Overnight equity trading is shifting from episodic, news-driven activity to a more consistent feature of U.S. market structure, according to Matthew Fuchs, EVP of Market Data at OTC Markets Group. In an interview with Traders Magazine, he said that while geopolitical events still drive sharp spikes in activity, overall participation is gradually building, pointing to an overnight session that’s becoming more established and reliable.
As overnight equity trading expands, what are you seeing in terms of actual sustained participation versus headline-driven spikes?
Geopolitics has been a significant driver of what we are seeing overnight, and that’s become more apparent this year than anyone anticipated. When tariff announcements hit over a weekend, or there’s a major international development after the U.S. close, we see it immediately in session volume. February 2 was our single biggest day on MOON ATS, $712 million in dollar volume, and that tracks directly to what was happening over that weekend with tariffs.
Geopolitics explains the spikes. But what I pay attention to is the overall trendline. In December 2025, the average session in dollar volume on MOON ATS was around $83.14 million. By March 2026, the average session was $262 million. Those are ordinary days with no particular news catalyst. That step-up reflects broker-dealer connectivity expanding, more participants routing order flow consistently, the infrastructure maturing. On total Q1 volume, MOON ATS produced $13.5 billion. The base-level demand is real and it’s building.
Where is the demand primarily coming from today?
Right now, we believe it’s mostly retail, and a lot of it is APAC. That’s the primary driver. U.S. retail is coming on as well, but APAC retail is where we believe we see the bulk of the flow originates.
Our participants have to be FINRA broker-dealers, so it’s important to note that we can’t see past that endpoint. We don’t know what the market makers are seeing on the other side in terms of institutional flow. We only see where they interact with our market.
The APAC piece makes intuitive sense. Our 8 PM to 4 AM Eastern session runs as a normal trading day in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore. And then you have the news flow dimension on top of that, a lot of what’s moving markets is happening over weekends now, effectively Sunday night for U.S. participants, which is when APAC comes online.
How does overnight liquidity compare to traditional pre-market and after-hours sessions in terms of spreads, depth, and execution quality?
While we do not have pre-market and after-hours comparison data on spreads and depth to share today, what we can speak to is the participation trajectory on MOON ATS and the data infrastructure behind the overnight session. Those are the conditions that ultimately shape liquidity.
When MOON ATS launched at the end of 2024, the session was nascent by any measure. By March 2026, the platform was averaging $262 million per day in dollar volume on ordinary sessions. That kind of growth in participation changes the liquidity profile of a market.
MOON ATS and OTC Overnight provide order-by-order data on all overnight-traded securities in real time through ICE Consolidated Feed and Options Technology AtlasFeed. Data providers are now pulling together an inside market view across the overnight ATSs, so participants can see where the market is at a point in time. The buy-side is likely utilizing that pricing data to track overnight movements rather than actively trading. But the market makers who are active are pulling it into their routing engines and risk applications. Both use cases are real, and both depend on having reliable real-time data from the overnight session.
What role do market makers and alternative trading venues need to play for overnight trading to become a durable part of U.S. equity market structure?
I believe that, over the past year, overnight trading already has become a durable part of the US equity market structure. The emergence and operationalization of 3 overnight ATS’ along with the participation of many of the largest global market makers has brought a resilience and reliability to the market. As a prime example, MOON now routes orders out to other marketplaces to build that broader ecosystem. Working with the other ATSs matters because it starts to give overnight the price discovery infrastructure that supports tighter markets and deeper participation over time.
On the infrastructure side, broker-dealers connecting to MOON ATS use the FIX and multicast connectivity they already maintain for daytime OTC trading. And as of March 31, we went a step further: MOON ATS and OTC Overnight data is now included in existing broker-dealer enterprise and per-user daytime licenses at no additional charge. The overnight data comes with unlimited display and non-display use, no reporting requirements. We’re at 145 unique OTC Link subscribers across our platforms, and removing every possible barrier for each of them to extend into the overnight session is how we will build a durable market rather than one dependent on a handful of active players. The OTC Overnight differentiation is also a real market incentive that doesn’t require anyone to make a case for overnight liquidity provision. If a market maker wants to serve a client looking to trade Heineken, Adidas, Nestlé, or Roche after 8 PM Eastern, we are the only venue where that’s possible.
With proposals such as 24X National Exchange seeking extended operations, what regulatory or operational hurdles still need to be addressed?
The overnight trading space is growing and there’s room for multiple approaches. The date currently proposed for the SIP is end of year, but there’s a lot of complexity around rolling that out; corporate actions along with the best execution ruleset are areas that are still being worked through.
From our vantage point running as an ATS, the regulatory framework already exists. MOON ATS is an SEC-regulated ATS operated by OTC Link LLC, a FINRA and SEC-registered broker-dealer, We didn’t need a new category or ruleset.
There’s also a gap worth noting: the SIP will initially be down from 8 PM to 9 PM. We can operate during that window and report trades when the SIP comes back on, similar to how we currently report at 4 AM. ATSs have flexibility there that exchanges don’t. It’s an opportunity for online brokerages that want to pursue a true 24/5 model to fill that gap, and we help them do it.
Looking ahead, do you expect overnight trading to remain a niche access product, or evolve into a meaningful 24-hour equities ecosystem?
I think the eventuality is not questioned anymore. The 24/5 case has been made by what we’ve seen this year: growing global retail demand and geopolitical volatility. That all makes practical sense as a business case. Short term, activity will be a fraction of daytime hours, but the acceleration of growth will continue in 2027. The overnight market soon be “niche” no more.
