How do I trade stock in pre-market with IB, in a reliable fashion? For example I don't want a limit of 20.10 to be executed at 19.90, so that i have 20 cents slippage. What data do I need and is reliable, and how do I get permission to execute orders?
I am not sure I understand you well. You can put a limit order to buy and sell in pre-market and you don't need any permission. You just need to select to execute in extended hours whne putting your order. There is nothing with reliability. The bid/ask in pre market might be totally different with regular trading hours and there might be a gap and either you might lose ot win. This happens mostly in less traded stocks and not in something like QQQQ
But a limit order is a limit order is a limit order, right? At worst you're looking at partial execution.
If you have real-time data of NYSE you have premarket data? If you put in a limit order it fills at the limit right?
Yes, only limit orders work in extended hours trading and they fill at your limit price. But as someone else mentioned you may only get a partial fill. It's a very thin and erratic market to trade, except during earnings announcements and major news events.
Yes limit order is a limit order. What I meant was that suppose the bid and ask for a stock is 44.1/44/2 and you buy it at 44.10 because your limit was 44.10 and you might think that you got a good price but when the market opens , it might open at 43 and it will never even hit $44. This happens in some illiquid stocks because volume is not there. This almost never happens on QQQQ, CSCO, INTC,..... As the market gets close to opening time, price becomes more meaningful.
Sorry but I don't understand the question. Let me say this: you probably shouldn't be trading pre and post market. Having said that, some of the best opportunities come in pre and post market but it is a time that the at-home retail guy will get run over. Your best bet is probably if you want to buy a stock put a bid way below the market and see if you can get hit. Above for selling. You will get hit (and for size) far more often than you might expect. If you're asking this question you should not be trading these sessions actively. It takes real execution skills, which you frankly cannot develop until you have literally done thousands of trades, to compete in this environment. Unless you can buy and sell and execute 3 trades in a second if you have to (that is no exaggeration) then those of us who CAN do that will take your money! Why do you want to trade pre and post market?