Given that Nasdaq is moving to 23/5 this December, what integration capabilities will Alpaca be providing and upon what timeline? I would assume the existing 24/5 capabilities would fit naturally with the Nasdaq changes and that there shouldn’t be much change needed from the client perspective as Alpaca might just manage the routing to multiple exchanges behind the scenes (BOATS, Nasdaq, …)?
Alpaca is currently working with NASDAQ and the plan is to be ready when they implement 23/5 trading.
How Nasdaq is structuring it: Nasdaq is splitting the overnight session into two separate blocks (current session 4AM–8PM ET, overnight session 9PM–4AM ET) running on a different matching engine, market data feed, and order entry ports than the day session. Firms would normally need to purge/resubmit orders at the session boundary — but Nasdaq will “stitch” the two Nasdaq Basic sessions together on Alpaca’s behalf, so there’s no dual-connection burden on Alpaca’s side.
Routing: Alpaca already handles order routing across sessions/venues behind the scenes today, and this is expected to continue as Nasdaq’s own 23/5 session comes online — clients shouldn’t need to manage venue selection themselves.
Client-side impact: For most traders any changes will be transparent — existing 24/5 endpoints and order flagging (extended_hours=true) are expected to carry over, similar to how the current overnight Blue Ocean-based 24/5 integration works.
Still being finalized: Exact production timeline and whether any endpoint/config changes may actually be required are still being worked through — this is an open item for the Alpaca product/trading-API team, so we don’t have a firm go-live date or definitive “no changes needed” confirmation yet.
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I think currently for Algo Trader Plus subscribers, we need to use boats feed for overnight hours. I do not trade between 8pm and 4am so I use SIP feed only. Once 23/5 with NASDAQ/NYSE starts, will I need to use boats feed for that, or continue to use SIP feed? Also how will the 24/5 trading and 23/5 trading (NASDAQ only) work in parallel? Specifically on 2 aspects
- For market data, which feed will we need to use for 23/5 on NaSDAQ vs 24/5 trading and
- If I place a order between 8pm and 4am ET, will it be routed to NASDAQ automatically or will I need to provide a specific instruction to do so.
Sorry, may be early to ask these questions, but I am trying to plan how my workflows would need to be designed.
Thank ypu,
Malay