Broker Longbridge Launches Pre-Market Options Trading
Longbridge Securities has launched what it calls the world's first pre-market trading for U.S. options. The new capability is designed to help global investors react to overnight news and get ahead of market moves before the regular session opens. This could significantly alter trading strategies for derivatives traders.
The new pre-market session from Longbridge runs from 4:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time, directly preceding the standard U.S. options market open. This 5.5-hour window is a significant extension to the typical 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET session for equity and ETF options. For traders in Asia, this translates to more accessible evening hours, such as 5:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. in Singapore. Initially, the offering covers options on highly liquid U.S. stocks and ETFs, including names like QQQ, SPY, AAPL, TSLA, NVDA, and GOOGL. This move contrasts with existing extended-hours trading, which has been largely focused on index products. For instance, Cboe offers nearly 24-hour trading on S&P 500 (SPX), VIX, and Russell 2000 (RUT) options, but access to pre-market single-stock options has historically been limited to institutional players. This launch taps into a broader market trend of expanding trading sessions to accommodate global participants and react to news cycles that don't adhere to traditional market hours. While extended-hours trading offers advantages, it also comes with risks, such as lower liquidity, wider bid-ask spreads, and potentially higher volatility compared to regular trading hours. Trades during these pre-market sessions are executed through electronic communication networks (ECNs) rather than traditional exchanges, and typically only limit orders are accepted, not market or stop orders. Regulatory bodies like FINRA require brokerage firms to provide risk disclosures for extended-hours trading, highlighting that investors might receive different prices than they would during the regular session when the National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO) is published. Longbridge, founded in 2019 and holding licenses in Singapore and other markets, has positioned itself as a tech-focused brokerage. The firm has raised over $150 million and promotes an "AI-driven" platform aimed at narrowing the information gap between retail and institutional traders. This pre-market options launch is framed as a step toward an eventual 24-hour continuous global trading model.
