Recaps · August 20, 2026

IPST, August 20: six halts and $15.25

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Main move: the morning
• Pre-market high broken
• Halt run
• Halted six times
• Float traded 3x

Float

704,514 shares

Volume

2.59 million shares

Previous close

$8.40

Open

$8.79 (up 4.6%)

High

$15.25 at 10:30 a.m.

Halts

6 (10:07 a.m. and 10:19 a.m. and 10:25 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. and 10:41 a.m. and 10:55 a.m.)

Close

$10.28

The day before, and pre-market

On August 19, IPST opened at $12.66, hit $17.35 and traded as low as $7.78. The official close was $8.40.

The first trades on the 20th were at $9.47, already above that close. At 4:05 a.m. it touched $10.52, then slid back under $9. From 4:17 a.m. until about 7:12 a.m. it drifted between about $8.53 and $9.71.

The move came at 7:14 a.m. By 7:17 a.m. it had printed the pre-market high, $11.01. 199,146 shares traded before the bell.

Then it sold off. At 8:03 a.m. it dropped from $9.15 to $8.41 inside one minute. The pre-market low was $8.12 at 8:05 a.m., down 26% from the high.

The open: $8.40, then $10.37

It opened at $8.79, up 5% from the previous close. In the 9:31 minute it dipped to $8.40, exactly the previous close, and held.

At 9:38 it ran to $10.37, up 18% from the open. That minute traded 27,674 shares, the biggest of the opening half hour. Then it sold off to $8.67 by 9:48 and sat in a tight range near $8.90 for the next ten minutes.

At 10:02 it started up again, from $9.23. By 10:07 it was at $10.92, just under the pre-market high of $11.01. At 10:07:16 it was halted (a volatility pause).

The first halt

It reopened at 10:17:16 with a single print of 17,959 shares at $11.85, above the pre-market high. The 10:17 minute swung from $11.25 to $12.50. In the next minute it reached $13.03.

At 10:19:27 it was halted again, with the last trade at $13.30. It reopened at 10:24:27 at $13.35, on a print of 18,680 shares.

The 10:24 minute ran to $14.69. At 10:25:03 it was halted a third time at $14.69. It reopened at 10:30:03 at $14.70 on a print of 25,707 shares.

It hit $15.25, the high of the day, in the 10:30 minute. That minute is also where the float ran out: pre-market plus regular trading passed 704,514 shares, the whole float.

The top did not hold. At 10:30:12 a single sell order took 12,698 shares from $14.70 down to $14.00 across 35 price levels. By the end of the minute the last trade was $13.23.

Halts four to six, and the drop to $10.23

At 10:30:46 it was halted a fourth time. It reopened at 10:40:46 at $12.63, 60 cents below the $13.23 where it stopped. During that minute it traded down to $11.54. The last trade before the next halt was $11.37.

At 10:41:19 it was halted a fifth time. It reopened at 10:51:19 at $10.61 on a print of 26,331 shares, and in that minute touched $10.23, down 33% from $15.25.

It bounced right away: $12.34 by 10:54 and $12.49 at 10:55. At 10:55:20 it was halted a sixth time. It reopened at 11:00:20.

The lower high and the walls

At 11:02 it pushed to $14.42, a lower high under the $15.25 top.

Now look at the book, which a chart doesn't show. At 10:53:44 an ask wall appeared at $15.00. It peaked at 41,538 shares at 11:10:35, 5.9% of the float. At 11:12:01 a second wall showed up at $13.00 and peaked at 38,760 shares at 11:16:27. It was pulled at 11:17:13. In that same second a wall appeared at $12.20. It peaked at 37,406 shares at 11:20:38 and was pulled at 11:24:39.

Price fell through that stretch: $13.11 at 11:10, $11.80 at 11:17, and $11.42 at 11:24.

At 11:34 it ran again from $11.60. At 11:35:32 one buy order took 12,840 shares from $13.21 to $13.30 across 9 levels. It touched $13.60 at 11:43, still under the earlier highs.

From there it faded: $11.75 at 11:53, $9.81 at 12:52, $9.61 at 3:11 p.m., and $10.28 at the close, 33% below the high.

By the close, 2.22 million shares had traded: the float changed hands about 3 times. Relative volume was 0.79, a bit below normal for this stock. It was halted 6 times.

After hours

After the close it traded between about $9.85 and $10.40 until 4:50 p.m. At 4:50 p.m. it started up from $10.40 and hit $13.30 at 4:55 p.m., then slid to $11.51 by 5:03 p.m. It ended the extended session around $10.71. 168,283 shares traded after hours. No news or filing was recorded in our data for the day.

What to take from it

• After the top, the next push stopped lower. $15.25 in the 10:30 minute, then $14.42 at 11:02 and $13.60 at 11:43.
• Buying at a halt reopen costs more than the screen says. At 10:24 the screen showed 24 shares at $13.45. A 5,000-share order averaged $13.74.
• A halt can reopen lower than it stopped. The 10:30 halt stopped at $13.23 and reopened at $12.63. The stock closed at $10.28.