pacific Exchange -- will provide regulatory oversight during the early open period. As a result of the earlier opening, ArcaEx will run the opening auction at 4 AM ET.