Recaps · August 13, 2026

HCTI, August 13: the $1.80 wall, a run to $2.26, and a fade to $1.73

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Main move: late morning
• Catalyst: earnings news
• Round-number break
• Float traded 8x
• No halts
• Faded into the close

Float

2.03 million shares

Volume

16.61 million shares

Previous close

$1.24

Open

$1.29 (up 4.0%)

High

$2.26 at 11:27 a.m.

Close

$1.73

Pre-market: the 8:15 headline

The previous close was $1.24. Before 8:15 a.m. the stock barely traded. The only bar earlier was a 185-share minute at 4:08 a.m.

At 8:15 a.m. PRNewsWire ran: “Healthcare Triangle Reports 322% Increase in Gross Profit and 158% Increase in Revenue for Q2 2026”. The 8:15 minute traded 48,782 shares and reached $1.46.

It hit $1.47 at 8:17. The pre-market high was $1.55 at 8:19 a.m., on 214,275 shares in that one minute. Then it slid. By 8:41 it was back to $1.22, the low so far. 1.69 million shares traded before the bell.

A quiet open

It opened at $1.29. The low since the open was $1.27 at 9:43. Then it sat in a tight range, mostly $1.28 to $1.40, for about an hour and a half.

By 10:27 a.m., counting pre-market, more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (2.03 million). The price barely moved while that happened.

It crept up. At 11:03 it was $1.48. At 11:04 it broke the pre-market high of $1.55, and by 11:05 it had reached $1.76 on 270,664 shares in the minute.

The wall at $1.80

From 11:17 a.m. on, someone was offering a lot of stock at exactly $1.80. It peaked at 67,280 shares at 11:19:57, about 3% of the float. Above it, another large offer had sat at $1.92 since 11:06, and a new one appeared at $2.00 at 11:17.

At 11:20:04 the first trade printed at $1.80. In 10.2 seconds, 67,139 shares traded at exactly $1.80 and the wall was gone. It wasn't pulled. Buyers ate it. One buy order swept 51,039 shares from $1.80 to $1.84 across five levels.

The 11:20 minute traded 551,585 shares, the most of the day to that point. At 11:21 it went through $2.00. The $2.00 wall was eaten at 11:21:51, and 25,215 shares traded at exactly $2.00 at 11:21:50.

$2.26, then the slide

It hit $2.19 at 11:22, then pulled back to $1.98 by 11:24. It pushed again. A buy sweep at 11:27:15 took 31,854 shares from $2.17 to $2.23. The high of the day was $2.26 in the 11:27 minute.

It didn't hold. By 11:30 it was $1.90, and a sell sweep of 31,388 shares ran through $1.92 to $1.89. Two more sell sweeps at 11:32 hit $1.79.

By 11:55 it was $1.62. At 12:24 a 45,023-share sell sweep went from $1.56 to $1.50, and at 12:28 it hit $1.43, down 37% from the high. There were no halts all day.

The rest of the day

It rebuilt slowly. It was $1.59 around 1:30 p.m. and $1.73 by 2:23. At 3:11 a 104,250-share minute pushed it to $1.80.

It came back once more. At 3:44 p.m. it pushed to $1.92, a lower high under the $2.26 top. Then it faded: $1.68 at 3:52 and $1.73 at the 4:00 p.m. close.

By the close, 14.30 million shares had traded in the regular session, and 15.98 million including pre-market: the float changed hands about 8 times, at about 174 times its normal volume.

After hours

After hours it slid to $1.47 by 4:07 p.m., then rebuilt toward $1.60. At 5:16 p.m. the company filed a 10-Q (the quarterly report). The stock was near $1.61 then.

What to take from it

• Here, the big ask wall at $1.80 did not hold. The $1.80 wall was gone in about ten seconds, and the stock was past $2.00 within two minutes.
• Right after each wall broke, the real fill was worse than the screen. Even a 5,000-share order paid $49 and $37 over the screen in those seconds.
• After the top, the next push stopped lower. $2.26 at 11:27 a.m., then $1.92 at 3:44 p.m. It closed at $1.73, about 24% below the high.