Whether you are an active day trader who can’t get enough action during the six and a half hours the stock exchanges are open or an investor looking for new profitable opportunities, after-market trading offers an attractive option. The after-market can be especially profitable for traders who have an added technological edge, like VantagePoint Intermarket Analysis Software.
After-Market Trading Defined
The stock markets have gone through many changes, from the old days of handwriting trades on chalk boards to the high speed electronic networks of today. Still, in the recent history of the exchanges, most traders could only buy and sell stocks during the regular business hours of major stock exchanges. For most US Exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ,), regular business hours is typically defined as 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM Eastern Time. Trading before and after regular exchange hours first became available for large institutional players in the early 1990s.
Today a number of electronic trading networks (ETN) allow all investors to keep trading even when the big money players have stopped participating. Nearly all the major online brokerages and full-service brokerage firms will allow you to enter buy and sell orders for stocks to be executed after the exchanges close. Some may charge extra commissions and fees for after hours, but not all, so you’ll need to check with your broker.
However, with any investment there are inherent risks. Here are a few risks involved with after market trading:
- Increased volatility. While AAPL, NFLX, GOOG and the other names should be okay to trade in the after-market, for stocks with limited trading activity, you may find greater price fluctuations than you would have seen during regular trading hours.
- Lack of liquidity. During regular trading hours, it is easy to match buyers and sellers as there is sufficient interest on both sides of the market. During after-hours, there may be less trading volume for some stocks, making it more difficult to execute some of your trades.
- Bigger bid ask spread. Less trading activity could also mean wider spreads between the bid and offer prices. As a result, you may find it more difficult to get your order executed or to get as favorable a price as you could have during regular market hours resulting in slippage.
VantagePoint Provides an After-Market Edge
Considering the inherent risks, you need a tool to help you find profitable trading opportunities in the after-hours. VantagePoint can help as it forecasts the big trending or gap moves in a stock that often happen in the after-hours market due to an earnings announcement or other important news.
How can VantagePoint do this? By using intermarket analysis and a neural network process to find hidden patterns and relationships between markets, VantagePoint’s proprietary indicators provide short-term trend forecasts that anticipate trend changes. This process provides a unique perspective on markets that uses foresight, instead of hindsight, allowing you to find profitable opportunities if you are after market trading.
