Bruce Markets LLC, the SEC-registered broker-dealer that operates the Bruce ATS overnight equities venue, said on Sept. 29 that it will extend U.S. equity trading through the weekend, subject to regulatory review, with the new session expected to go live "in the coming months."

If approved, the expansion would make U.S. equities available seven days a week for the first time — a structural change with direct implications for broker routing, staffing, risk controls and post-trade operations across both buy-side and sell-side desks.

Who is funding it

The expansion draws on new strategic investments led by PEAK6 Investments, Bruce Markets' majority shareholder, and Robinhood Markets. Existing investors Apex Fintech Solutions, Fidelity Investments, Nasdaq Ventures, NH Investment & Securities, tastytrade and Webull remain invested, according to the announcement.

The backer list spans retail brokers, a clearing firm, a proprietary trading house and an exchange holding company — a signal that the weekend-session push is being underwritten across the trading stack rather than by a single venue operator.

The technology and clearing chain

Bruce Markets will expand its existing use of Nasdaq's trading technology to power the weekend session. Magnus Haglind, Head of Capital Markets Technology at Nasdaq, framed the requirement in infrastructure terms: "Always-on markets demand resilient, flexible and scalable infrastructure. Our trading technology gives Bruce Markets a proven foundation to extend resilient, transparent market access throughout the weekend."

Clearing, carrying and custody will sit with Apex Clearing Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Apex Fintech Solutions. William Capuzzi, CEO of Apex Fintech Solutions, called weekend trading "a natural next step" in the firm's modernization of market infrastructure.

What Bruce ATS does today

Bruce ATS currently runs an overnight session from 8:00 PM to 4:00 AM ET, bridging the U.S. after-hours and pre-market windows. The company describes the venue as exchange-grade in technology and market rules, positioning itself as a source of after-hours liquidity for brokers and investors.

The weekend proposal extends that same model from the overnight gap to the Saturday-Sunday gap — the last period during which U.S. equities have no continuous electronic access.

What the backers are saying

Jason Wallach, CEO of Bruce Markets, tied the initiative to weekend news flow: "We are changing the way customers can access U.S. equities and finally ushering in true 24/7 trading. Market-moving news does not wait for Monday's open, and soon, neither will investors. Together with our partners, we are breaking down the limitations of traditional market structure and redefining how the world trades."

Jenny Just, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of PEAK6, was more categorical: "The world doesn't take weekends off, and now neither will the markets. This is the end of the five-day market."

Steve Quirk, Chief Brokerage Officer at Robinhood, emphasized the retail execution angle: "Market-moving news can break at any moment, including over the weekend. With 24/7 trading, Robinhood customers will soon be able to trade equities around the clock, seven days a week, so they can manage their portfolios in real time and trade on their own schedule."

Mandated versus asserted

The announcement states the weekend launch is subject to regulatory review; no approval date, filing detail or compliance timeline appears in the release. The "coming months" launch window is a company expectation, not a regulatory commitment.

The claim of a "first ever round-the-clock U.S. equity trading ecosystem" is the company's own characterization. What is measured today is Bruce ATS's existing 8:00 PM–4:00 AM ET overnight session; the weekend coverage is asserted but not yet live.

For desks, the open questions are operational: how weekend liquidity will develop in Bruce ATS relative to weekday sessions, how spreads behave without exchange-listed markets open in parallel, and how clearing and settlement timelines shift when trades execute on Saturday or Sunday.

Bruce Markets says it expects the weekend session to launch in the coming months, pending the outcome of the regulatory review.