Robinhood (HOOD.US) launches another innovative product: weekend stock trading, performance contracts, and crypto perpetual futures.

Robinhood (HOOD.US) plans to launch weekend stock trading, becoming the first example in the modern U.S. market. The brokerage, which has been a pioneer in extending retail trading hours, said Tuesday that its customers will soon be able to trade a select basket of stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on weekends, further extending the current trading session from 8 p.m. ET on Sunday to 8 p.m. ET on Friday into the weekend. The feature will be implemented by routing orders to a trading venue operated by Bruce Markets. "Breaking news doesn't wait for the opening bell," Robinhood's Chief Brokerage Officer Steve Quirk said in a statement. Robinhood has been growing in the highly competitive retail brokerage space through rapid innovation and the launch of consumer finance products, many of which are on the fringes of the mainstream. The Menlo Park, California-based company said earlier this year that its fastest-growing business is prediction markets, and said it has opened up more agentic AI trading tools to customers. The company has also introduced contracts tied to financial performance. These are a new type of options contract introduced by Cboe Global Markets Inc. that allow investors to bet on whether a company exceeds specific performance metrics, such as Tesla, Inc.'s car sales. According to the statement, these contracts will be available in the coming weeks, pending final approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In addition, Robinhood customers will be able to trade perpetual futures on selected cryptocurrencies. These are derivative contracts with no expiration date, some of which offer up to 10x leverage. The perpetual futures will be offered through Bitstamp, the exchange Robinhood acquired last year. "Together with our partners, we are breaking the constraints of traditional market structure and redefining how the world trades," said Bruce Markets CEO Jason Wallach. Bruce Markets received an undisclosed investment from Robinhood and majority shareholder Peak6 Investments to help drive the launch of weekend trading. U.S. stock markets traditionally operate between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays. Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange and 24x National Exchange all plan to introduce 23-hour-a-day, five-day-a-week trading sessions in the coming months. Nasdaq, for example, will add a trading session from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. In some ways, Robinhood's move is a return to the old ways. SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda said at an event this month that New York financial markets had Saturday trading for eighty years before it ended in 1952.