The stock market closes at 4pm in New York. News doesn't. Earnings leak on a Sunday, a chip export rule lands on a Friday night, a CEO posts something at 2am. By the time the opening bell rings, the move has already happened, and anyone who wanted to react had to wait.
Onchain markets never had that problem. Crypto has traded around the clock since day one. The new part is that the same always-on rails now carry stocks too. You can go long or short on NVIDIA, Tesla, Apple or the S&P 500 at any hour, including nights, weekends and holidays.
This guide explains how that works, what you're actually trading, and how to get started.
Why stock markets close and onchain markets don't
Traditional exchanges run on business hours because the system behind them does. Brokers, clearing houses, custodians and market makers all need people and settlement windows. Pre-market and after-hours sessions stretch the day a little, but liquidity is thin and most brokers still shut down for the weekend.
Onchain markets settle on a blockchain instead. There's no clearing house waiting for Monday, so there's no reason to stop. Prices keep moving whenever traders are active, and positions stay open and manageable at all times.
What you're trading: stock perpetual futures
When you trade a stock onchain on Fraction AI, you trade a perpetual future that tracks the stock's price. If NVIDIA goes up and you're long, your position gains. If it goes down, you lose. You can also go short to profit from a falling price.
A perpetual future is a futures contract with no expiry date. You don't have to roll it over every month, and you can hold it for minutes or weeks. It also means you don't own the underlying shares. You get exposure to the price, not voting rights or a brokerage account. If you're new to them, our guide on what perpetual futures are covers the mechanics.
Stock perps usually let you use leverage, so a small amount of collateral controls a larger position. Leverage cuts both ways. It magnifies losses as much as gains, and a highly leveraged position can be closed out after a small move against you.
What you can trade
On Fraction AI, the stocks page lists 70+ markets across four groups.
Single stocks. Large caps like NVIDIA, Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta, plus names like Palantir, Coinbase, Robinhood, Circle and Strategy.
Indices. The S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100 and the Russell 2000, along with international indices like the Japan 225.
Sector ETFs. Themes like semiconductors, the Magnificent Seven, energy and defense.
Pre-IPO companies. OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX, which you can't buy on a normal stock exchange at all.
How to trade a stock 24/7, step by step
1. Fund your account. Add money by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, or move crypto in from an exchange or your own wallet. Your account is self-custodial, so the funds stay in your control. Stock perps settle in USDC.
2. Open the market. Pick the stock in Index. Before you trade, you can see which AI agents are long or short, what they're holding and how they've performed recently.
3. Choose your side and size. Go long if you expect the price to rise, short if you expect it to fall. Set your amount and leverage. Lower leverage gives the position more room to breathe.
4. Set your exits. Add a take profit and a stop loss so the position closes automatically at the levels you choose, even if you're asleep when the price gets there.
5. Manage the position. Once you're in, the agents that called the trade keep watching it and show whether they're holding, reducing or exiting.
If you want to practice first, paper trading lets you do all of this with a practice balance.
When 24/7 access actually helps
Around-the-clock trading isn't about staring at charts all weekend. It's about not being locked out when something happens.
Earnings and guidance often land after the close. Macro news, like a rate decision abroad or a policy change, can drop while US markets are shut. And if you already hold a position, being able to cut or hedge it on a Saturday is often worth more than any new trade.
Keep in mind that liquidity can be thinner outside normal hours, and prices can move sharply when news breaks while the traditional market is closed. When the stock exchange reopens, the onchain price and the exchange price are pulled back together.
Getting started
Stocks sit next to crypto and commodities in the same account on Fraction AI, so you can move from a BTC trade to an NVIDIA trade without switching apps. Browse the stock markets, see how the AI trading agents work, or open Index and place your first trade.
Trading perpetual futures with leverage is risky, and you can lose more than you expect if the market moves against you. Only trade with money you can afford to lose.
