SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Digital money platform Uphold today launches the world’s only 24/7 trading service for U.S. public equities*. Until now, retail investors have only been able to trade U.S. stocks from 9.30am to 4pm Eastern Time on business days.
Such limited hours have impeded the ability of international investors to participate in the world’s largest and most dynamic stock market. If you want to buy and sell U.S. shares in Delhi, India, for example, you’d only be able to do so from 7pm to 2:30am local time.
Uphold now allows investors in almost 200 jurisdictions to trade interests in U.S. equities around the clock and continuously throughout the year, which brings the convenience and accessibility of digital asset markets to U.S. stocks. The service is not available in the United States and certain other countries.
‘U.S. equity trading has been stuck in the 20th century with archaic market hours that no longer meet the expectations of millennials who’ve grown up with ‘always-open’ digital asset markets,’ said J.P. Thieriot, C.E.O. of Uphold. ‘Stocks such as Tesla and Apple are continuously affected by a 24-hour rolling news cycle that doesn’t stop when New York markets close.’
‘With Uphold, you can now buy and sell interests in U.S. stocks whenever you want—before breakfast, over the weekend, on a public holiday—and immediately place trades based on insights drawn from the latest company and economic news. In theory, people should be able to invest more effectively since they may have a natural timing advantage.’
The introduction of 24/7 trading represents an important extension of Uphold’s fractional equities service, which allows users to invest as little as $1 and buy fractional interests in U.S. stocks, such as Google and Amazon.
‘If you live in Latin America, for example, buying big-name U.S. stocks remains a pipe dream for most people,’ explained Thieriot. ‘For instance, Amazon trades at around $3,000* per share – many times the average monthly salary in some countries. We’re really proud to be levelling the playing field so that people virtually anywhere can put in as much they can afford into U.S. stocks – whenever they want.’
Uphold supports 50 U.S. equities, representing the most active symbols by volume on NASDAQ in early 2020. In addition, there are 36 digital assets, four precious metals, and 27 national currencies.
The multi-asset platform offers a completely unique trading experience enabling users to trade between investments in different asset classes in one trade. The Euro to Tesla, for example, is one, seamless trade on Uphold and involves no manual conversion into USD.
* Some brokerages allow certain ETFs to trade 24/7 on non-holiday weekdays.
** At the time of writing: 12noon BST 24th September 2020
About Uphold
A digital money platform serving more than 3 million customers in more than 150 countries. Uphold has powered almost $7 billion in transactions since its inception in 2014. The Silicon Valley firm opens around 10,000 accounts a day as consumers seek a more versatile and cost-effective home for their financial lives. Leveraging blockchain technology, the platform provides both consumers and businesses with easy access to 36 digital assets, 27 national currencies, four precious metals and 50 fractional U.S. equities. Uphold’s unique trading experience – ‘Anything-to-Anything’ – allows customers to trade directly between asset classes, saving time and money. Uphold supports financial inclusion by enabling customers virtually anywhere to open an account in less than a minute and trade with no minimum investment amounts. Customers can send money to virtually anyone with an email address free of charge.
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