Recaps · August 13, 2026

PSQH, August 13: a 10:02 headline, three halts, and $5.71

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Intraday run
• Catalyst: news
• Halted three times
• Float traded 1x

Float

2.91 million shares

Volume

3.25 million shares

Previous close

$3.58

Open

$3.65 (up 2.0%)

High

$5.71 at 10:27 a.m.

Halts

3 (9:54 a.m. and 10:19 a.m. and 10:33 a.m.)

Close

$4.25

Pre-market and the open

On August 12, PSQH traded between $3.57 and $4.02 and closed at $3.58.

The 13th started quietly. The pre-market high was $3.72 at 7:27 a.m. Only 33 shares traded before the bell. It opened at $3.65, up 2% from the previous close. The 9:30 minute traded 925 shares. By 9:50 it was at $3.77, on 25 shares.

There was something on the book that a chart doesn't show. Since 8:16 a.m., someone had been offering stock at $4.40, far above the $3.65 to $3.77 price. At the open there were 35,206 shares for sale at $4.40, about 1.2% of the float.

The halt, the headline, and the reopen

At 9:54 a.m. it was halted (news pending) with the last trade at $3.77.

At 10:02 a.m., during the halt, Business Wire ran: “Donald Trump Jr. & Pilot Family Lead $1.3 Million Private Placement for PSQ Holdings”.

It reopened at 10:18 a.m. at $4.40, 17% above where it stopped. The first print was 24,221 shares at $4.40. Between 10:18:55 and 10:18:56 another 15,995 shares traded at exactly $4.40. By 10:18:57 the rest of the $4.40 offer had been pulled from the book.

At 10:19 a.m. it traded through $5.00 for the first time. From the $4.40 reopen it ran to $5.14, up 17%.

At 10:19 a.m. it was halted again (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $5.14. It reopened at 10:24 a.m. at $5.00, 3% below where it stopped. The first print was 20,536 shares at $5.00.

It ran. The 10:25 minute went to $5.37 on 212,215 shares. The next went to $5.49. At 10:27 it hit $5.71, the high so far.

Then it turned fast. Within two minutes it was back at $4.97. At 10:29 three sell orders went through the book in six seconds, and one of them, 15,944 shares, walked from $5.03 down to $4.97.

At 10:33 a.m. it was halted a third time (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $4.69. It reopened at 10:38 a.m. at $4.63, and the low of that minute was $4.55, down 20% from $5.71.

A lower high at $5.19

It came back once more. At 10:41 a.m. it pushed to $5.19 again, matching the 10:38 high and still well under the $5.71 top, and fell back to $4.77 by the end of that minute. The 10:42 minute dipped to $4.47. By 10:51 it was at $4.34.

The bid at $3.98

The book had a second wall, this time on the buy side. From 10:26 a.m. on, someone was bidding for a lot of stock at exactly $3.98. It peaked at 41,426 shares at 10:27 a.m., about 1.4% of the float. That was the same minute as the high of the day.

At 11:02:24 a.m. it was pulled: the size left the book without trading there.

The price was near $4.49 then. It dropped to $4.24 by the end of the 11:04 minute, and at 11:16 a 14,474-share sell order went through the book from $4.05 down to $3.96. The 11:16 low was $3.88.

The rest of the day

After 11:16 it drifted back up on thin volume. It reached $4.92 at 2:12 p.m. and spent most of the afternoon between about $4.50 and $4.80. By 1:28 p.m., more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (2.91 million).

The last half hour was weak. It was $4.73 at 3:38 p.m. and hit $4.06 at 3:55. It closed at $4.25, 26% under the $5.71 high of the day.

For the regular session, 3.23 million shares traded: the float changed hands about once, at 49 times its normal volume (normal volume is tiny: about 66,000 shares a day).

After hours

After the close, insiders filed four Form 4s between 4:17 and 4:18 p.m.

What to take from it

• A halt can reopen higher than it stopped, and the reopen costs more than the screen says. The 9:54 a.m. halt stopped at $3.77 and reopened at $4.40. All three reopens filled a 5,000-share buy $196 to $407 over the screen.
• After the top, the next push stopped lower. $5.71 at 10:27 a.m., then $5.19 at 10:38 and again at 10:41 a.m.
• A big bid on the book is not a floor. The 41,426-share bid at $3.98 left the book at 11:02 without trading, and the price went below it within 14 minutes.