Pre-Market Trading?

Discussion in 'Trading' started by Shawn B., Jul 5, 2007.

  1. Shawn B.

    Shawn B.

    Is there any easy way a retail investor can trade pre or post-market? (just tried fiddling with IB TWS and found that you have to uncheck an option in the TIF tab in the order ticket to make the order go through during pre or post market)

    Anyway..

    I know there are wide bid-ask spreads and no liquidity but it might be useful for those situations like yesterday's HLT buyout, I guess, so you can enter before the crowd

    Anyone had past experiences with this?
     
  2. If you, Mr. lil ol' retail can trade pre-market, why do you think the crowd wont as well?

    Paper trading platofrms ofte only do RTH but you can trade those hours when you go live.
     
  3. Shawn B.

    Shawn B.

    Well, to trade pre-market on news you have to:

    1- know it IS possible for a retail trader (I learned it a few hours ago, for example, which makes me think I wasn't the only one :p)

    2- find a brokerage that supports it

    3- read the news on a stock

    4- be able to act on the news at once

    Statistics teach me that probably a good chunk of the crowd won't be able to meet all the requirements in that particular moment, so it's an edge..
     
  4. Ok keep thinking that... all professional traders have access to pre-market trading and so do a lot of good retail platforms so that takes care of that. When news breaks it is all over the place before someone else has time to read it, write about it, and have you read it and then react to it.

    Just because you learned it a few hours ago, you think many do not know about pre-market trading?

    Your statistics teacher must be upset right now lol... There is no edge you speak of because when the news the big players are trading it hard already. Why do you think CNBC has those quotes going by at 8:00 AM.

    You can trade pre-market and look for opportunities but dont think you will hear news and get in before any crowd...