Valuable Capital Group’s Steven Chou Discusses GCC Investor Behavior, Extended Trading and Future Market Access

Valuable Capital Group (VCGL), a comprehensive financial services provider with operations across Saudi Arabia and the UAE, announced that Chief Strategy Officer Steven Chou participated as a panelist at Nasdaq's 2026 Global Retail Executive Forum. This exclusive event brings together senior executives from leading retail brokerages, exchanges and market infrastructure providers to discuss how extended trading hours, new asset classes and evolving investor expectations are reshaping global retail investing.

Steven also serves as Chairman of Sahm Capital Financial Company in Saudi Arabia and Sahm Financial Limited in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). On a panel about infrastructure for a generation of always-on market participants, he addressed the opportunities and operational challenges of extended trading, continuous market access and the future of retail brokerage infrastructure.

He noted the natural time-zone alignment between the Gulf region and U.S. market hours as a key driver of engagement with U.S. equities, while pointing to rising demand for flexibility outside traditional sessions, particularly when investors need to respond promptly to market-moving events.

"The more important challenge is ensuring that customer support, risk management and investor education evolve alongside greater accessibility. As access expands, transparency becomes increasingly important. Investors need to understand both the opportunities and the risks involved."

Steven described VCGL's measured approach to expanded market access, leveraging Overnight Trading and Off-Market Orders to understand investor demand while maintaining disciplined execution standards. He emphasized that as trading expands across multiple sessions, brokerages must strengthen client service capabilities and risk management frameworks to address changing liquidity conditions and investor needs.

On infrastructure, Steven outlined VCGL's long-term strategy of building scalable, digital-first systems in Saudi Arabia and extending them across the wider GCC region. He also discussed the potential of digital assets and tokenization to reshape how investors access financial products globally, noting that innovation developed within clear regulatory frameworks can contribute to a more efficient and interconnected investment ecosystem.

Steven emphasized that regulatory compliance is not merely an operational requirement, but a core value embedded in VCGL's business philosophy. The group works closely with regulators across all jurisdictions in which it operates, and views proactive engagement with regulatory frameworks as essential to building sustainable, trustworthy financial services. "We believe that long-term growth in this industry is only possible when it is built on a foundation of integrity and compliance," he said. "That is not a constraint on innovation — it is what makes innovation credible."