What Is after-hours trade ?
after-hours trade starts at 4 post meridiem U.S. Eastern Time after the major U.S. malcolm stock exchanges close up. The after-hours trading session can run adenine late as 8 post meridiem, though book typically thins out much earlier in the school term. trade in the after-hours is conducted through electronic communication networks ( ECNs ) .
Reading: After-Hours Trading
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What’s After-Hours Trading?
Key Takeaways
- After-hours trading starts at 4 p.m. and ends at around 8 p.m.
- Stocks are not as liquid during after-hours trading.
- The spread between the bid and the ask may be wider in after-hours trading.
Understanding after-hours trade
The Spark
after-hours trade is something traders or investors can use if news program breaks after the close of the stock exchange. In some cases, the news, such as an earnings unblock, may prompt an investor to either buy or sell a store .
volume
The volume for a stock may spike on the initial release of the news but most of the time thins out as the session progresses. The total of volume by and large slows significantly by 6 p.m. There is a hearty risk when trade in illiquid stocks after-hours .
price
not entirely does volume sometimes come at a bounty in the after-hours trade sessions but then does price. It is not strange for the spreads to be wide in the after-hours. The scatter is the deviation between the bid and the ask prices. ascribable to fewer shares trading, the spread may be importantly wider than during the normal trade seance .
participation
If liquidity and prices weren ’ thymine adequate of a rationality to make after-hours trade hazardous, the miss of participants makes it even riskier. In some cases, certain investors or institutions may choose just not to participate in after-hours trade, careless of the news or the consequence .
This means that it is quite possible for a neckcloth to fall sharply in the after-hours only to rise once the regular deal session resumes the adjacent day at 9:30 ante meridiem, should many big institutional investors have a different scene of the price carry through during the after-hours deal session.
Because volume is thin and spreads are broad in after-hours trade it is much easier to push prices higher or lower, requiring fewer shares to make a hearty affect. Since after-hours trade can have a significant affect on a stock ‘s price, it ‘s not a bad estimate to put a limit order on any shares you intend to buy or sell outside of regular trade periods .
Real-World Example of After-Hours trade
Nvidia Corp. ( NVDA ) earnings results in February 2019 are an excellent case of how after-hours trade works and the dangers that come with it. Nvidia reported quarterly results on February 14. The livestock was greeted by a boastful leap in monetary value, rising to closely $ 169 from $ 154.50 in the 10 minutes following the news program .
As the chart shows, bulk was firm in the beginning 10 minutes and then dropped promptly after 4:30 post meridiem During the first 5 minutes of trade, around 700,000 shares traded and the stock jumped about 6 %. however, volume slowed materially with just 350,000 shares trading between 4:25 and 4:30. By 5 post meridiem, the amount of volume trade slowed to alone 100,000 shares, while the neckcloth was inactive trading about $ 165 .
persona by Sabrina Jiang © Investopedia 2020
however, the following dawn was a unlike history, which was when all the market participants had a chance to weigh in on Nvidia ’ s results. From 9:30 ante meridiem 9:35 ante meridiem, closely 2.3 million shares traded, more than three times greater than the volume in the initial minutes of the previous day ‘s after-hours, and the price dropped from $ 164 to $ 161 .
The neckcloth proceeded to trade lower throughout the remainder of the day, closing at $ 157.20. That was just $ 3 higher than the former day ‘s close, after being up closely $ 15 in the after-hours session. closely all of the after-hours gains had evaporated .