SPY pre-market and after-hours

What the extended-hours move is telling you

SPY is close to unchanged outside regular hours, which means nothing has arrived overnight that the market disagrees about. Gaps that matter usually show up here first.

Pre-market runs 4:00am to 9:30am ET, after-hours 4:00pm to 8:00pm ET. Spreads are wider in both, and the further from the bell you go, the thinner it gets.

Where SPY sits in the options structure

Dealer positioning does not stop overnight. The largest positive-gamma strike sits at 780, which tends to act as friction on the way up. The largest negative-gamma strike is 770; below it, hedging flow amplifies moves rather than absorbing them. Max pain for the front expiry is 774.

A pre-market gap that opens the regular session beyond one of those levels behaves differently from one that does not. See the full SPY gamma map →

Common questions

What is SPY trading at in the pre-market?
SPY last traded at $778.57. The market is closed; pre-market opens at 4:00am ET. Quoted Oct 9, 9:23 PM ET.

What time does SPY pre-market trading start?
Pre-market trading runs from 4:00am to 9:30am ET, and after-hours from 4:00pm to 8:00pm ET. Volume is far thinner than the regular session, so spreads are wider and a single order can move the quote more than it would during the day.

Can I trade SPY before the market opens?
Most brokers allow pre-market orders from 4:00am ET, though many restrict them to limit orders only. Because extended-hours liquidity is thin, a market order in SPY before the open can fill materially away from the last quote.

Other tickers

Also: the full pre-market board · free gamma map · earnings this week