This content is sponsored and was written by Benzinga, in collaboration with Pepperstone.
Have you ever gone to sleep only to awaken to a significant move in the Asian and EU equity market, with US equity futures suggesting US cash equities will ‘gap’ significantly higher or lower on open?
That gapping risk is a major consideration for many equity traders who hold positions when the US equity market closes, where the subsequent move in the share price upon the reopen is a factor that traders simply can’t control.
Pepperstone’s 24-hour share CFDs offer a continuous price on over 100 US equity CFDs, which limits gapping risk to the Monday re-open and allows for traders to deploy a trading strategy outside standard exchange hours.
Now, you can trade at any time throughout the trading week – capitalizing on price moves that occur overnight and mitigating the risk of a gap in the price when markets reopen.
For the active trader, 24-hour CFDs offer new levels of control, increased opportunity and heightened risk management.
Here’s what you need to know to trade 24/5 on U.S. share CFDs.
Opportunities With U.S. Share CFDs on Pepperstone
Traditionally, US equity traders have only been able to trade during standard exchange hours, as well as the extended sessions – the pre-market and post-market:
- Pre-market session: 4 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. ET
- Regular session: 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET
- Post-market session: 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET
If impactful news breaks through Asia, the share price would typically reopen in the premarket and this could impact the P&L on the open position.
Traders can now also trade Pepperstone’s U.S. equity CFDs overnight when Asian markets are open.
Trading overnight (8 p.m. Eastern to 9:30 a.m. Eastern) allows you to take advantage of market movements caused by trader sentiments, company news, corporate earnings reports, geopolitical events and other developments.
Pepperstone is an online broker based in Melbourne, Australia. It allows you to trade forex, stocks, commodities and other assets. Keep in mind, Pepperstone is not available to clients based in the United States because it is not overseen by U.S. regulators.
Pepperstone’s Offering for U.S. Share CFDs
Pepperstone’s offer allows traders to buy and sell 116 U.S. share CFDs through a partnership with cTrader, TradingView and MetaTrader 5.
The United States is home to some of the world’s largest stock markets. Through U.S. equity CFDs, traders worldwide can gain access to stocks of U.S. companies they may not have been able to reach before. You can trade some of the largest American companies, including Nvidia, Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Google, International Business Machines (IBM), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Walt Disney and more.
Consider the benefits of Pepperstone’s offering that lets you trade U.S. share CFDs on leverage:
- Tight bid and ask spreads
- Low commissions
- Deep liquidity
- Best in class support while trading
The offering opens up uninterrupted trading opportunities on U.S. share CFDs. This allows traders to manage positions and react to corporate earnings reports, announcements of mergers and acquisitions and political and regulatory shifts more at any time during the trading week.
Why Trade U.S. Share CFDs Around the Clock?
You might wonder if 24-hour access to trading U.S. share CFDs matters. Traders and investors looking to buy and hold will continue to transact business mostly during standard hours for U.S. markets. However, a strong case can be made for the importance of trading after hours.
A study undertaken by Pepperstone demonstrates that a significant portion of price gains in some of the largest U.S. stocks occurred after regular trading closed. Pepperstone looked at the NAS100 first and then at individual stocks.
From March 2024 to Feb. 11, 2025, the NAS100 Index experienced a gain of 20.1%.
Our findings showed that if a trader had purchased the NAS100 at the open of the cash equity open and sold at the close every day during that period, they would have recorded a cumulative loss of 1%.
However, if the same trader bought the NAS100 after the cash market closing at 4 p.m. and closed the position just before the market reopened the next day at 9:30 a.m the cumulative gain would have been 21.1%
A larger study from the Bespoke Investment Group in 2023 found similar results that support Pepperstone’s findings. According to Bespoke data, the majority of the gains in the S&P 500 in the 30 years from January 1993 to January 2023 occurred when the market was closed.
Pepperstone’s analyst, Chris Weston, reviewed the individual stock performance for Nvidia, Tesla, Alphabet (Google) and other major companies in both the cash exchange and overnight session.
Pepperstone found the same tendency for a large percentage of the companies’ total gain in stock price to happen in the overnight session.
Consider these results from March 2024 to Feb. 11:
- Nvidia Total Gain of 64.8%: 83% of the total gain can be attributed to moves that occurred in overnight trade.
- Tesla Total Gain of 70.7%: 98% of the total gain can be attributed to moves that occurred in overnight trade.
- Alphabet recorded a Total Gain of 34.9%: 91% of the total gain can be attributed to moves that occurred in overnight trade.
These results may come as a surprise, but it highlights that much of the total share price appreciation in these trader favourites occurred on the re-open of cash trade, and a frequent gap higher in price.
Pepperstone’s analysis also found that the cumulative gains in Meta, Netflix, Apple and Amazon were greater through this period during regular trading hours.
Start Trading on Your Schedule with Pepperstone
Trade U.S. share CFDs 24/5 and stay ahead of market-moving news. React to overnight price swings, seize potential opportunities, and manage gapping risk—anytime, even beyond regular market hours. Sign up with Pepperstone today and trade U.S. equity CFDs on your terms.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74-89 % of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.