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Interactive Options Course
Lesson 1 of 5
Interactive Brokers offers trading in overnight hours for over 10,000 US-listed stocks and ETFs. Market data is provided for free, and existing US stock trading permission is sufficient to allow trading. Trades can be placed within TWS, Client Portal and Mobile TWS. Overnight trading hours are from 8:00pm ET to 3:50am ET with the first session beginning on Sunday at 8:00pm ET and the last session ending at 3:50am ET. Trades executed between 8:00pm and 12:00am will carry a trade date of the following day. For a full listing of the available stocks and ETFs see the exchange listing page on the website.
Interactive Brokers has partnered with liquidity provider Blue Ocean to offer access to streaming quotes beyond the two typical sessions – regular and extended US-trading hours. It is important to note that orders intended for overnight trading are treated separately from orders submitted during the day, or where submitted orders use the extended trading hours time-in-force designation. In other words, investors should think of overnight orders as an independent venue.
Within the Order Entry panel inside TWS, users can see the order destination or routing flow by clicking the Advanced expansion menu to the lower right. In the Destination drop down menu in the upper left of the Advanced pop-up window, click the down arrow to reveal the exchange and routing menu. By default the selection is set to SMART. Within the list there are two possible venues whose selection would permit overnight trading: IBEOS and Overnight.
IBEOS is IBKR’s internal overnight venue.
OVERNIGHT combines internal and external liquidity providers to display the live NBBO for all available liquidity. It is not necessary to open the Advanced menu and manually select the OVERNIGHT destination, as we have automated that process for your convenience. Let’s demonstrate this within TWS.
Enter a ticker symbol in TWS. Select Buy or Sell and enter a number of shares in the quantity field. Due to the less liquid conditions in thin markets outside of regular trading hours, clients are restricted to limit order types, and therefore should enter a limit price. From the time in force dropdown menu, check the Overnight Trading box. A yellow crescent moon icon appears to the left of the time in force selection box, which is set by default to Day.
Note: Overnight orders remain in the system for a single session and is considered a “DAY” order. If they do not fill overnight, the order will expire and disappear. The client would need to resubmit another overnight limit order the following day.
When satisfied, click Submit to send your order. The order will appear in the Activity Panel to the lower left of Mosaic TWS. Live orders may be cancelled or amended from here.
For specific platform feedback and suggestions, please submit it directly to our team using these instructions.
If you have an account-specific question or concern, please reach out to Client Services.
We encourage you to look through our FAQs before posting. Your question may already be covered!
The analysis in this material is provided for information only and is not and should not be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security. To the extent that this material discusses general market activity, industry or sector trends or other broad-based economic or political conditions, it should not be construed as research or investment advice. To the extent that it includes references to specific securities, commodities, currencies, or other instruments, those references do not constitute a recommendation by IBKR to buy, sell or hold such investments. This material does not and is not intended to take into account the particular financial conditions, investment objectives or requirements of individual customers. Before acting on this material, you should consider whether it is suitable for your particular circumstances and, as necessary, seek professional advice.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Interactive Brokers, its affiliates, or its employees.
When entering an order the selection of time of order does not give the option for Overnight Trading. Which version of the Desktop TWS should be used to show that option? An order can be entered using the advanced tab but I’m curious as to why this option doesn’t appear as shown on the video.
Hi Michael, it’s not available in Stable (10.26) but is in Latest (so will also be in beta). We hope this answers your question!
There is a very big disadvantage in overnight displaying quotas which greatly reduces the usefulness of the overnight trading. Here it is:
Initially your system does not show orders with the number of shares less than 100.
Nevertheless for the overnight trading you have enabled the mechanism for rounding orders with the number of shares < 100 to a whole lot. I.e., an order with 7 shares, for example, will be shown as an order with 100 shares. And by the way, an order with shares from 100 to 199 will also be shown as an order with 100 shares. But that's not all! This mechanism is used only for your (IB) clients' orders. However if an order with shares < 100 is placed from another broker, the mechanism does not work and the order is not displayed. Moreover such order "screens" all orders that are lower in price (for bid) or higher (for ask). As a result we do not see real quotas, which makes it very difficult to trade overnight successfully.
The way to solve this problem is very simple – please make a display of the true number of shares in the orders without any rounding to whole lots, at least for overnight trading.
Thank you for your patience if you read to the end and thank you in advance if you do anything in this direction.
Hello Bob, thank you for reaching out. If you would like us to investigate further, please send an email with more details to social@ibkr.com. We kindly ask that you include screenshots of the messages you mentioned above as well as the email associated with your IBKR application/account. We look forward to assisting you.
What Bob said. Current showing of odd-lots as round lots is a huge disservice. Show the real number or allow the filtering out of odd-lots.
How to designate order object in API for overnight execution?
Hello, thank you for asking. Please see our blog post discussing API Overnight Trading in the TWS API and the Web API: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/campus/ibkr-quant-news/api-overnight-trading/.
Yes, this has been a big problem since DAY 1,
Too many fills of only a few shares when they claim 100 bid or ask. Im not even sure its really odd lots . Just the liquidity provider not willing to sell more than a token number of shares. But you pay a full $1 commission and get a 5 share fill.
Also, Time and sales only shows up if you create a new OVERNIGHT line. Would be better to stream the BLUE dealer using the normal SMART quote line, if thats possible .
A bigger problem ….. NO SCANS for activity. No scans for changes in price or volume . The only way to see whats going on , is randomly looking at symbols you might already have loaded . I would have thought there would be an activity (trade count) scan by now.
Hello Jim, thank you for reaching out. We have passed your feedback about Overnight Trading to the appropriate team.
For time sensitive trading issues, please contact our Client Services team which can be reached by phone, live chat, or ticket. http://spr.ly/IBKR_ClientServicesCampus
Please review this page from our TWS user guide for the different market scanner types:
https://www.ibkrguides.com/tws/usersguidebook/technicalanalytics/market%20scanner%20types.htm
Please reach out with any more questions. We are here to help!
hi, why is it not possible to show overnight data on charts, or time and sales?
Thank you for reaching out. You can view overnight data and Time and Sales after hours. Please ensure you have subscribed to the required market data subscriptions. https://spr.ly/IBKRMarketDataCampus
We have a market data assistant available to help you find data suited to your needs:
https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/sso/Login?action=CS_MARKET_DATA_ASSISTANT
Please note that Clients are not obligated to subscribe to market data through IBKR. If you elect not to subscribe to a paid service, delayed quotes (usually 10-20 minutes behind real-time quotes) will be provided at no cost, where available. In addition, while the lack of real-time market data will have no impact upon execution quality, IBKR strongly recommends against trading without a source of real-time quotes.
We hope this helps!
There was no mention of the availability of charts for overnight trading in your response. Could you please confirm if they are available and if so, the data subscription package required?
Hello again. Yes, they are available. Please review these FAQs for more information on who is eligible to trade in the US overnight trading session and what products can be traded in the US overnight session:
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/faq?id=377200966
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/faq?id=377201119
We have a market data assistant available to help you find data suited to your needs:
https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/sso/Login?action=CS_MARKET_DATA_ASSISTANT
We hope this helps!
I went through all the links. Can’t seem to find any data or way to SPY OVERNIGHT trading charts. Please help. Thanks.
Hi Sam, thank you for reaching out. For instructions to see data outside regular hours in a chart in TWS: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/faq?id=27271501
To see data outside RTH in a chart in IBKR Mobile, please view: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/faq?id=98344899
If you continue to experience difficulties, please create a detailed web ticket for Client Services: https://spr.ly/IBKR_TicketCampus
Hi, Were you able to get overnight charts? Please share the solution. Thanks
Hi Sam, thank you for reaching out. For instructions to see data outside regular hours in a chart in TWS: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/faq?id=27271501
To see data outside RTH in a chart in IBKR Mobile, please view: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/faq?id=98344899
If you continue to experience difficulties, please create a detailed web ticket for Client Services: https://spr.ly/IBKR_TicketCampus
I have placed a buy order with Overnight option. Even the orders went lower than my limit price my order not executed. I couldn’t why it’s not. Could you please update the reason behind it?
Thank you for reaching out. For a time sensitive/urgent trading inquiry, it is recommended that you call or live chat Client Services: http://spr.ly/IBKR_ClientServicesCampus
What is the cutoff time for sending an order (via IBEOS or OVERNIGHT) prior to 8:00PM so that the system will have time to include the order in the opening print? I sent a marketable order within a few seconds of 8:00PM the other day and it didn’t get filled, whereas I’ve sent similar orders at ~7:40PM and they were filled at the 8:00PM open.
Thank you for reaching out. It depends on when outside of RTH the trade is executed. A trade at 7pm ET is the “after hours” trading session (4pm – 8pm) that has existed for many years. Trades during this session carry the same Trade Date (day of execution) as RTH trading and settle on the following business day (all US equities settle on a T+1 basis since May 2024). For trades that are executed in the overnight session, beginning at 8pm ET, those trades carry a Trade Date of the following business day. They will settle on a T+1 basis as well relative to the Trade Date. We hope this helps!
I had overnight trading option in my account, but it seems that starting from this year it disappeared. Is there a possibility to activate it ?
Hello, thank you for reaching out. You do not need to change any account-wide settings to enable overnight trading. Please review this FAQ for more information on the overnight trading session: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/faq?id=455082053
We hope this helps!
I can see overnight trading charts and live info on IBKR Desktop but not on TWS, whats is going on, i cant find such option.
Hello, thank you for reaching out. For instructions to see data outside regular hours in a chart in TWS: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/faq?id=27271501
If you continue to experience difficulties, please create a detailed web ticket for Client Services: https://spr.ly/IBKR_TicketCampus
Is it possible to enter a Stop Loss Limit Order during Overnight hours? When I try, it says invalid order. There is no way to protect positions during Overnight hours?
Hello, thank you for reaching out. For more information on what order types and times in force are allowed in the US overnight trading session, please review this FAQ: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/faq?id=377201135
Link is broken.
Hi, Are options also available for overnight trading?
Hello, thank you for asking. Yes, options are available to trade in the overnight trading session. Please review more information on our webpage: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/us-overnight-trading.php
We hope this helps!
If I buy a stock at 6 pm, and sell it at 9 pm, is it considered a round trip in the same day?
how do i view the chart with overnight data? it had shown outside regualr hour but i do not know how to turn on the chart to show overnight data also?
Hello, thank you for reaching out. In order to view data on a chart outside of regular trading hours, you must check the requisite option in Chart Parameters. In the chart, click the Edit menu option followed by Chart Parameters. In the “Chart Time Options” section, click the box that says “Show data outside of regular trading hours” and click Apply followed by OK. Please view this FAQ for more information: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/faq?id=27271501
We hope this helps!
Hi, is overnight trading only available on TWS or is it available for web users?
Hello, thank you for asking. Overnight trading can be accessed through various IBKR platforms, including Trader Workstation (TWS), IBKR Mobile, and Client Portal. Please review this FAQ for more information: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/faq?id=455082053