Trading in 2035

Six informed bets about the next decade

Picture trading in 2035: software drafts the decisions, markets stay open nearly all the time, and many assets settle in seconds. The human trader still has a role—supervising machines, choosing risk and deciding which opportunities deserve action.

Key takeaway. The strongest preparation for 2035 is better supervision: specify objectives clearly, test claims rigorously and understand the risks that automation magnifies.

That is a forecast, so treat it as a set of informed bets. Each one below starts from something already visible in 2026.

A day in 2035

Picture a trader in Chennai on a Tuesday morning. There is no opening bell to wait for. Her assistant has been watching overnight and greets her with three items.

A position hit its target while she slept and was closed under her standing rules. A stock on her watchlist gapped after results in New York; the assistant has drafted a trade with size, stop and reasoning, awaiting approval. Her dollar exposure has drifted above her limit, with two suggested hedges.

She reads the reasoning, asks one question aloud, rejects the trade and approves the hedge. Total time: six minutes. The rest of her day is spent on research the machine cannot do: talking to people and deciding what she believes.

Continuous market access

US exchanges are moving to trading 23 hours a day, five days a week, with launches targeted for December 2026. Currencies already trade around the clock on weekdays and crypto never stops.

By 2035, expect major equities and futures to trade continuously on weekdays, and tokenised versions to trade through weekends. The "close" will survive as a reference price for funds and indices, not as a moment when trading stops.

An agent for every account

In 2026, AI agents research, code strategies and place trades under supervision. In nine years, a personal trading agent will be as standard as a mobile app is today.

It will know your rules, your tax position and your temperament. Brokers will compete on the quality of that agent and on the limits and transparency around it.

Settlement in seconds

US stocks moved from two-day to one-day settlement in May 2024. Tokenised securities, approved for trading on Nasdaq in 2026, can settle almost instantly.

By 2035, same-day settlement should be normal for mainstream assets and instant settlement common. That frees capital now tied up as margin and removes a category of counterparty risk. It also removes the slack that lets errors be fixed before money moves.

One account across asset classes

The separation between a stock account, a forex account, a crypto wallet and a bank account is an accident of history. Tokenisation and regulation are eroding it.