Extended hours trading refers to stock trading that takes place either before (Pre-market) or after (After-hours) the regular trading hours of a stock exchange. Pre-market and after-hours trading is an option available only for the most liquid US stocks available for leveraged trading. The feed we get for our extended trading hours is from the same financial institutions and sources, as the price feed, we get for our regular market session.
Here's what the extended trading hours are:
- Pre-Market - takes place each trading day from 09:00 - 14:30 GMT.
- After-Hours - takes place each trading day from 21:00 - 01:00 GMT and its start coincides with the close of the regular market sessions, which means that you'll be allowed to trade US stock CFDs from 9:30 to 01:00 GMT without interruption.
The extended hours trading option allows you to react in a timely manner to a possible increase in volatility following earnings reports and other scheduled or unexpected events. You can also minimize the risk of an occurring market gap. Last but not least, you can get a better execution of stop orders since in the presence of a price gap stop orders are executed as normal market orders or at the first available price when the market opens. As you know, this can sometimes result in severe losses for you. If the instrument is tradable while the move is taking place, stop orders will be executed at your requested price or as close as possible to it.
*It's good to know, during these hours a given instrument can also be suspended from trading. This can happen if no price quotes are received regarding the instrument in a time frame of 5 minutes.