Samsung, Blue Ocean launch US stock trading during South Korean business hours

A currency dealer works at a dealing room of a bank in Seoul, South Korea, August 25, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

NEW YORK, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Asian investors can now buy and sell US stocks during Korean business hours in real time through a partnership between Samsung Securities (016360.KS) and US-based off-exchange trading venue operator Blue Ocean Technologies LLC , the companies said on Monday.

“This is the first time in the history of the US markets where Asia Pacific investors, and Korean investors, are going to have the ability to trade US stocks before US investors,” said Brian Hyndman, president of Blue Ocean.

“The US day is going to start in Seoul.”

The new service began on Monday and enables the real-time trading of all 8,000 US National Market System stocks and exchange-traded products between 10 am and 6 pm Seoul time, through Samsung Securities, the brokerage subsidiary of Samsung Group, which partnered with Blue ocean.

Blue Ocean also facilitates overnight stock trading in the United States for various brokerages, including Cowen (COWN.O), Charles Schwab Corp’s TD Ameritrade and Morgan Stanley’s (MS.N) E*Trade, and is also connected to market makers Virtu Financial ( VIRT.O) and Jane Street Capital, Hyndman said.

Asian investors buying stocks during Seoul business hours through Samsung will be able to trade with each other, as well as against the US Blue Ocean order flow, he added.

Blue Ocean is owned by multiple investors, with the biggest being Urbana Corp (URB.TO), which is also the largest shareholder in the Canadian Securities Exchange.

Reporting by John McCrank in New York Editing by Matthew Lewis

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