Hindsight Markets Beta

Recaps · August 18, 2026

SLE, August 18: a news halt, eight halts in all, and $7.37

Float
1.69 million shares
Volume
22.46 million shares
Previous close
$3.02
Open
$6.24 (up 106.6%)
High
$7.37 at 9:35 a.m.
Halts
8 (8:25 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. and 9:35 a.m. and 9:50 a.m. and 10:20 a.m. and 10:26 a.m. and 3:34 p.m. and 3:49 p.m.)
Close
$5.25
7.373.022.544 a.m.9:30noon4 p.m.8 p.m.
SLE on August 18, 2026, one-minute bars in New York time. Shaded: before the 9:30 a.m. open and after the 4:00 p.m. close. Bands: halts.

The day before

On August 17, SLE opened at $2.36 and reached $4.65. It closed at $3.02. About 9.59 million shares traded that day.

Pre-market: a news halt, and the float gone by 9:01

The early morning was quiet. The first bar at 4:00 a.m. opened at $2.91, and by 4:40 it had slipped to $2.54, the low so far. From there it sat between about $2.54 and $2.77 until 8:22.

At 8:25:39 a.m. it was halted, news pending. At 8:30 GlobeNewsWire ran the headline: “Metaplanet to Invest 2,100 Bitcoin in Super League to Launch U.S. Bitcoin Treasury Platform, Superplanet”. The halt ended at 8:50:00 and the first bar after it opened at $3.16.

It ran to $3.80 at 8:55 a.m. on 266,248 shares in that one minute. It pulled back to $3.19 by 8:58, then went again. By the end of the 9:01 minute, more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (1.69 million).

At 9:02 it traded above $5.00, and the minute's high was $5.75. At 9:06 the company filed an 8-K, and that minute's low was $4.71. At 9:07 a DEFA14A was filed. In that same 9:07 minute a 26,235-share buy order swept from $5.43 to $5.50 across 8 price levels, and the minute's high was $5.68.

It kept making higher pushes: $6.18 at 9:11, then the pre-market high, $7.05 at 9:17 a.m. In all, 11.03 million shares traded before the bell.

Now the part a chart doesn't show. From 9:03 on, someone was bidding for a lot of stock at exactly $4.50, far below where the stock traded. At 9:25 there were 78,286 shares bid there, 4.6% of the float. At 9:29:59, one second before the open, that bid was pulled.

The open, two halts and $7.37

It opened at $6.24, up 107% from the $3.02 close. The first big print was 39,702 shares at $6.23 at 9:30:00.

At 9:30:28 it was halted (a volatility pause). The last bar before the halt closed at $6.85. It reopened at 9:35:28 at $7.03, and 150,072 shares printed at that price in one trade.

The first two seconds after the reopen were violent. Two buy sweeps went through the book, 33,688 shares from $6.92 to $7.15 across 23 levels, then 23,694 shares from $7.14 to $7.37 across 24 levels. $7.37 was the high so far. Then at 9:35:29 a 63,541-share sell order went from $7.04 down to $6.50 across 47 levels. The 9:35 bar closed at $6.33.

At 9:35:45 it was halted again, seventeen seconds after reopening. The reopen was ten minutes away.

Stop It's 9:45. SLE is halted for the second time; the last trade before the halt was $6.33. The high so far, $7.37, was ten minutes ago. Trading resumes at 9:45:45. Would you buy the reopen?

Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 9:45 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 9:42 a.m. ET.

It reopened at $5.77, below the $6.33 where it stopped. A 91,511-share print went through at that price. In the first second a 32,339-share sell order ran from $6.31 down to $5.66 across 39 levels, and the 9:45 bar's low was $5.19, down 30% from $7.37. Ten seconds later a 76,808-share buy order swept from $5.19 to $5.44.

The lower high and the walls at $6.00 and $4.55

It bounced once more. At 9:48 it reached $6.03. By 9:49 it was at $5.07, and at 9:50:07 it was halted (a volatility pause). It reopened at 9:55:07 at $4.83, below the $5.07 where it stopped.

At 10:00:52 an ask wall showed up at exactly $6.00. It peaked at 68,748 shares at 10:05:41, 4.1% of the float.

Then the price slid. At 10:19 it dropped from $5.15 to $4.59 in one minute, and at 10:20:19 it was halted (a volatility pause). A second wall was on the book, 83,185 shares offered at $4.55, 4.9% of the float, first seen at 10:20:05.

Stop It's 10:25. SLE has been halted since 10:20, with the last trade at $4.55. Up to about 83,000 shares were offered at exactly $4.55, close to 5% of the float. Trading resumes at 10:25:19. Would you buy the reopen?

Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 10:25 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 10:22 a.m. ET.

The reopen came at 10:25:19, with 41,396 shares printing at $4.55. The wall was crossed at 10:25:21, and 9,528 shares traded at exactly $4.55 in under a second (0.9 s). The minute's high was $4.75.

It did not hold. At 10:26 it fell to $4.05, and at 10:26:45 it was halted (a volatility pause) again. It reopened at 10:31:45 at $4.01, and a 39,010-share print went through at that price. $3.95 at 10:31 was the low after the open.

The long middle, then two more halts

From 10:33 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. it stayed between $4.07 and $5.40. By 10:50 a.m. about ten times the float had traded. At 10:54 a bid of 81,238 shares showed up at $4.37, 4.8% of the float. It was pulled at 10:56:23.

At 1:54 p.m. an ask wall appeared at $5.85. It peaked at 105,052 shares at 3:39:28 p.m., 6.2% of the float. The stock stayed below it in the regular session.

At 3:12 p.m. a 28,091-share buy order swept from $5.17 to $5.34 across 17 levels. At 3:30 it started up again, from $5.10 to $5.59 by 3:32. A 424B5 was filed at 3:33, and in that minute the price went from $5.51 to a low of $4.83. A new ask wall of 73,430 shares sat at $4.83, peaking at 3:34:05.

At 3:34:08 it was halted (a volatility pause). It reopened at 3:39:08 at $4.68, and a 70,753-share print went through at that price. The $4.83 wall was pulled at 3:39:09. An 8-K was filed at 3:39.

After dipping to $4.61 at 3:46, it climbed to $5.25 by 3:49. At 3:49:50 it was halted for the eighth time. It did not resume until 4:00:00. The last bar before the bell closed at $5.25, 29% under the $7.37 high of the day.

After hours, and the totals

The 4:00 p.m. bar opened at $5.50 and hit $6.65. By 4:16 p.m. it was down to $4.61, 31% below $6.65. It ended the 7:59 p.m. bar at $4.90.

By the close, 10.14 million shares had traded in the regular session, plus 11.03 million before the bell and 1.29 million after it. That is 22.46 million shares for the day: the float changed hands about 13 times, at about 45 times its normal volume. It was halted eight times.

What to take from it

Replay this day

Trade SLE on August 18, 2026 yourself in Hindsight Markets: the real tape, the order book and the halts, on a clock you control, with fills from the real book.

Replay this day Log in