Buying stocks pre-opening time

Hi to you all,

I'm new to trading. yestarday i decided to buy stocks pre-opening time as it seemed it would work out well. It didn't work out well at all. I thought i bought the stocks at a certain rate pre-market opening and thought when the market opened that i would gain, when the stocks were bought they were already 2% up and i didn't manage to get much out of it. I don't understand this, why were they already 2% up? Is there something going on beforehand? This is the NYSE, in case that matters.

k0103707 said:

Hi to you all,

I'm new to trading. yestarday i decided to buy stocks pre-opening time as it seemed it would work out well. It didn't work out well at all. I thought i bought the stocks at a certain rate pre-market opening and thought when the market opened that i would gain, when the stocks were bought they were already 2% up and i didn't manage to get much out of it. I don't understand this, why were they already 2% up? Is there something going on beforehand? This is the NYSE, in case that matters.

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I might be just misunderstanding you..
you thought you bought at a certain rate? You were quoted a price which you accepted, lets say the price came up at $100 and you accepted $100 but in fact the price was 102?
I'm not clear on "they were already 2% up". you were either quoted 100 or you were quoted 102 when you accepted the price

no worries, just found out that in fact there is pre-market and after-market trading which i didn't know existed.

k0103707 said:

Hi to you all,

I'm new to trading. yestarday i decided to buy stocks pre-opening time as it seemed it would work out well. It didn't work out well at all. I thought i bought the stocks at a certain rate pre-market opening and thought when the market opened that i would gain, when the stocks were bought they were already 2% up and i didn't manage to get much out of it. I don't understand this, why were they already 2% up? Is there something going on beforehand? This is the NYSE, in case that matters.

Click to expand...

That's a good question and one I have myself even though the thread is several weeks old.

How is the after markets price determined? Is it based on the requests for buys and sells online after the market closes ?

And how do you buy something after the market has closed? Can it be done or is the pre market and after market prices just based on demand and not transactions?

A quote is just a quote, not a transaction. Often orders based on a quote will be marked something like "Market" or "At Market", which means the price paid will be the best available after the market opens. Specifying a Stop or Limit Order will mean the price paid will be more within your control, though if the share never trades at/beyond your specified price, there won't be a purchase at all.

TexasRangersFan said:

That's a good question and one I have myself even though the thread is several weeks old.

How is the after markets price determined? Is it based on the requests for buys and sells online after the market closes ?

And how do you buy something after the market has closed? Can it be done or is the pre market and after market prices just based on demand and not transactions?

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price after market or pre-market is determined in the same way as normal hours, ie demand and supply. the main difference will be volume and liquidity which will be greatly reduced. you want to buy at a price, means somebody is also willing to sell at that price.

you and I can buy pre or after markets, it used to be very selective to large institutions, these days anyone can do it..all depends on your broker
TD ameritrade, Charles schwab, Interactive brokers for example offer extended market trading. so its down to the broker

the pre market is open for about 1.5 hours before official open and after market is 4 hours I believe. these are all real prices that are being traded and real transactions