Exchange Periods/Hours
Exchange hours
With the exception of
market holidays,
SWX Europe is open for business daily from Monday through to Friday.
The precise business and trading hours are specified in
Directive 3: Market Days, Phases and Hours.
Exchange phases throughout the trading day
The order book trading day on SWX Europe is subdivided into five specific phases: pre-opening,
opening, continuous trading, auction pre-opening, and run auction and close*.
Throughout all these phases, namely when the exchange system is open, all trades executed off
order book can be trade reported to the exchange.
The diagram below outlines SWX Europe's exchange hours and phases (all indicated times are CET).
Pre-opening
After the close of the trading, the pre-opening extends from 17.30 until 22.00,
where the pre-opening phase is interrupted at the
end of business day. The pre-opening phase resumes at the
start of business day at 06.00 and continues until the opening at 09.00.
During the pre-opening phase, orders (bids and offers) may be entered, deleted or amended
in the electronic order book, but no trades are generated as no matching occurs.
During the pre-opening a theoretical opening price is continuously calculated and displayed
on the basis of the orders received.
Opening
The opening at 09.00 determines the opening price and executes orders according to the
matching rules. An opening price for each security is determined within a random opening
period of two minutes.
In order to establish the opening price at the start of trading (or upon resumption of
trading after an interruption), orders are executed in keeping with the principle of
largest, best execution. This means that the price is fixed so that the largest possible
turnover is achieved.
Continuous trading
During the continuous trading phase (which commences after the opening at 09.00 and ends
with the auction pre-opening at 17.20), new orders are continuously matched with those
already in the order book, according to the matching rules. All orders remain in the
order book until they match or expire.
During continuous trading, trading in all securities with the exception of
ETFs and
Separate Lines
can be briefly interrupted by a so called
"Stop Trading".
Auction pre-opening
At 17.20 all securities go into the auction pre-opening phase. During this phase,
the system operates in the same manner as during the pre-opening phase; orders can be
entered, deleted or amended in the electronic order book, but no trades are generated as no matching occurs.
During the Auction pre-opening a theoretical opening price is continuously calculated
and displayed on the basis of the orders received.
* See SWX Europe Market Notice 04/2006 which details the removal of the "Auction pre-opening" period for the
pan-European order book securities, initially for a trial period commencing 10 April 2006.
Run auction and close
At the run auction and close at 17.30, the Exchange System functions in the same manner
as it does at the opening. Orders on the book are executed in keeping with the principle
of largest, best execution. A closing price for each security is determined within a random
closing period of two minutes.
Upon determination of the closing price, the status of the order book changes from auction
pre-opening to pre-opening. At the close all good till day orders will expire.
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