You need to know which specific tools on your platform give you quotes from which source. After the close of the Naz and listed tapes at 18:30, you need to see the top-of-book quotes (or the actual market depth) from the individual ECN feeds. IB does this correctly (the SMART route). Most other platforms' "level 1" quotes do not.
my broker only allows 8am to 8pm and only gives quote from 8am to 6:30pm, so i missed 1 hour trading and 2.5 hours quote. wtf. how do i get the extra one hour trading or extra 2.5 hours quote? should i contact my broker or there is some kind of perference setup i missed in their interface?
did you happy with your current broker? did you trade a lot before and after market close? you should answer to yourself on those and many other questions. then decide, if you need to change a broker. simple isn't it?
i trade a lot in pre and after. but i am afraid of the broker transfer. i will be out of touch of my money for some days. i remember it is like i will wait for 3 days for my old broker to settle all trades, then allow 7 biz days to trade in new broker. man. that is too risky. if i can move. i will move asap.
What broker makes you wait 7 business days to trade? You may be right about the 3 days to clear; I'm not sure. Ask your broker. What broker are you with, and who are you considering switching to? If they both have the same clearing firm, you should be able to do a journal transfer, which I believe can be accomplished in 1 day. In which case you might not have to wait for the trades to settle. Do you have enough funds to open a second account while you're preparing to close the first?