JDN, RE: I cannot trade afterhours at my brokerage firm.
Given the uneven information flow and illiquidity after hours, I would consider that a positive.
You still have the option to buy stock after hours if you did business with any number of other firms.
Everything else being equal, though, it is foolish for individual investors to trade stock after hours. The SEC takes great pains to have some semblance of uniform disclosure of information during market hours, and the playing field is pretty much level for everybody between 9:30 and 4:00. No such protection exists after hours, and you are just inviting yourself to be screwed trading with someone who has superior information to you.
edit: Take the LU sititation, for example, a situation where the information flow was even, and theoretically you would have the most opportunity after hours. If you had access to late trading the afternoon of the warning, you would have traded stock somewhere between 51« and 56. If you didn't have this access, and had to wait for the next day's trading, you would have traded stock between 50« and 55. Not much difference at all, and really little advantage to late trading even in this situation, which was the best case scenario. |
