Extended-Hours Trading at Merrill Edge
Do you want to place trades before the stock market opens or after it shuts down for the day? Believe it or not, this is available to individual investors, not only professionals. With a Merrill Edge account, you can do this without incurring a separate extended-hours trading surcharge. Because Merrill Edge has a
$0 online stock and ETF commission schedule, this is about as inexpensive as trading stocks can get, although standard regulatory and other applicable fees can still apply.
On the Merrill Edge website, the regular trade ticket can’t be used to place an extended-hours trade. This is the order form you get from the search bar at the top of the site. If you enter a ticker symbol there and select Trade from the drop-down window, you won’t be able to place a pre-market or after-hours trade.
Instead, hover over the Trade tab in the top menu and choose Stocks & ETFs from the drop-down menu. On the ticket that opens, click the Extended Hours tab at the top of the order form. You will then be on the extended-hours ticket, which can be used to place an order before the regular session begins or after it ends.
The only order type available in this mode is
limit. There is no duration selection, either, because the order is valid for only one extended-hours session. If the order does not execute, it will be automatically canceled.
Pre-Market and After-Hours Trading at MarketPro
MarketPro is Merrill’s flagship trading platform. As expected, it also supports extended-hours trading. Somewhat surprisingly, however, it does not have a more advanced extended-hours order ticket. The platform’s trade ticket provides the same order types as Merrill’s website. As on the website, only limit orders can be used for an extended-hours trade.
To enter a pre-market or after-hours trade, make sure to click the Extended Hours link at the top of the order ticket, just as you would on the website order form. By default, the MarketPro order ticket appears in the lower-left corner.
Pre-Market and After-Hours on Mobile App
Merrill Edge also supports extended-hours trading on its mobile app. As with the other two platforms, the trade ticket has an extended-hours link at the top that must be selected to activate pre-market or after-hours trading. Use a limit order, and the order is ready to submit.
Merrill’s pre-market trading session runs from
7:00 in the morning ET to market
open, which is at
9:30 am ET. The after-hours session begins one minute after the closing bell (
4:01 pm ET) and
ends at
8:00 pm ET.
24-Hour Trading at Webull
If you want a longer trading window than Merrill Edge provides, you could open an account with competing broker Webull.
Webull’s pre-market session runs from 4:00 am ET until the opening bell. By comparison,
Merrill Edge’s morning session starts 3 hours after Webull’s.
Webull’s after-hours session runs from the closing bell until 8:00 pm ET.
Altogether, a Webull account provides 3 additional extended-hours trading hours.
Learn more...
Webull also provides
24/5 trading in select securities, including 500+ stocks and ETFs. Overnight trading runs from
8:00 pm to 4:00 am ET, Sunday through Thursday.
Extended-hours and 24/5 stock and ETF orders at Webull have
$0 commissions.
Open Webull Account
Get 12 FREE STOCKS worth up to $3,600 and a 3.5% bonus on IRA deposits with Webull！
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Benefits of Trading in Extended Hours
Extended-hours trading can offer several useful benefits. Whether you are speculating on volatile stocks before the markets open, reacting to global events, taking defensive steps during market declines, trading around earnings moves, or doing something similar, access to markets before and after regular trading hours can be valuable. It can also be useful to establish a position before most traders start their day.
Considerations When Trading in Extended Hours
Although extended-hours trading can be useful, there are also important issues to consider. Trading volume is generally much lower during extended-hours sessions, and that can create added risks as well as opportunities.
For one thing, bid/ask spreads are usually wider for securities trading outside regular hours. This can result in prices that are less favorable than expected.
Only limit orders are allowed during extended-hours trading. Using limit orders during periods of high volatility or low volume can mean that orders do not get filled. The price can also move right past a limit order.
One-directional trading is also common in stocks that draw a lot of attention during pre-market and post-market sessions. Stocks can receive a rush of either buy orders or sell orders from momentum traders. Being on the wrong side of a large price move can be expensive.
Updated on 9/3/2026.
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