Home > Business > Finance

Korea's first alternative stock trading platform Nextrade goes live

Published: 04 Mar. 2025, 09:42

A person passes by Nextrade (NXT) logo at NXT's headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul, on March 3. [YONHAP]

Korea's first alternative stock trading platform set sail Tuesday, bringing a 12-hour trading system, as well as greater efficiency and convenience to the trading of securities.

The Korea Exchange (KRX), launched in 1956, has been the country's only national operator of the stock market, but the launch of the country's secondary stock trading platform, named Nextrade (NXT), is expected to facilitate competition in the country's stock exchange landscape.

The NXT runs for 12 hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., longer than the trading hours from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. of the main KRX bourse.

The NXT also offers lower fees compared to the main bourse and introduces different stock bid and ask prices.

While short selling is allowed, it is banned during pre-market (8 a.m. to 8:50 a.m.) and aftermarket trading hours (3:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.), according to the NXT.

The KRX's daily stock price limits and market stabilization measures, such as a circuit breaker, are also applied on the NXT.

A total of 32 brokerage houses joined the NXT, and although the NXT started with only 10 firms being traded, the number will rise to 800 in a month.

Yonhap