<story><title>Financial systems take a holiday</title><url>https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/financial-systems-take-a-holiday/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ryandrake</author><text>&amp;gt; Financial systems are inseparably computer systems. Most similarly important computer systems don’t take holidays. Google doesn’t take holidays… or doesn’t seem to, from the perspective of a typical user, at any rate.&lt;p&gt;Wouldn&amp;#x27;t it be better for users if our financial systems worked like the Google example? Why can&amp;#x27;t I as a regular retail investor trade a stock on Saturday? Why can&amp;#x27;t I move money from one bank account to another on Sunday? Imagine not being able to send E-mail on Easter because nobody at your ISP was there to push bits around or whatever these banks&amp;#x27; excuse is?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pavlov</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; “Why can&amp;#x27;t I as a regular retail investor trade a stock on Saturday?”&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Stock trading on exchanges traditionally has delayed settlement. You don’t need to have the money and stock at hand when you make the trade, but you’re expected to provide them on the settlement date. For a long time this was two days later, but is now being changed to only one day in the U.S.&lt;p&gt;Trading on Saturdays would either mean complications for settlement, or that settlement must happen on Saturday too. Surely not impossible, but these things have ripple effects that are not immediately obvious.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; “Why can&amp;#x27;t I move money from one bank account to another on Sunday?”&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This exists in Europe with 24&amp;#x2F;7 SEPA instant credit across banks and Eurozone countries. It doesn’t cost anything extra.&lt;p&gt;But getting to that point needed a serious mandate from the European Union, years of planning, and cooperation by the various governments. The effort was worth it because it’s a far better solution for consumers than e.g. cryptocurrencies or the American proprietary payment solutions like Venmo.</text></comment>
<story><title>Financial systems take a holiday</title><url>https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/financial-systems-take-a-holiday/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ryandrake</author><text>&amp;gt; Financial systems are inseparably computer systems. Most similarly important computer systems don’t take holidays. Google doesn’t take holidays… or doesn’t seem to, from the perspective of a typical user, at any rate.&lt;p&gt;Wouldn&amp;#x27;t it be better for users if our financial systems worked like the Google example? Why can&amp;#x27;t I as a regular retail investor trade a stock on Saturday? Why can&amp;#x27;t I move money from one bank account to another on Sunday? Imagine not being able to send E-mail on Easter because nobody at your ISP was there to push bits around or whatever these banks&amp;#x27; excuse is?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mason55</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Why can&amp;#x27;t I as a regular retail investor trade a stock on Saturday?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Markets have chosen to concentrate trading to specific hours so as to concentrate liquidity and to help out the professional traders.  If everyone&amp;#x27;s trading 24&amp;#x2F;7 then it means you need to be prepared to trade 24&amp;#x2F;7.  Having defined market hours means defined hours in which important things can happen.  And since the people who work in the market can also define the hours, they&amp;#x27;ve chosen to give themselves reasonable working hours.&lt;p&gt;In a world where the major markets are trading 24&amp;#x2F;7, traders need to be at their desk 24&amp;#x2F;7.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Why can&amp;#x27;t I move money from one bank account to another on Sunday?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Instant money transfer means instantly draining someone&amp;#x27;s bank account with no recourse.  Checks have plenty of opportunities to stop the money, so you can write a check on a Sunday as easily as a Wednesday.  Wires are more irreversible and so you can only send those when the bank is open and there&amp;#x27;s someone to double check any suspicious behavior.</text></comment>