Extended hours and overnight trading

Learn more about trading in off-hours before the market opens or after it closes.

The regular hours of operation for North American stock markets are from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm ET, Monday to Friday (excluding certain holidays).

Everyday, the vast majority of trades take place during regular market hours, but big news doesn’t just happen during the day. Influential company announcements and geopolitical events can happen at any time.

For example: many companies announce their earnings reports outside regular market hours.

This is where pre-market, post-market and overnight trading comes in: these sessions allow you to act on big news while many traders are either still in bed or have gone home for the day.

Questrade is proud to be one of the only brokers in Canada to offer extensive premarket and post market hours for you to trade in.

With trading available as early as 4 am ET and as late as 2 AM ET, you have the ability to take advantage of opportunities outside regular market hours.

Our extended hours trading vs. the competition

Learn how our extended hours trading stacks up against the big banks, and why it’s just one of many reasons to switch to Questrade.

Canadian exchanges and securities

There is no pre-market trading available for Canadian securities.

Only a limited post-market exists for Canadian stocks and ETFs at the closing price between 4:15 pm and 5pm ET.

To trade Canadian stocks and ETFs in the post market, the following conditions apply:

• It must be a security listed on the TSX, or TSX-V. (.TO or .VN).

  • Canadian Securities Exchange (.CN) symbols are not eligible.

• The order must be placed between 4:15 pm and 5pm ET.

  • Orders placed between 4 pm and 4:15 pm will not be accepted by the exchange(s) and route(s).

• It must be a Limit order, at the Last price the security was traded at on its native exchange (i.e. TSX or TSX-V).

• The Quantity of shares/units must be a standard board lot (i.e. 100/200 shares).

  • Odd-lot orders that are not a multiple of 100 are not eligible.

• The order Duration must be set as DAY, and the preferred ECN as AUTO.

U.S. exchanges and securities

The U.S. pre-market hours available at Questrade are from 4:00 am to 9:30 am ET.

Post-market hours are from 4 pm to 8 pm ET.

To trade U.S. stocks and ETFs during extended market hours, the following conditions apply:

• The order must be placed as a Limit order

• You must use GTEM (good til’ extended market) as the duration

• Select AUTO, NASDAQ, ARCA, BATS, or EDGX as the Order Route

  • The order route will be AUTO by default

  • Placing an order with a route other than AUTO may incur ECN fees.

A limited number of ETF Options and Index Options (S&P 500 or Nasdaq for example) may be traded until 4:15 pm ET.

Overnight trading

U.S. overnight hours available at Questrade are from 8pm to 2am ET.

To trade eligible U.S. stocks and ETFs during these times, the following conditions apply:

• The order must be placed as a Limit order

• You must use OVERNIGHT as the order duration

• You cannot specify a route for an overnight order.

• OVERNIGHT orders remain open only during overnight hours. If the order is not filled by 2 am, it is canceled.

• Options, Pink Sheets (OTC markets) and fractional shares are not available to trade during these extended market hours.

• Bracket orders and special instructions are not available.

Trade your way

No matter which Questrade platform you choose, extended hours trading is available to everyone.

Our two new mobile apps, QuestMobile and Edge Mobile, are fantastic ways to quickly enter your extended hours trades while other traders are still waking up and waiting for the markets to open.