For those with insomnia, next time they’re itching to start trading VIX futures, they can now flip on their computers and do so.
On Sunday,?CBOE Holdings Inc. expanded trading hours for its VIX futures to almost 24 hours per day. This comes in an effort to increase Europe and Asia business for the product while appealing to?U.S. traders for middle of the night trading when “major news breaks,” according to?Dan Deming, via Bloomberg.?
With the change, VIX futures will now trade from 6 p.m. Sunday to 4:15 p.m. Friday ET. During?weekdays, there will be continuous trading with the exception of 15 minutes after 4:15 p.m.
Previously, the market had been?from 3 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET during the week with one other session from 4:30 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. on Monday through Thursday.
For the year to date, the?VIX?has fallen 21 percent to 10.85, just under two points away from its record low.
Deming said to Bloomberg, ?There?s just a driving demand for volatility exposure. In the case of some type of unforeseen event that takes place between Friday and Sunday, you?ll have the opportunity to trade around that instead of waiting until Monday morning.?
Through May, around 7.5 percent of VIX futures trading past regular U.S. hours, according to a CBOE press release.