Spread betting broker IG has significantly expanded its extended hours trading offering, allowing clients to trade over 200 popular US stocks outside traditional market hours.
From 21st July 2025, IG clients can trade from 9am to 1am (Monday to Thursday) and 9am to 10pm on Fridays, well beyond standard US market hours. This feature is available on both share dealing and CFD accounts and includes big names like Coreweave, Pony.ai, Circle, and Oscar Health.
However, this is hardly a surprise and for a broker as large as IG, I would have expected this to already be in place. Especially as I think that 24 hours trading is inevitable on all stock markets soon.
The move is designed to give traders more flexibility, particularly around earnings reports and breaking news. However, due to the lower liquidity typically seen during these off-peak sessions, IG is restricting orders to limit-only to help mitigate risk and slippage.
How does IG’s extended hours offer compare?
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CMC Markets recently extended pre- and post-market trading for its “Magnificent Seven” US tech stocks (Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, etc.), though their coverage is more limited than IG’s 200+ stock universe. CMC’s hours run 1am–5am and 9:30pm–1am UK time.
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eToro also supports extended hours trading for selected US stock CFDs, allowing pre- and post-market trades, though this is limited to leveraged instruments, not physical shares.
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City Index offers after-hours trading for major US stocks, focusing mainly on post-market sessions and select high-volume names, but again without IG’s breadth or dual-account (CFD and share dealing) approach.
IG’s latest update places it among the most comprehensive UK platforms for after-hours access to US equities, especially for investors who want to hold physical shares and CFDs under one roof. The broader stock universe and longer hours provide a competitive edge for traders reacting to late-breaking news or pre-market earnings, as long as they understand the risks of lower liquidity and use limit orders to protect themselves.
In addition to this IG is one of the only brokers where you can trade on the weekend, and have been able to do for a long time.
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