Why 24/7 trading is a bad idea

Stock exchanges are the quaintest corners of modern finance. At other financial institutions, the typical trading floor features people in t-shirts sat at ergonomic keyboards, sipping herbal tea and reviewing computer code. Enter New York’s bourse, meanwhile, and you might as well have been through a time warp. Tense-looking people bustle everywhere sporting headsets and relics known as neckties. Everyone looks as if they shout a lot. As in a cattle market, opening and closing bells are rung to mark either end of the day’s trading session, at 9.30am and 4pm.