FOREX.com clients in Japan can now trade US SP 500 and US Tech 100 CFDs over the weekend, StoneX Securities said today (Wednesday). Trading opens at 5 p.m. Tokyo time on Saturday and continues, with a one-hour break each morning, into the weekday session.
Most Japanese providers stop index CFD trading early on Saturday. Hirose Tsusho and Gaitame.com close their index contracts at 6:30 a.m. that day, according to trading hours compiled by Japanese comparison site FXNAV, so their clients cannot trade those contracts again until Monday.
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The Japanese launch came three days after FOREX.com announced 7-Day versions of both contracts for clients of GAIN Global Markets, its entity regulated by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA). That version opens at 08:00 UTC on Saturday, the same moment as the Tokyo session.
StoneX reported retail FX and CFD revenue of $64.7 million for the June quarter, down 19% year over year, and has since retired its City Index brand in the UK in favor of StoneX Trading.
Weekend Trading Spreads Beyond Gold
Outside Japan, brokers spent much of this year adding weekend gold. Vantage opened a seven-day gold CFD in July, and FOREX.com said its own 7-Day range started with gold earlier in the year.
At least 19 firms announced a dedicated weekend or 24/7 gold product between February 17 and October 1, according to an FM Intelligence count, 14 of them in the third quarter.
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Trading venues in the US are adding weekend hours too. Bruce Markets plans to extend overnight US equity trading on its alternative trading system into the weekend, subject to regulatory review.
Markets are increasingly shaped by events outside regular hours, and "investors expect the ability to respond in real time," said Johan Gade, head of retail for Japan at StoneX.
IG Already Quotes a Weekend Dow in Japan
StoneX Securities described the service as the first of its kind in Japan, based on its own review, as of October 8, of the websites of domestic FX and CFD providers and major online securities firms. The claim covers the US SP 500 and US Tech 100 contracts.
IG Securities, the Japanese arm of IG Group, lists a Weekend Wall Street market on its local site, a weekend CFD on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Japanese retail traders follow its price as the "Sunday Dow" to gauge where Wall Street may open on Monday.
The weekend contracts follow overnight trading in selected Japanese stock CFDs and knock-out options, which StoneX Securities introduced in August with hours until 5 a.m. Tokyo time. Overnight sessions in US shares have spread across brokers while usage remains niche.
On exchanges, CME Group moved its crypto futures and options to round-the-clock trading on May 29, and the first weekend drew about $50 million in notional value.
On its international site, FOREX.com says weekend prices for its 7-Day index contracts come from alternative index reference markets while futures are closed, and that spreads may be wider than on weekdays.
