How to trade out of hours: pre-market and post-market
Discover how our pre-market and post-market offerings can enable you to make the most of price movements outside of regular market hours.
Start trading today. Call +65 6390 5133 between 9am and 6pm (SGT) on weekdays or email accountopening@ig.com.sg for account opening enquiries.
Contact us: +65 6390 5133
Start trading today. Call +65 6390 5133 between 9am and 6pm (SGT) on weekdays or email accountopening@ig.com.sg for account opening enquiries.
Contact us: +65 6390 5133
What is out-of-hours trading?
Out-of-hours trading is any trading activity that takes place outside of a market’s standard trading window. A range of our markets are available for out-of-hours trading, including shares, indices and options.
Out-of-hours trading can be separated into:
- Pre-market trading, which takes place before the main trading session opens
- Post-market trading, which takes place after the main trading session closes
Why trade out of hours?
When you trade during pre-market or post-market, you can:
- React to breaking news and company earnings reports as they happen
- Open, edit or close a position outside of the main market session
- Hedge your exposure if breaking news is likely to affect an existing position
Discover more about trading online
What out-of-hours sessions are available?
What is pre-market trading?
Pre-market trading enables you to trade a market before the main session opens. For example, while most Hong Kong traders can only access US stock markets from 10.30pm to 5am (UTC +8), pre-market trading could enable you to access these markets hours before they open. We offer exclusive extended and pre-market hours on All Sessions stocks, indices and options.
What is post-market trading?
Post-market trading enables you to trade after the main session closes. For example, while most Hong Kong traders can only access US stock markets from 10.30pm to 5am (UTC +8), post-market trading could grant you access to these markets for hours after they close. Our exclusive extended hours on All Sessions stocks, indices and options enable you to trade post market.
How to trade pre-market and post-market
Learn what moves pre-market and post-market prices
A range of factors can influence pre-market and post-market prices, including earnings releases, monetary policy meetings, macroeconomic events, and any unexpected news.
For example, companies often report results in the pre- or post-market sessions – before the main trading session starts. This can include US firms such as Apple, Alphabet, Netflix, Facebook, Amazon and Tesla, which are available as part of our All Sessions stock offering.
Prices tend to move rapidly when news breaks outside of the main session, as a result of lower trading volumes and liquidity. So, traders who don’t have access to pre- or post-market trading can find that they miss the opportunity to take full advantage of the price moves associated with these reports.
Choose a pre-market or post-market strategy
Pre-market and post-market trading sessions can form an important part of a trader’s strategy. There are two main ways to take advantage of price movements during these sessions:
Trading breakouts
Breakouts typically follow a period of consolidation – when an asset’s price is relatively static after a strong price move in either direction. Consolidation often precedes an announcement, as traders and investors are waiting to see how they should act.
Breakout traders will look for consolidation in the market, then open positions on the back of relevant news announcement. Their aim is to take full advantage of the resulting price move.
Technical indicators that can help you assess when breakouts could occur include Average True Range and Bollinger Bands.
Hedging gap risk
Gapping occurs when the price at the start of the main session is substantially higher or lower than the end of the previous day’s post-market session.
You can minimise gap risk by hedging with our out-of-hours markets. For example, if you were concerned that a Tesla shareholding could fall in value before the main session opens, you could take a short position on Tesla during our post-market session.
If the market falls as expected, the profit from your short position would help offset the loss to your shareholding. But, if it rises instead, the increase in the value of your shareholding would help offset the loss on your short position.
Remember, with us you can only trade derivatives via contracts for difference (CFDs)*.
*CFDs are leveraged products. CFD trading may not be suitable for everyone and can result in losses that exceed your deposits, so please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved.
Open your position
Whether you choose to trade pre-market or post-market, the steps to open your position are always the same. Open an account then learn how to place your first out-of-hours trade.
How to open your out-of-hours trade
Login or create your CFD trading account
Login or create a trading account with us, and you’ll be able to trade pre-market and post-market with CFDs. These are financial derivatives, which enable you to predict on the price of a market rising by going long, or falling by going short.
You can also use CFDs to trade shares out of hours with our All Sessions stock offering on more than 70 US shares.
CFD trading
You’ll make a prediction about the direction of a market’s price movements, with your profit or loss determined by the accuracy of your prediction and the size of the market movement. CFD trading enables you to offset profits against losses – making CFDs particularly useful for hedging risk. Keep in mind that CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.
Select a market
Toggle between the tabs below to see the range of markets available during each session.
Shares
We offer extended hours for trading on over 70 All Sessions US shares – including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Tesla.
Extended share trading hours
|
Market hours (UTC +8) |
Normal stock market dealing hours on US shares |
10.30pm – 5am Monday to Thursday and 10.30pm on Friday to 5am on Saturday |
Our CFD trading hours on All Sessions US stocks |
5pm - 9am Monday to Thursday, and 5pm Friday to 6am on Saturday |
Indices
We offer over 35 more weekly trading hours than our nearest competitor on popular indices including the FTSE 100, Germany 40 and Wall Street.1 These markets enable you to get exposure to a country’s most popular stocks from a single position.
Options
We offer options trading with extended hours on selected weekly and monthly indices options contracts. Our daily options do not have extended hours because we are the market maker – meaning our daily options don’t exist in the underlying market.
- Standard options hours
- Extended options hours
| Market | Daily (UTC +8) | Weekly (UTC +8) | Monthly (UTC +8) |
| FTSE 100 | 3.30pm – 12.30am* | 4.15pm – 12.30am | 4.15pm – 12.30am |
| Germany 40 | 3.30pm – 12.30am* | 4.15pm – 12.30am | 4.15pm – 12.30am |
| Wall Street | 3.30pm – 5am* | 10.30pm – 5.15am | 10.30pm – 5.15am |
| Gold | 3.30pm – 2.30am** | 6pm – 2.30am | 6pm – 2.30am |
| Silver | 3.30pm – 2.30am** | - | 6pm – 2.30am |
| Oil | 3.30pm – 3.30am** | 6pm – 3.30am | 6pm – 3.30am |
*Our daily options on the FTSE 100, Germany 40 and Wall Street usually open at 3.30pm on Monday (UTC+8), closing a few minutes before their various expiry times. FTSE 100 and Germany 40 daily options will reopen at 1.10am (next day), Wall Street will reopen at 5.40am (UTC +8), running to the following day’s close before closing for the weekend at the Saturday early morning expiry.
**Our daily options on gold, silver and oil usually open at 3.30pm on Monday (UTC +8), closing a few minutes before their various expiry times. They’ll reopen at 5am (UTC +8) the next day, and run until that day’s close before closing for the weekend at the Saturday early morning expiry.
| Market | Daily (UTC +8) | Weekly (UTC +8) | Monthly (UTC +8) |
| FTSE 100 | 3.30pm – 12.30am* | 12.30am – 4pm | 12.30am – 4pm |
| Germany 40 | 3.30pm – 12.30am* | 12.30am – 4pm | 12.30am – 4pm |
| Wall Street | 3.30pm – 5am* | 5.15am – 10.30pm | 5.15am – 10.30pm |
| Gold | 3.30pm – 2.30am** | -[Only during standard hours] | -[Only during standard hours] |
| Silver | 3.30pm – 2.30am** | - | -[Only during standard hours] |
| Oil | 3.30pm – 3.30am** | -[Only during standard hours] | -[Only during standard hours] |
*Our daily options on the FTSE 100, Germany 40 and Wall Street usually open at 3.30pm on Monday (UTC +8), closing a few minutes before their various expiry times. FTSE 100 and Germany 40 options will reopen at 1.10am (next day), Wall Street will reopen at 5.40am (UTC +8), running to that day’s close before closing for the weekend at the Saturday early morning expiry.
**Our daily options on gold, silver and oil usually open at 3.30pm on Monday (UTC +8), closing a few minutes before their various expiry times. They’ll turn back on at 5am (UTC+8) the next day, and run until that day’s close before closing for the weekend at the Saturday early morning expiry.
Understand the risks of pre-market and post-market
The risks of pre-market and post-market trading include:
Lower liquidity than the main market session. Many market participants prefer to trade during the main session – when prices are generally more stable – meaning there can be fewer active participants to fill the other side of trades out-of-hours
Higher volatility than the main market session. Lower liquidity can result in more dramatic swings in prices, which can be good or bad – depending on your individual risk appetite
Wider spreads than the main market session. The spread is the difference between the buy and sell price on offer. Spreads can widen when volatility rises or liquidity falls – both of which occur more frequently out-of-hours
You can manage your risk using stops and limits, which automatically close your trade when the price hits a pre-determined level. Guaranteed stops are the best way to cap risk because these always close your trade at the exact level you specify – even if the market moves quickly or ‘gaps’. A small premium is payable if a guaranteed stop is triggered.
Place your trade
To place a trade during the pre-market and post-market, login or create an account and go to our web trading platform or mobile trading app. Once there, follow the steps below:
- Select your market
- Decide whether to sell or buy
- Choose your position size
- Set your stops and limits
- Place your deal
The below screengrab shows an example of how to open a position on our weekday FTSE 100 offering.
Alternatively, you can practise using our platform with a demo account. You’ll get S$200,000 in virtual funds to build your confidence before trading the live out-of-hours market sessions.
FAQs
What is All Sessions stock trading?
All Sessions stock trading is part of our exclusive out-of-hours offering. It enables you to trade over 70 US shares we offer in our extended share trading hours. You can trade derivatives on All Sessions stocks.
Our derivative trading hours for All Sessions stocks are 5pm to 9am Monday to Thursday, and 5pm Friday to 6am Saturday (UTC +8).
What are All Sessions stocks?
All Sessions stocks are over 70 US shares that we offer outside of the main market session for share trading. You can predict on our All Sessions stock offering with CFDs from 5pm to 9am Monday to Thursday, and 5pm Friday to 6am Saturday (UTC +8).
How do extended hours prices work?
Our extended hours prices work differently depending on the market. For example, our prices for All Sessions US equities are derived from the underlying market. For indices on the other hand, our extended hours prices are created by analysing historical correlations with similar markets.
Why do stocks and other assets spike pre-market and after hours?
Stocks and other assets might spike or experience increased volatility in pre-market and after-hours trading on the back of breaking news announcements or company earnings reports. Whether you choose to trade the pre-market or post-market session will depend on your individual appetite for risk.
How can you trade out of hours?
You can trade out of hours by taking a position on market prices during the pre-market and post-market sessions, or at the weekend with a weekend trading provider like us.
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1 Based on analysis of the FTSE 100, Germany 40 and Wall Street offering from prominent UK competitor websites. Information correct to the best of our ability as of 30 March 2020.
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