TD Ameritrade Adds 10 ETFs to Its 24-Hour Trading Program

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 ten 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.

The program allows an 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, executive vice president of trading and education at TD Ameritrade.

Fierce competition among US discount brokers

TD Ameritrade and other trading platforms already let clients trade in the premarket session and after-hours, but what it added is the option to allow them to 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 Liquidity The term liquidity refers to the process, speed, and ease of which a given asset or security can be converted into cash. Notably, liquidity surmises a retention in market price, with the most liquid assets representing cash.The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.· In economics, liquidity is defined by how efficiently and quickly an asset can be converted into usable cash without materially affecting its market price. · Nothing is more liquid than cash, while other assets represent The term liquidity refers to the process, speed, and ease of which a given asset or security can be converted into cash. Notably, liquidity surmises a retention in market price, with the most liquid assets representing cash.The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.· In economics, liquidity is defined by how efficiently and quickly an asset can be converted into usable cash without materially affecting its market price. · Nothing is more liquid than cash, while other assets represent Read this Term and higher Volatility Volatility In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, or stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Trad In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, or stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Trad Read this Term.

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.‎