Recaps · August 18, 2026

TRUG, August 18: a 7:20 a.m. spike to $2.40, a bid at $1.60, and $1.08

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Gap and fade
• News: after the high
• Float traded 10x by 9:10
• Bid wall broke
• Lower high
• No halts

News

Benzinga, the day before at 4:19 p.m.

Float

1.18 million shares

Volume

16.75 million shares

Previous close

$1.54

Open

$1.71 (up 11.0%)

High

$2.40 at 7:20 a.m.

Close

$1.08

The day before

On August 17, TRUG ran from $1.56 to a high of $2.05. The official close was $1.54.

A headline came after the close. At 4:19 p.m. Benzinga ran: "TruGolf Shares Surge Monday: What's Driving the Action?" It described the move that had already happened.

Pre-market: the float traded by 7:18 a.m.

The stock was quiet for hours. It opened the 4 a.m. session at $1.55 and spent most of the early morning between $1.48 and $1.57. At 6:43 a.m. it was $1.54. It crept up to $1.60 by 7:00.

Then it woke up. At 7:15 a.m. it jumped to $1.80. The 7:16 minute traded 298,533 shares and reached $1.99. By 7:18 a.m., more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (1.18 million). In that minute it hit $2.31.

The high so far was $2.40 at 7:20 a.m. The minute opened at $2.34 and closed at $2.16.

It slid to $1.84 by 7:25 a.m. Then it tried again. At 7:32 a.m. it pushed to $2.33, a lower high under $2.40. It stayed around $2 until 8:30.

At 8:30 a.m. GlobeNewsWire ran: "TruGolf to Acquire Polymath Research Inc., Bringing Tokenization Innovator to the Public Markets on Nasdaq." The stock was $2.01 at the end of that minute and $1.82 by 8:33. An 8-K was filed at 8:43. The stock opened that minute at $1.69.

By 9:10 a.m. the pre-market volume was ten times the float. Pre-market volume ended at 12.02 million shares.

The bid at $1.60

The order book showed a large bid below the price.

From 8:16 a.m., someone was bidding for stock at exactly $1.60. It grew through the pre-market and peaked at 81,904 shares at 9:27 a.m., about 7% of the float. The stock sat above it at about $1.70.

It opened at $1.71, up 11% from the previous close. A 60,172-share trade printed at $1.70 at 9:30:01. The stock then dropped through the first minutes.

Here's what happened. At 9:32:09, 20,409 shares traded at exactly $1.60 in under a second, and the bid was gone. Sellers hit it. A sell order of 35,410 shares went through five levels, from $1.61 to $1.57.

The bid did not hold the price. The 9:32 candle closed at $1.57. At 9:35 it fell to $1.39, with a 66,556-share sell sweep. By 9:47 it had touched just under $1.19.

The rest of the day

It did not get back near the open. It touched $1.11 at 10:27 a.m., and the low after the open was $1.05 at 3:37 p.m. It closed at $1.08.

Sellers also showed up on the ask. An ask wall of about 81,000 shares sat at $2.00 from 9:26, far above the price. Later, ask walls sat at $1.21 and $1.20.

By the close, 4.33 million shares had traded in the regular session. For the whole day, 16.75 million shares traded, about 14 times the float, at 12 times the normal volume.

After hours

After the close it spiked on thin volume. A trade printed at $1.40 in the 4:08 p.m. minute and $1.30 at 4:20. The 4:16 minute printed down to $0.96, the low of the day. The rest of the evening it traded around $1.10 to $1.15, and closed out at $1.16 at 7:59 p.m.

What to take from it

• A big bid is not a floor. The bid at $1.60 peaked at 81,904 shares; at 9:32 it was eaten as 20,409 shares traded there in under a second, and the stock kept falling.
• A lower high can mark the top. $2.40 at 7:20 a.m., then $2.33 at 7:32 a.m. The stock never got back above $2.40.
• A headline after a run describes the past. The Benzinga piece came after the Aug 17 close, and the 8:30 a.m. release came after the 7:20 high; by the close the stock was 55% below that high.