New to IB and tried to trade (just to test the system if it works) as early as 3am in the morning. But the order did not go through both at the bid or offer price. What is the earliest actual trading hour at IB? Their web page mentions exchange hour for instinet is 3am to 6:30pm....
I believe you can only trade after 8am EST. I could be wrong, but that was my experience. Best to call them to confirm. Mark
this is my understanding as far as stocks go retail customers can place orders on the IB platform after instinet is up and running on it usually that is between 3:15 - 3:30 am somtimes it is even closer to 3 am usually it is not worth trading anything as the spreads are wide sometimes one can catch something when the various european exchanges open and the futures have a big move there is more pre market action and liquidity after 7:00 - 7:15 am when the Island ECN orders start adding more liquidity there is even more of the above after 7:30 am when Redibook ECN orders come into play and 8 am when the other ECN's enter the picture After Hours ... Instinet closes down each day at 6:30 pm (on IB they seem to stop at about 6:26 pm) Island , Redibook , Archipelago keep going till 8 pm hope this helps ... but if you really want to be sure contact IB directly
Just a clarification: Instinet via IB closes at 18:25, and you need to cancel your orders before then or you won't be able to (it'll just go magenta). I have a feeling that if you leave the order live at 18:25, it is still subject to getting filled on Instinet until 18:30 - I think this happened to me once. Actually, you've provided better information than they would, or care to. They've historically answered this question incorrectly when asked, and now officially disclaim any responsibility for keeping up to date on this issue. I only found out by looking at the individual ECNs' web pages and trial and error.
at 3 AM do not use the toll free number. Call HK or just use the chat. In any event, instinet starts as setharb says. You'll have to route specifically to instinet. as Europe opens at that time you may want to consider trading the big caps in Europe at that hour since spreads are better.
What's this nonsense with INET closing early? I had a problem with this a while ago, and got a typical BS response ("we don't know anything about it") from the trading desk. No excuse for closing an exchange early, especially without informing the clientele. def, you have any info on this matter?
I watched prehour activities all morning from 3 am to 9am ET. Execution went through as early as 3:15 am. But the spread is quite high in the istinet. It is more liquid after 7am. Thanks all for your responses.