What is the earliest time in the day I can start trading? It seems that some stocks are trading well before the bell.
Trade at 3 AM EDT with IB. Seriously. Of course, the only ECN open at that time is Insinet, and it's pretty thin. I believe Island opens at 7, it picks up a little at 8, but there's not much liquidity until about 9. I believe other ECNs like ARCA start trading at 8.
I can't seem to find the trading hours for QQQ anywhere. It's always been my understanding that trading starts at 8 am ET same for Naz stocks. However bid and ask start moving well before that time and I think I have seen some trades going off too . Can you trade before 8 am I thought people could just post bids and offers on ARCA and other ECN's?