Recaps · August 19, 2026

FEMY, August 19: a 9:00 spike, a $3.97 wall, and $3.69

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Main move: pre-market and the open
• Low float
• Gap and fade
• Ask wall pulled
• Lower high
• Float traded about 1x

Float

8.28 million shares

Volume

12.43 million shares

Previous close

$2.20

Open

$3.00 (up 36.4%)

High

$3.69 at 9:33 a.m.

Close

$2.66

Pre-market: nothing, then 9:00

The previous close was $2.20. On August 18, 48,653 shares traded. This is a stock with a float of 8.28 million shares and very little normal volume.

The first trade on the 19th was at $2.17 at 4:04 a.m. After that it barely traded. Most minutes had a few dozen shares, and the biggest before 9:00 was 298 shares at 8:18. The last print before 9:00 was $2.19 at 8:21.

At 9:00 a.m. that changed. In one minute it went from $2.23 to $2.71 on 38,696 shares. Then it fell just as fast. At 9:01 it hit $2.07, the low so far.

It climbed back through the next ten minutes and reached $2.69 at 9:11. At 9:13 it was down at $2.40, on 71,247 shares. It was working between $2.40 and $2.69 from 9:11 to 9:16.

The 9:17 minute went to $3.31 on 238,170 shares. That was the first trade through $3.00. At 9:18 it reached $3.50, the pre-market high, on 384,307 shares.

It did not hold. At 9:21 it was back at $2.95, and at 9:22 it fell to $2.72. One sell order at 9:22:47 hit the book for 30,460 shares, from $3.04 down to $2.97 across 8 price levels. The pre-market closed with 2.998 million shares traded. From 9:25 to 9:29 it traded between $2.81 and $3.13.

The open and the wall at $3.97

The open was $3.00, up 36% from the previous close. A single 40,042-share trade printed at $2.96 at 9:30:00. That is about 0.5% of the float in one trade.

At 9:31 it ran to $3.62, on 681,185 shares. A buy order at 9:31:28 took 31,815 shares from $3.45 to $3.52 across 8 levels. The next minute it dropped to $3.12 as a sell order took 23,683 shares from $3.37 to $3.29 at 9:32:08.

Here is what a chart doesn't show. At 9:32:25 an ask wall showed up at $3.97, above the market.

Here's what happened. In the 9:33 minute it ran to $3.69, the high of the day, on 591,962 shares. It never got to $3.97. The wall was pulled at 9:33:33. Nobody traded through it. The next minute the low was $3.23, and the 9:34 candle closed at $3.54.

The lower highs and the first flush

At 9:35 it pushed to $3.65, a lower high under $3.69. A buy order at 9:35:04 took 31,282 shares from $3.58 to $3.63. At 9:37 it reached $3.60, lower again.

Then it fell. The 9:39 candle went down to $2.92 and 9:40 hit $2.65, on over 300,000 shares in each minute. In the 9:45 minute two sell orders hit the book: 26,616 shares from $2.81 to $2.75, then 26,049 shares from $2.73 to $2.65. The 9:49 low was $2.53.

By 10:04, counting pre-market, more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (8.28 million).

One more try at 10:12

From $2.79 at 10:01 it worked back up. A buy order at 10:09:58 took 23,662 shares, $2.99 to $3.01. At 10:12 it hit $3.27, and a buy order at 10:12:44 took 25,073 shares from $3.20 to $3.24.

At 10:13:22 a single 36,966-share trade printed at $3.08, at the bid. In the same second a 39,036-share buy order ran from $3.08 to $3.14. The 10:13 high was $3.28. The 10:16 minute (high $3.22) was the last one above $3.20. By 10:26 it was at $2.63.

The rest of the day

From 10:27 to 11:07 it sat between $2.61 and $2.87 on thin volume. At 11:08 it broke down, from $2.73 to $2.54 on 83,830 shares. It kept sliding to $2.27 at 11:19, the low after the open.

It bounced to $2.51 by 11:27 and then spent the afternoon mostly between $2.46 and $2.82.

At 1:36 p.m. Benzinga ran: “Femasys Secures FDA Pathway for Non-Surgical Contraceptive.” The stock was around $2.73 to $2.75. In the next five minutes it traded between $2.69 and $2.78 on small volume.

It closed at $2.66, 28% under the $3.69 high of the day. After hours another 130,679 shares traded.

By the close, 9.30 million shares had traded in the regular session, a bit more than the float. For the whole day it traded about 140 times its normal volume.

What to take from it

• A big ask wall can disappear without being traded through. The $3.97 wall was pulled at 9:33:33 and the stock topped at $3.69, below it.
• After the top, the next pushes stopped lower. $3.69 at 9:33, $3.65 at 9:35, $3.60 at 9:37, then $3.28 at 10:13.
• Most of the move was gone by the close. It closed at $2.66, 28% below the high, and it traded between $2.69 and $2.78 in the five minutes after the 1:36 p.m. headline.