US-based brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, a broker-dealer subsidiary of TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation, has extended the number of exchange-traded funds available in its 24/5 trading program. The offering extends trading hours on its platform to 24 hours, five days a week for several popular securities, now totaling 24 products.
The e-broker has added 10 new securities to its currently installed 14 instruments, which investors on the Thinkorswim or mobile platforms can trade during the off-hours between 8 p.m. EST Sunday and 8 p.m. EST Friday.
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The program allows immediate reaction to overnight news, rather than waiting until the stock market opens to react. TD Ameritrade’s platform is used largely by retail investors.
“In the digital age, people are accustomed to a 24-hour news cycle and headlines like the U.S.-China trade dispute have a constant influence on the market. That’s why TD Ameritrade was first to introduce online overnight trading, and improving that offering is all about delivering on our promise to innovate and provide greater value to our clients,” said Steve Quirk, VC of trading and education at TD Ameritrade.
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TD Ameritrade and other trading platforms already let clients trade in the premarket session and after-hours, but what it added is to allow them trade during the eight-hour window between the close of the first session and the start of premarket trading.
TD Ameritrade, however, warned that extended-hour trading is subject to unique conditions, including lower liquidity and higher volatility.
TD Ameritrade, as well as several US discount brokers, are enhancing their offering to attract digitally savvy and younger investors, as a slew of emerging micro-investing apps like Robinhood now offer mobile apps that let beginners buy and sell public stocks without trading fees.
Earlier last year, the broker also leveraged an artificial intelligence (AI) technology to launch a bot for Twitter that serves as a virtual assistant to allow the company to communicate with its customers. It resembles the one it launched in 2017 and enabled customers from trading equities and exchange-traded funds using Facebook’s messenger services.