I believe the idea behind reporting the numbers before the open or AH was that everyone had a chance to digest the report for the next opening hours. It made sense when not too many people traded AH. Now I believe things are different. Many times the volume AH when a report comes out is more than the daily volume. I believe it makes sense to halt the stock for half an hour so everyone can read the report and then can decide on the price. Most of the times when I trade a stock that its report is out is not because I read or know the results, I just follow the crowd and sometimes the stock changes its direction after it goes in one way for a few minutes. It is because no one really cares about the results. It is really like a sheep leading a herd.