After hours trading price fluctuations?

I bought some apple stock which has been reasonably excellent to me in the last few months. I was watching the ticker reasonably a bit today as apple took a nice small nose dive. Just checked the price at about 5:30, after hours, and it showed the stock went up over 3 dollars in after hours trading. I was very pleased to see this, but then the next exchange in the ticker on yahoo finance showed it trading at -.05. How can a swing of 3 dollars on a stock after hours happen instantly. Was this a fluke? How can after hours trading have such large and instaneous price fluctuations, what going on here?

Answer by Nablus
it happened with me many times. It is a normal business though. Some of the huge transaction were swamping the additional buy/sell transaction but the supply/demand market then balance this fluctuation when the trade start. Many poeple post their orders “after hours” and when the market start to trade, in a second, all the transactions posted after hours trading will be settled immediately.

Answer by OPM
It is normal, after hours are exceptionally illiquid. Public mistakenly enter “market” orders not realizing that it doesn’t work the same way as when a market maker is administration the price. So, if you enter a market order someone else can enter a limit order at any price and it might be filled even if it is very far away from the market. That is very common, the person who entered the limit order for the 3 dollar above market sell was a very pleased person because they may well have bought the same shares back at 5 cents below market later. It would be a riskless 3.05 per share too.

Answer by JSan521704
Make a long tale small, the afterhours markets are not near as liquid as the business hours markets, hence, a large transaction will fluctuate the price considerably.

Answer by Chris
After hours trading is a crossing market. They simply make matches based on criteria. If you say I want 1000 shares at $ 33 (all trades are limit orders) and it closed at $ 30 then you are simply charitable away money. There is no after hours market maker any you match exactly or you don’t fill.

Answer by mid232002
The advantages of trading Currencies over Stocks

Stocks
-8 hours day, 5 days week
-Profit in rising markets only
-High Commission Fees
-Investing in Companies
Can be Manipulated (Enron, Worldcom)
-8,000 Stock to choose from
-Control 2 to 1 (trade $ 1,000 with only $ 500)

Currencies
-24 hours day, 6 days week
-Both Rising and Falling markets
-Much lower Commissions
-Investing in Countries
-Too Large to be Manipulated
-Only 6 major currencies
-Control 400 to 1 (trade $ 200,000 with only 500 out of pocket)

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stock prices, stock market, technology, apple computers, aapl

Answer by psych0bug
They lost a law suit, they were trying to sue apple records.

Answer by sdrtm
It is falling, along with the rest of the market today. But, excellent news is, it is falling with lower than average daily volume. Volume is tracking 16% below normal today. It is OK for stocks to drop on lower volume. When they drop on higher volume is when you should be nervous.

Today, the possibility of more rate hikes down the road and higher oil prices gave sellers their ammunition in the overall markets.

Answer by intrepid18
It was due to market direction. The practically the whole stock market was down. It should recover. The previous poster is assess..it was down on below average volume, so I wouldn’t be too concerned unless the stock market becomes bearish. *cross fingers*

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Free stock chart and market analysis of Apple stock on the 1st March 2011 using stable datum of the market. Please hear 1st of March 2011, not 29th Feb 2011. This record is for learning purposes only.
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