Coming in at number 10 in our 2025 most read countdown was an outages-related story – an issue which has dominated conversations throughout the last 12 months.
A global outage of the Bloomberg Terminal on the morning of 21 May 2025, caused things to get “a bit chaotic”, one buy-side trader told The TRADE at the time. Whilst Bloomberg was down, internal instructions were given for “only essential orders” due to live prices being delayed.
Another concurred that it was chaos “for a couple of hours” on their desk also, adding: “Everyone was asking for our phone numbers ‘just in case’”.
The outage particularly affected the fixed income space, with bond deals delayed. Given the huge amount of new issuances [on 21 May 2025] the outage was particularly badly timed, one trader confirmed.
When approached by The TRADE at the time, Ty Trippet, Bloomberg spokesman, said: “Our systems are returning to normal operations and Terminal functionality has been restored following a service disruption earlier today.”
He further told The TRADE at 12.51pm UK on 21 May, that the issue had been “fully resolved” following an “internal issue”.
Continued disruptions will more than likely spur even further discussions and proposed action points across the market - placing increased pressure on market infrastructure institutions.
9. Optiver to convert to a systematic internaliser
Next up was the huge news that Optiver had made the decision to switch to a systematic internaliser (SI), a story broken by The TRADE back in April 2025.
The move amends how Optiver reports and will see the market maker expand the number of stocks it is able to offer up liquidity in.
Head of European equity market structure, Anish Puaar, told The TRADE that the move comes as part of the natural progression of the business.
“Our direct counterparty business is growing and the SI is a more familiar framework for that liquidity provision. The way that we trade with our buy-side counterparties now won’t change at all. Our core offering of showing two-way prices through to buy-side EMSs doesn’t change in any way.”
Puaar further added that the decision will allow Optiver to expand the number of stocks it can offer up liquidity for, ultimately expanding the strategies it can offer to buy-side firms.
“That [offering more stocks] helps us to expand the strategies we can offer in terms of trading baskets for example. There’s a wider universe and we can cater to different types of baskets for example. It makes a lot of things around the edges a bit cleaner.
“There’s more flexibility there versus off book on exchange. When you’re reporting to an exchange you’re bound by that exchange universe. You can do more with an SI in terms of universe stock universe.”
Prior to the decision, the market maker printed its volumes in the off book on exchange segment. Going forward as an SI, Optiver’s trades will be reported as part of the SI bucket.
8. Nasdaq to launch 24-hour trading for US equities
Coming eighth, a key milestone in the extended trading hours sphere – news that Nasdaq is preparing to launch an around-the-clock offering for US equities.
Back in March 2025, Nasdaq confirmed that it had begun engaging with regulators to enable 24-hour trading, five days a week on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The exchange plans to launch in the second half of 2026.
The development has been linked to increased retail participation, a reduction in barriers to accessing markets through wealth accumulation, and increased appetite to engage with US markets from global investors.
Nasdaq also noted that in the APAC region, investors are increasingly turning their attention to US markets.
“Attracting more investment to our markets presents a compelling opportunity for both the US and global economy. It is therefore incumbent on us to enhance access for those operating across different time zones,” said Tal Cohen, president at Nasdaq.
“[…] The question is not whether we can build a market that operates 24/5, but how we do so in a way that strengthens investor confidence in US capital markets today.”
Since the initial story, Nasdaq submitted a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to extend to a 23/5 trading hours model, for both US equities and exchange-traded products (ETPs), as reported by The TRADE on 16 December.