Trading the US market
After-hours
Definition
After-hours trading runs from the 4:00 p.m. ET close until 8:00 p.m. ET on the main electronic venues. Many companies release earnings in this window, so moves can be sharp while liquidity stays thin, and many brokers accept only limit orders then.
Example
Say a stock closes at $90.00 and the company reports earnings at 4:05 p.m. Within minutes it trades at $84.50 after hours, with a 30-cent spread instead of the usual 2 cents, on just a few thousand shares. A sell limit at $84.00 sets the lowest price you will accept, which matters when one large order can move the price by a dollar.
Hypothetical numbers, for illustration only.
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