The importance of some clock ticks late in the day (QQQ and SPY)
QQQ and SPY jump at 15:50:00 and 15:55:00 just as the index futures do, SPY included, although its own exchange's auction runs to a different timetable. Eight years of Nasdaq trades show where the ETFs match the futures and where they part company: at the close, after the bell, and since April 2026 in what it costs to trade them.