Extended Hours: trading before the open and after the close

Most trading happens between the opening bell and the closing bell. Some happens before and after them, when fewer people trade. BigTape shows those trades too, and tells you plainly when a print came from outside regular hours.

The regular session

U.S. stocks trade in a regular session from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern on trading days. Most trading happens then. The market is closed on weekends and on a short list of holidays. On a few days each year, it closes early, usually at 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

The listing exchange opens and closes each session with an auction that matches many orders at one price. Those trades are regular Lit prints, ranked and drawn like any other print, so a large one right at 9:30 a.m. or 4:00 p.m. looks like any other large trade. The day's high and low, and the candles you see by default, come from the regular session alone.

Outside regular hours

Trading also happens before 9:30 a.m. and after 4:00 p.m. Eastern. The hours available depend on the venue and on your broker. BigTape labels any trade outside the regular session as Extended Hours. An Extended Hours print is still one of the four print types, Lit or Dark, regular or Sweep, and it is ranked against the ticker's history the same way as any other print.

Fewer people trade outside regular hours. Prices can move further between trades, and one trade can be large compared with the volume around it. Many companies publish their results before the open or after the close, so a stock can trade actively outside regular hours on those days.

On the chart

One switch, Extended Hours, decides whether the chart includes those hours. Turn it on and the chart adds the time before the open and after the close, shaded and labeled Pre-market and After hours, with the prints that traded then. Turn it off and the chart shows the regular session only. The daily and weekly charts always show regular hours.

The shading is the only thing that sets these prints apart. Each one keeps the shape of its kind and the color of its venue, and its size and number still give its rank. Its tooltip says Extended Hours in words.

Other facts about time and price

Two more facts help with prints at unusual times or prices. The tooltip states each in words, and the mark stays an ordinary one. A Late Report was published late and out of order, so its time is when it was reported, not necessarily when it happened. A Ghost Print is priced outside that day's regular-session high and low, and its tooltip says how far, such as “Priced $0.42 above the day's high”. Its price usually reflects how the trade was arranged, not where the market was.