Managing Premarket when it opens at 4:00AM but brokers open at 8:00AM or so
- Thread starter truber
- Start date
Robert Morse
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What broker and what software? Lightspeed Trader and Sterling Trader Pro offer access at 4am ET.
1. You have to specify time zone. "4am" doesn't mean anything, as there are people here from all 24 time zones, trading U.S., European, and Asian markets.
2. Change your broker. Most brokers (such as IB) do accept and process orders pre- and after normal hours. It actually goes beyond "pre" and "after". For example, with CME futures, you get 23 hours a day.
Sorry. 4:00AM EST. I use TradeStation. The reason I ask is sometimes equities start moving against me before I get a chance to act. I was wondering how others might manage this. For example, only doing day trades would be one approach. I did do a limit search through ET archives to see if this thread was already discussed. Sorry if this is a repeat.
I can think of many different ways:
1. Be flat by the end of the day
2. Have a stop loss order in place (with a broker that supports it)
3. Reduce the position size to a level that overnight fluctuations do not keep you up at night
4. Hedge your position
5. Diversify your holdings
6. Automate the exits (with a broker that supports it)
7. Ignore pre-market movements altogether
8. Switch to another broker which allows trading pre-market
Most of the time, the liquidity will be so limited at 4:00AM EST that it won't even matter. I.e., you won't be able to manage the position at that time of day even if you wanted to. I know that IB allows orders at 4:00AM EST for the few ECNs that are open then.
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RealTick......named them ''irregular'' hours LOL-True
Put it another way; an EliteTrader said quote ''pre-market, where do you want it????'' LOL