Recaps · August 12, 2026

VBIO, August 12: a 9:29 headline, nine halts, and $1.30

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Gap, run and fade
• Catalyst: news
• Halted nine times
• Float traded 15x
• Bid wall break

Float

4.11 million shares

Volume

69.18 million shares

Previous close

$0.3100

Open

$0.3443 (up 11.1%)

High

$1.30 at 9:56 a.m.

Halts

9 (9:35 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. and 9:56 a.m. and 10:02 a.m. and 10:07 a.m. and 10:13 a.m. and 10:22 a.m. and 10:28 a.m. and 10:41 a.m.)

Close

$0.2212

Pre-market: quiet, then a headline

The previous close was $0.31. Pre-market trading was thin, and the stock sat in the low $0.30s. The pre-market high was $0.34 at 9:14 a.m. Only 39,148 shares traded before the bell.

At 9:29 a.m. Accesswire ran: “Valion Bio Announces U.S. Government-Funded Entolimod Studies Targeting Lethal Radiation-Induced GI Injury”. The stock opened at $0.34, up 11% from the previous close, and had touched $0.39 by 9:31.

Through $0.50, and the first halt

The first four minutes after the open were slow, with a high of $0.40. Then at 9:34 a.m. it traded through $0.50 for the first time, on 322,683 shares in that one minute.

At 9:35:20 it was halted (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $0.55. It reopened at 9:45:20 at $0.72, 31% above where it stopped. The reopen print alone was 293,382 shares.

The second halt and the bid at $0.87

Within 18 seconds of the reopen it was halted again. At 9:45:38 it stopped with the last trade at $0.87. It reopened at 9:55:38 at $1.17, 34% above where it stopped.

This part a chart doesn't show. A bid sat at exactly $0.87 as the halt began. It was first seen at 9:45:24 and peaked at 530,310 shares (12.9% of the float) at 9:45:38. It was gone by 9:47:13, well before the reopen.

The top at $1.30

From the $1.17 reopen it ran to $1.30, the high so far, in the 9:56 minute. At 9:56:54 it was halted again with the last trade at $1.30.

A bid sat at $1.30 as the halt began. It was first seen at 9:56:41 and peaked at 365,371 shares (8.9% of the float) at 9:56:54. The stock reopened at 10:01:54 at $1.15, 12% below where it stopped, under that bid. The bid was gone at 10:01:55.

By 10:01, more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (4.11 million). It was halted again at 10:02:25, and after that reopen it fell to $0.94 in the 10:07 minute, 28% below $1.30.

More halts, and a lower high

The 10:02 halt reopened at 10:07:25 at $1.02, and 25 seconds later it was halted again. It reopened at 10:12:50 at $1.12. It touched $1.17 in both the 10:07 and 10:12 minutes, a lower high under the $1.30 top.

That made nine halts by 10:41. After the 10:13 halt it reopened at $0.95 (10:18:25) and fell to $0.79 by 10:18, 22 minutes after the top. It was halted at 10:22:42 and again at 10:28:07, and reopened at 10:33:07. The last halt ran from 10:41:27 to 10:46:27, when it reopened at $0.70.

After that last reopen there were no more halts, and the stock fell almost without a pause. By 10:56 it had traded as low as $0.34, half of the reopen price.

The bid at $0.35

From 11:00 a.m. on, a large bid sat at exactly $0.35. It peaked at 332,952 shares at 11:03:56, about 8% of the float.

At 11:06:26 trading at exactly $0.35 began. In 1.8 seconds, 325,261 shares traded at exactly $0.35 and the bid was gone. It wasn't pulled. Sellers hit it. One sell order of 294,041 shares went through 16 price levels, from $0.35 to $0.3478. A minute later it was down to $0.305.

By 11:27 a.m. the day's volume was about ten times the float.

More bids, and the $0.25 level

At 11:27 a bid appeared at $0.25. At 11:42 another appeared at $0.20. By 11:51 the $0.20 bid had grown to 1,008,997 shares, 24.6% of the float. It was pulled by 11:53:06, and while it was there the stock stayed above $0.26. It sat around $0.27.

At 12:28:27, 109,800 shares traded at exactly $0.25, and the $0.25 bid (289,795 shares at its peak, 7.0% of the float) was eaten by 12:28:28. A sell order of 216,505 shares went through 42 price levels, from $0.252 to $0.2405. The 12:28 minute traded 585,158 shares. The stock was at $0.24 a minute later.

The rest of the day

It kept fading. By 1:57 it was down to $0.22 and the low after the open was $0.20 at 2:48 p.m. It drifted back up and ended the regular session at $0.22, 83% below the $1.30 high.

By the close, 62.91 million shares had traded: the float changed hands about 15 times. Relative volume for the day was about 170. It was halted 9 times.

After hours another 6.23 million shares traded. It touched $0.25 at 4:03 p.m., then fell to $0.188 at 4:42 p.m., the low of the day.

What to take from it

• A halt can reopen lower than it stopped. The 9:56 halt stopped at $1.30 and reopened at $1.15. The bid at $1.30 was gone one second later.
• Big bids are levels, not floors. The $0.35 bid (325,261 shares) was hit in 1.8 seconds, and the $0.25 bid was eaten in one second. Both times the stock kept falling.
• Reopens can be thin. A 5,000-share buy cost $315 and $422 over the screen at the 10:01 and 10:12 reopens, while at three other reopens it cost nothing extra.