Blue Ocean ATS, which provides overnight trading of US stocks, has launched a connectivity and market data partnership in Hong Kong and aims to enter Japan, and then Singapore.

The Blue Ocean ATS session allows trading of US stocks during US overnight hours, from 8PM ET to 4AM ET, from Sunday to Thursday. Brian Hyndman, president and chief executive of Blue Ocean Technologies, told Markets Media that volumes from Asia Pacific  volumes are picking up.

“Volume from South Korea has increased from 1 million to 7 million per night” he added. “Overnight volumes are all increasing in the US and we are making inroads in Japan and Europe.”

We are delighted to announce our partnership with Futu Holdings Limited today our connectivity & data partnership allows Hong Kong based #investors the ability to electronically trade US NMS stocks during local business hours. Read more at:https://t.co/IP58eCLGfS pic.twitter.com/x2PSl7qdkS

— Blue Ocean ATS (@BlueOceanATS) February 13, 2023

This year Blue Ocean has formed a connectivity and market data partnership with Futu Clearing, the US-based clearing and execution subsidiary of Futu Holdings, a fintech offering fully digitized financial services in multiple markets. For the first time Futu is providing clients access to trade US equities in real-time and access market data during Hong Kong local business hours via the Blue Ocean ATS since 13 February.

Nicolette Denney, chief executive of Futu Clearing, said in a statement: “Our partnership with Blue Ocean is the perfect alignment that allows us to offer our Hong Kong clients the ability to trade stocks 24 hours, 5 days a week.”

Blue Ocean already has a partnership in place in South Korea with Samsung Securities.  Hyndman added that Futu allows Blue Ocean to enter Hong Kong ahead of its next step in Asia, which is to enter Japan, and then Singapore.

“We are speaking to a potential partner in Japan and hope to go live in the second quarter of this year,” said Hyndman.

FlexTrade partnership

In February Blue Ocean also announced a connectivity partnership to broaden access to FlexTrade System’s sell-side order management solutions for broker-dealer subscribers.

We are delighted to announce our newest connectivity partnership with respected industry leader @FlexTrade, broadening our reach to broker-dealers globally.#equities #brokers #afterhours #tradingaccess

— Blue Ocean ATS (@BlueOceanATS) February 22, 2023

Shane Remolina, director of business development, sell-side trading solutions at FlexTrade Systems, said in a statement: “Partnering with Blue Ocean is a natural fit and next step that will enable clients with large trading flows in the APAC region to access Blue Ocean’s overnight session in US names.”

Hyndman added that the partnership with FlexTrade allows Blue Ocean to reach between 35 and 40 more brokers.

Extending hours

Blue Ocean Technologies average daily volume has grown 230% in 2023 from 2022 according to Hyndman. In order to further boost volumes Blue Ocean would like to extend its trading hours.

“We are strongly considering moving to 17.5 hours of the clock later this year,” added Hyndman. “Currently there are about 700 million shares per night that are traded in the pre sessions and post session.”

Pre-market trading typically occurs between 8AM ET and 9:30 AM ET, when US stock exchanges open, but can begin as early as 4 AM ET. After-hours trading starts at 4pm ET, after stock exchanges close, and can run as late as 8PM ET.

Extending the trading hours for would require real-time reporting and changes to the ATS’s clearing and reporting procedures. The Blue Ocean ATS currently operates only on those calendar days when the NYSE Trade Report Facility (TRF) is open for reporting the following morning.

For example, after the Sunday evening session trades are batch reported to the NYSE TRF no later than 8:15 AM ET on Monday morning. The ATS does not open on Friday or Saturday evenings, because the NYSE TRF is not available for reporting of trades the following day.

Happy New Years! We look forward to a challenging & rewarding 2023. Between 306% growth from Q3-Q4 of '22 from 503% YoY growth in Q4 of '22, & exciting developments, our team is primed for further scale in 2023.

Learn more about our product offerings at:https://t.co/64CK6jI8uO pic.twitter.com/VQtnY8X7Zy

— Blue Ocean ATS (@BlueOceanATS) January 3, 2023