Look into the Future with Stock Market Indexes

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Futures Contracts on Stock Indexes May Hint at Market Direction.

You can get a clue about where after-hours traders are thinking the market will open by looking at the indexes in relationship to “fair value.”
Fair value is the relationship of a market index to its futures contract.

If the futures are higher than the fair value, then traders are betting the market will open up. However, if the futures are lower than the fair value, traders are looking for the index to open lower.