Longbridge Launches Pre-Market Options Trading
Longbridge Securities has launched what it calls the world's first pre-market U.S. options trading. The new feature is designed to help investors, particularly those outside U.S. time zones, react to market-moving news before the official open. This could give a significant edge to traders in a volatile market.
This new pre-market session runs from 4:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time, providing a 5.5-hour window for traders to act on overnight news before the standard U.S. market open. For investors in Asia, this translates to more manageable evening hours, such as 5:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. in Singapore, eliminating the need to trade in the middle of the night. Traditionally, U.S. equity and ETF options trading is confined to regular market hours of 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET. While some brokers offer after-hours stock trading, pre-market access for options has generally been unavailable to retail investors. Certain proprietary index products, like those tracking the S&P 500 (SPX) and VIX, have offered extended hours, but this is not the norm for individual stocks and ETFs. The initial rollout includes options for highly liquid assets, such as ETFs like QQQ and SPY, and major tech stocks including AAPL, TSLA, NVDA, and GOOGL. Longbridge has announced plans to expand the list of supported instruments in the future as part of a long-term goal to move closer to 24-hour U.S. options trading. Trading outside of standard hours carries distinct risks, including lower liquidity and higher volatility. Fewer active traders can lead to wider bid-ask spreads, the difference between the buying and selling price, which can increase transaction costs. This environment can result in significant price swings that may not reflect market sentiment once the regular session begins.
