Extended-Hours Trading at Merrill Edge
Do you want to trade before the stock market opens or after it closes? Believe it or not, this is possible, and not just for professionals. With a Merrill Edge account, you can do this without incurring any additional trading fees. Because Merrill Edge has a $0 commission schedule, this is about as inexpensive as trading stocks can possibly get.
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, you need to hover over the Trade tab in the top menu and select Stocks & ETFs from the drop-down menu. On the ticket that appears, you must click on the Extended Hours tab at the top of the ticket. Now you’re on the extended-hours ticket, and it can be used to submit an order before the regular session opens or after it closes.
The only order type available in this mode is limit. There is no duration option, either, because the order is only valid for one extended-hours session. If it doesn’t fill, it will be automatically canceled.
Pre-Market and After-Hours Trading at MarketPro
MarketPro is Merrill’s crown jewel trading platform. Not surprisingly, it also offers extended-hours trading. Somewhat surprisingly, however, is the lack of an advanced order ticket. The platform’s trade ticket offers the same order types as Merrill’s website. As with the website, only limit orders can be used with an extended-hours trade.
To submit a pre-market or after-hours trade, be sure to click on the Extended Hours link at the top of the order ticket, as with the website order form. The order ticket on MarketPro is located in the lower-left corner by default.
Pre-Market and After-Hours on Mobile App
Finally, Merrill Edge also offers extended-hours trading via its mobile app. As with the other two platforms, there is an extended-hours link at the top of the trade ticket that must be selected to enable pre-market or after-hours trading. Use a limit order and you’re all set.
Merrill’s pre-market trading period runs from 7:00 in the morning, Eastern Standard Time, to market
open, which is at 9:30. The after-hours period starts one minute after the closing bell (4:01 pm) and
ends at 8:00 pm.
Extended-Hours Trading at Moomoo
If you want more hours than Merrill Edge offers, you could open an account at rival firm Moomoo.
Moomoo’s pre-market session runs from 4:00 am, EST, until the opening bell. By contrast,
Merrill Edge’s early period starts 3 hours after Moomoo’s.
And Moomoo’s late-night period runs from the closing bell until 8:00 pm.
In total, you get a 3 hours more with a Moomoo account.
Learn more...
Extended-hours orders at Moomoo have no fees.
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Robinhood Overnight Trading
Unlike Merrill Lynch, Robinhood offers cryptocurrency trading, and the crypto market is
open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The broker also offers 24/7 trading in many popular stocks and ETF's.
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Benefits of Trading in Extended Hours
There are many benefits to trading the extended hours sessions. Whether you are speculating on volatile stocks before the markets open, responding to global events, taking defensive measures in times of market downturns, trading earnings moves, or anything in between, having access to the markets before and after regular trading hours can be very helpful. Also useful is the fact that you can get positioned before most traders begin their day.
Considerations When Trading in Extended Hours
While there are certainly many benefits that come with extended hours trading, there are also some important considerations to take into account. There is generally much less volume in the markets during extended hours sessions, and that can lead to some increased risks (and opportunities).
For one thing, there are usually wider bid/ask spreads for securities trading in the off-hours. This can lead to prices that are less than ideal.
Only limit orders are allowed during extended hours trading. Placing limit orders during times of high volatility or low volume situations can lead to orders not getting filled. It is possible for price to jump right over a limit order.
One-directional trade is also common on stocks getting a lot of attention during pre-and post-market sessions. It is common for stocks to get a flood of either buy or sell orders from momentum traders. Getting stuck on the wrong side of a large price swing can be quite costly.
Updated on 8/28/2025.
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