Prior to 1991, US stock markets were only open between 9:30am and 4pm (EST) and that no-one was able to trade outside of those regular trading hours (RTH), also known as standard hours or day session.

“Beginning in mid-1999, increasing numbers of broker-dealers began offering their retail customers the opportunity to direct their orders to ECNs so that the orders would be eligible for execution after the regular session close. These developments promised retail investors some of the same flexibility in after- hours trading that institutions and professional traders have had for years.”

https://www.sec.gov/news/studies/ecnafter.htm

Those looking to trades stocks outside of RTH would have to either sit and wait, or engage in foreign markets, typically in Asia to take advantage of the time difference. This time restriction made it hard to bridge between full time work and being an at-home stock trader, which is why the extended or after-hours trading session makes the...

The ability to work from home, set your own hours and use your money to generate further income are all big drivers for people to learn how to become a day (active) trader on the stock market. Whatever your motivation, you can learn trading from the comfort of your own home at your own pace, which means that it can start out as a side hustle that you can turn into something more substantial as you get the hang of the different systems. However, it will be essential to take part in at least a beginners online stock course so you know what you’re getting yourself in for and can plan your way to success.

Steps to Success

Day trading sounds like the ultimate dream job; work from home or wherever there’s an internet connection, and maybe even get your computer to do most of the work for you. It can feel surprising to newcomers that there aren’t more success stories of amateur day traders making big money, but with the right preparation, it’s possible for you to...

We recommend reading What is Pair Trading before the rest of this article.

We think of the combined stocks as a “unit”.  We can either be Long or Short the unit or the pair.

If the pair we chose was XOM vs XLE and we always kept XOM as the first symbol and XLE as the second symbol, then we could combine them as XOM/XLE (ratio) or XOM-XLE (differential).  We would say we are “Long the Pair” if we were long XOM and short XLE.  Conversely, we would be “Short the Pair” if we were short the first symbol (XOM) and long the second symbol (XLE).

There is no correct way on how to structure the pair, but rather it is trader preference.  The key is to choose what works for your trading and data platforms, as well as the time frames you are trading in.
For someone who wants to hold overnight, it could look different than for the day trader.

That being said, we have our preferred method and style of setting up and naming a pair. More...