The five basics of US stock trading

1.Us stock code
The code system of the stock market is different, and the code of the US stock market is generally formulated by the listed company itself, which can be two, three letters, or four or five letters.
The stock code of the listed company has a strong identification. For example, Coca-Cola's ticker symbol is KO and Apple's is AAPL.
In daily trading, you may find that US stock codes are usually accompanied by a suffix letter, such as: KO.N and AAPL.O, where the letters N and O represent the exchange on which they are listed.
N is for stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange and O is for stocks listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. There is also the less common suffix A, which stands for stocks listed on U.S. stock exchanges.
2. Trading units for US stocks
The buying and selling units in the U.S. stock market are stocks.
U.S. stocks are traded in different units than Hong Kong stocks. The minimum trading unit for U.S. stocks is one share, which means you can trade hundreds or thousands of shares in the U.S. stock market, depending on the amount of money you have.
3. U.S. stock trading hours
Unlike the trading hours of other stock markets, the trading hours of U.S. stocks are relatively long, which can theoretically exceed 16 hours, because the U.S. stock market has a long pre-market and after-market time.
(1) Continuous trading session
The US stock market continues to trade from 09:30-16:00 Eastern Time, Monday to Friday.
Please note: Since the United States adopts the winter/summer time system, the corresponding Hong Kong time will be different.
Daylight Time (March to November) : 21:30-04:00 Hong Kong time;
Winter time (November to March) : Hong Kong time 22:30-05:00.
(2) pre - and after-hours trading
U.S. stocks can be traded before and after hours outside the continuous trading session, and orders will be submitted to the exchange for matching. Nasdaq has a special pre - and after-hours trading hours, each broker has different requirements for pre - and after-hours trading hours.
Us pre-market trading session: 04:00-09:30 (Eastern time); Summer time 16:00-21:30 Hong Kong Time, winter time 17:00-22:30 Hong Kong time.
Us stock after-hours trading hours: 16:00-20:00 (Eastern time); Summer time Hong Kong time 04:00-08:00, winter time Hong Kong time 05:00-09:00.
Us stock half day after-hours trading session: 13:00-17:00 (Eastern time); Daylight time 01:00-05:00 Hong Kong time, winter time 02:00-06:00 Hong Kong time.
4. Limits on the rise and fall of US stocks
In US stock trading, there is no limit to the rise and fall, we will often see some stocks that rise more than 50% a day, of course, we can see stocks that fall more than 50%, so investors need to pay attention to these situations.
Many investors think that the US stock market is very cool, can rise more than 10% in a day, many earnings season stocks jump more than 20% is common, in short, do not ignore these warnings, investors need to do their homework on these companies, and be aware of the potential above and below volatility, if the stock moves too much, it may trigger a halt in trading, commonly known as "circuit breaker".
5. Settlement system of US stocks
In US stock trading, you must know the two basic systems, the T+3 delivery system and the T+0 trading system.
T+3 delivery system refers to the buyer and seller through the settlement system to achieve one hand delivery of money, one hand delivery. Before T+3 (T is the trading day), you cannot withdraw cash, physical shares, or transfer shares to custody, that is, transfer funds. It will arrive on the third working day. This means that if you redeem all the shares, the funds will have to wait three trading days before they can be withdrawn.
The T+0 trading system is what we often call day trading, that is, the stocks bought on the day can be sold on the day, but the T+0 trading system is a double-edged sword, which is convenient for trading at the same time, but also increases the associated risks brought by frequent trading.