The normal hours of the stock market on non-holidays are from 9:30 am EST to 4:00pm EST.
However, not everyone is able to place trades during these hours for a number of reasons. One of the most common is having a work schedule that doesn't allow you to be by your phone.
Both pre-market and after-hours trading are important for many reasons. For example, major news stories are often released before the stock exchanges open or after they close.
Two examples are earnings releases and economic news, such as GDP, employment, and retail sales. In addition, the Federal Reserve often makes major announcements between the market close on Fridays and market opening on Monday mornings.
All can have a major impact on the direction of the market or on individual stocks.
Extended hours trading gives you the ability to react to those announcements, either before the market opens or after it closes.
However, do keep in mind that the markets are significantly more volatile during the extended trading hours. Since there are fewer participants at these hours, prices can go all over the place.
You may want to consider using a limit order to have some control over the prices your orders are filled at.
In this article, we will be covering the top 6 brokerages that offer pre-market and after-hours trading, known as extended trading hours.
Robinhood is the most beginner friendly trading app, allowing you to trade stocks, options and crypto all from your phone.
Robinhood allows you to trade stocks from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm EST.Â
Since Robinhood is a very beginner friendly app, it is a great place to test the waters with extended hours stock trading. While it does not have the widest hours available among options on this list, it will be very easy to understand and navigate the app.
Webull is a more advanced commission free trading app offering a lot of great research tools. However, beginner investors might be overwhelmed by the amount of information available.
Webull allows you to trade stocks from 4:00am to 8:00pm EST.Â
Firstrade is another highly rated investment platform.
It provides comprehensive research from some of the top providers in the financial industry, including Morningstar, Zacks, and Benzinga. In addition, they offer trading in over 11,000 mutual funds, commission-free.
Most other brokers charge fees on mutual funds. It’s also an excellent platform if you want to trade options, since it’s one of the few brokerages that charge no contract fee, in addition to being commission-free.
Firstrade allows you to trade stocks from 8:00am to 8:00pm EST.Â
TradeStation is widely acknowledged to be one of the top investment platforms for both advanced and active traders.
Part of that reputation owes to the fact that TradeStation was designed specifically for professional and institutional traders. They offer all types of investment options, including cryptocurrencies.
TradeStation allows you to trade stocks from 8:00am to 8:00pm EST.Â
Given that Charles Schwab is pretty much good at everything, it’s not possible to identify specifically what they do best.
If it’s possible to say, it may be in the area of customer support. They offer 24/7 live support, as well as a network of branches in and around major cities across the country. Schwab offers virtually unlimited investment options, and is suitable for both self-directed investors, as well as anyone interested in a managed portfolio option.
Charles Schwab allows you to trade stocks from 7:00am to 8:00pm EST.Â
As the second-largest investment brokerage firm in the world and Schwab’s primary competitor, the two platforms are just about equal in almost every regard.
Fidelity can accommodate investors at all levels but is also well suited to both self-directed investors and those looking for managed investment options.
And again, like Schwab, they offer top-notch customer service, 24 hours a day, seven days per week. They have a network of several hundred branches around the country, in case you like good old-fashioned face-to-face contact with your investing activities.
Fidelity allows you to trade stocks from 7:00am to 8:00pm EST.Â
