Canada’s

capital markets

have long punched above their weight. We built a system that is stable, trusted and globally connected. That stability has served us well, but stability without evolution becomes stagnation.

While we debate incremental changes, the global market continues to modernize at speed. If we do not move with similar urgency, we risk becoming a secondary market for

our own companies

and investors. This is not about national pride. It is about relevance.

Today,

Canadian investors routinely trade

on United States markets for superior convenience, liquidity and user experience. Increasingly, they are doing so outside traditional market hours.

Investor behaviour has also changed. Canadians want to trade when it suits them, whether that is early morning or late at night. Extended-hours trading is no longer a niche pursuit; it has become standard in many global markets.

Canadian markets

largely close at 4:00 p.m. (eastern time), yet investors can trade U.S. equities nearly around the clock.

The implications for Canadian capital markets are significant. An ever-growing number of Canadian companies are dual listed on U.S. exchanges or quoted over the counter in the U.S. Price formation for those Canadian-listed securities happens in the U.S. when Canada’s markets are closed.

Order flow that should contribute to Canadian liquidity, Canadian price discovery and Canadian capital markets instead migrates south. We are effectively outsourcing the trading of our own companies for a growing portion of the day.

Globally, extended-hours participation is rapidly expanding. If our infrastructure does not meet that expectation, investors will continue to route activity to markets that do.

Extending trading hours on Canadian venues would signal that we are prepared to aggressively compete for market share and defend and grow our position in

global markets

. Currently, while we sleep, the Asia-Pacific region is actively trading and investing in U.S. markets, so extending hours would open Canada up to those same investors hungry for diversification.

At the same time, we would support Canadian companies through added liquidity, data and price formation — anchored at home. There is no practical or structural reason why Canadian-listed companies should not be accessible during those same hours on Canadian exchanges.

Modernization and democratization of capital markets also require rethinking the investor experience.

Most people think and invest in dollars, not shares. They want to invest $500 in a company, not calculate how many shares that buys. Fractional and notional trading have normalized this approach globally. It is intuitive and accessible.

Canada’s framework was built in a different era, centred on standard share quantities and board lots. That structure made sense when commissions were high and trading was manual. Today, it feels disconnected from how investors engage with financial markets.

Notional and fractional trading lower practical barriers to participation, improve diversification for smaller accounts and align equities with the digital financial experiences investors already expect.

We must also address our market structure to level the playing field for all investors.

Canada splits larger and smaller orders into different systems. Larger orders trade in the main public market, while smaller orders are routed to a separate system where they primarily trade with market makers. Many retail orders, therefore, do not fully participate in open price discovery and not all participants have equal access to trade these smaller orders.

In the U.S., orders of all sizes can interact in the same market. Smaller orders directly contribute to displayed liquidity, and spreads narrow and execution costs fall when all participants compete on equal terms.

As you can see, this is not theoretical. It is how leading global markets operate today, not out of tradition, but because it has proven more fair and more efficient.

In Canada,

we speak loftily about innovation

. Yet progress can stall in pursuit of consensus. Incumbents, understandably protective of existing models and reluctant to invest in new technologies or systems, slow change under the banner of caution. Risk management matters, but it cannot become an excuse for standing still.

The fixes are practical: modernize access through extended trading hours; improve user experience through notional and fractional investing; and reform market structure so that orders of all sizes interact transparently in one marketplace.

These changes build on the strong foundations that dealers

and regulators

have already established in Canadian markets. Other jurisdictions have demonstrated that innovation and investor protection can advance together. Canada has the framework in place; what we need now is the catalyst to act.

Capital is mobile. Order flow is mobile. Listings are mobile. If Canada does not offer world-class access, execution and user experience, investors and issuers will gravitate to markets that do. Liquidity drives valuations. and valuations influence where companies raise capital and where global investors allocate funds.

Market structure is not simply plumbing; it can be part of our national competitive strategy.

As an industry and as a country, we need to be willing to take thoughtful, but decisive steps. The goal should be clear: ensure that investors can trade Canadian companies on Canadian venues with world-class access, execution and experience.

If we do not build that future, someone else will.

Jeff Foster is chief executive and founder of CIX Trading Inc.

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