Them main objective of every trade is to get executed at the best price and settled at the least risk and less cost. Some may say trade life cycle is divided into 2 parts pre-trade activities and post trade activities, well, pre-trade activities consists of all those steps that take place before order gets executed, post trade activities are all those steps that involve order matching, order Conclusion: Understanding Pre-Market and After-Hours Stock Trading. If you are looking for an edge in your stock trading, placing trades in the pre-market and/or after-hours trading sessions may be a great place to start. Just remember that there are additional risks you need to be aware of. CTM is a regulated service for the central matching of trades in the US and Canada; Who Can use the service. The CTM service helps buy side firms – including investment managers, hedge funds, private banks or outsourcers – and broker/dealers to efficiently match and confirm trade details, to increase transparency and to mitigate risk.