After-hours trading
- After-hours trading is trading outside a market's regular session.
- Session times differ by market and venue; there is no single after-hours period.
- On StockTicker24, "After hours" in a card header describes the related cash market's state.
After-hours trading: definition, StockTicker24 display rules and dated production-data examples.
Definition
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission defines after-hours trading as trading outside regular hours. Regular hours are 9:30 to 16:00 Eastern Time. The SEC glossary notes that after-hours periods differ by market and venue.
| Venue | Sessions in the cited historical sources (Eastern Time) |
|---|---|
| Nasdaq | 4:00–9:30, 9:30–16:00, 16:00–20:00 |
| NYSE Arca | 4:00–9:30 and 16:00–20:00 outside the core session |
| NYSE (main market) | 9:30–16:00 only |
The SEC's investor bulletin lists risks of after-hours trading: less liquidity, larger price changes, wider spreads, and after-hours systems that are not linked to each other.
Japan has off-auction trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's ToSTNeT. Single-issue trades run from 8:20 to 18:00 JST, ending at 12:30 JST for next-day settlement. The session using that day's closing price runs from 15:30 to 16:30 JST. Other closing-price sessions run from 8:20 to 8:45 and from 11:30 to 12:15 JST, using their respective reference prices.
The value moving in those hours is a perpetual-futures value, not a U.S. pre-market or after-hours share quote.
"after hours" always needs a market and a venue to be precise.
How it appears on StockTicker24
The card header shows one of these market states.
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Cash market open | The related cash market is in its session |
| After hours | Before or after the session on a trading day |
| Cash market closed | A weekday when the market is closed all day |
| Weekend | Saturday or Sunday |
| Cash hours unverified | Trading hours have not been verified |
| 24-hour trading | Crypto cards |
| Unlisted | No listed share exists yet |
For U.S. stocks, 9:30–16:00 local time counts as the session. In Japan time that is 22:30–5:00, or 23:30–6:00 during U.S. standard time. Japanese stocks use 9:00–15:30 JST.
The site retrieved its production board snapshot (/api/board-snapshot) at Oct 10, 2026, 05:01:18 UTC, which is Saturday 01:01 Eastern Time. Tesla's card value was a mid price of 382.965, and Apple's was 336.305. That moment is outside every session in the venue table above. These are perpetual-futures values, and their chart segment is dashed.
the label describes the cash market; the number is still the perpetual-futures value.
Examples from the current board
Saved observation:
Cash-session classification at
Tables scroll horizontally. Values use each contract’s quoted unit; no currency conversion.
| Symbol / contract | Unit | Price (mid; mark if missing) | prevDayPx | Difference vs. prevDayPx | Change vs. 24h earlier | Cash session |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Digitalxyz:WDC | USDC | 313.185 | 327.64 | −14.455 | −4.411854% | Cash session closed |
| BlackBerryxyz:BB | USDC | 7.7883 | 8.0818 | −0.2935 | −3.631617% | Cash session closed |
| Armxyz:ARM | USDC | 219.97 | 227.2 | −7.23 | −3.182218% | Cash session closed |
| Seagatepara:STX | USDC | 611.795 | 631.03 | −19.235 | −3.048191% | Cash session closed |
| Lumentumxyz:LITE | USDC | 798.25 | 822.88 | −24.63 | −2.993146% | Cash session closed |
Price = mid price, or mark price when mid is unavailable. Difference = price − prevDayPx; change vs. 24h earlier = (price ÷ prevDayPx − 1) × 100. Funding rate (%) = hourly decimal × 100. Calculated values are rounded to six decimal places.
Data: our board (perpetual-futures reference values), observed
No matching numeric example is available in this snapshot; the related board card is shown below.
Price: mid price (mark if missing) · perpetual futures / vs. 24h earlier / / Saved / stale
Data: our board (perpetual-futures reference values), observed
Questions
Is "After hours −0.44%" a U.S. after-market quote?
No. It compares the perpetual-futures value with the site's close basis. The site first uses the oracle value at the cash-market close. If unavailable, it uses the 15-minute perpetual-futures candle ending at the close, or a candle ending up to one hour earlier if the close-time candle is missing.
Are "After hours" and "Cash market closed" the same?
No. "After hours" covers the time before and after the session on a trading day. "Cash market closed" covers a weekday with no session.
Does a dashed line mean an extended-hours session is trading?
No. The dashed line marks hours when the cash market is closed. It does not state whether any extended-hours venue is open.
Related
Sources
The production API examples are a fixed historical snapshot. Building this page does not fetch new prices.
External source titles and URLs were checked on Oct 11, 2026. The historical content retrieval dates are listed below.
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, After-hours Trading (content retrieved Aug 23, 2026, as cited on the Japanese page).
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Extended-Hours Trading: Investor Bulletin (content retrieved Aug 23, 2026, as cited on the Japanese page).
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Self-Regulatory Organizations; The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC; Notice of Filing of Amendment Nos. 2 and 3 and Order Granting Accelerated Approval of a Proposed Rule Change, as Amended by Amendment Nos. 2 and 3, To Extend the Exchange's Trading Hours to 23 Hours a Day, Five Days a Week (91 FR 20222; content retrieved Aug 23, 2026, as cited on the Japanese page).
- New York Stock Exchange, Holidays & Trading Hours (content retrieved Aug 23, 2026, as cited on the Japanese page).
- Tokyo Stock Exchange, ToSTNeT取引「概要」 (content retrieved Aug 23, 2026, as cited on the Japanese page).
- Tokyo Stock Exchange, ToSTNeT取引「取引の概要」 (content retrieved Aug 23, 2026, as cited on the Japanese page).
- StockTicker24 production API
/api/board-snapshot, retrieved Oct 10, 2026, 05:01:18 UTC.