Recaps · August 20, 2026

JZ, August 20: four halts, $5.45, and a close at $3.29

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Main move: the open
• Gap, run and fade
• Halt run
• Halted four times
• Float traded about 1x
• After-hours drop

Float

14.38 million shares

Volume

16.75 million shares

Previous close

$1.70

Open

$3.62 (up 112.9%)

High

$5.45 at 9:47 a.m.

Halts

4 (9:30 a.m. and 9:38 a.m. and 9:51 a.m. and 10:02 a.m.)

Close

$3.29

Pre-market: nothing, then $4.44 in a few minutes

The previous close was $1.70. Before 9:20 a.m. JZ barely traded: a handful of small prints between $1.72 and $1.76.

At 9:20 it woke up and by 9:22 it was near $2.11 on 42,572 shares in that one minute. Then came the real move. At 9:25 it hit $3.50, up from $2.13 in the same minute. At 9:26 it dropped to $2.66.

The next minute went the other way. At 9:27 it hit $4.44, the pre-market high. By 9:29 it was back at $3.11. All of this happened in about five minutes, and 1.97 million shares traded before the bell.

The open and the first halt

It opened at $3.62, up 113% from the previous close. Within the 9:30 minute it was at $4.25, and at 9:30:35 it was halted (a volatility pause).

It reopened at 9:35:35 at $4.25 with a single print of 133,692 shares. In the same second a 49,875-share sell order swept down from $4.26 to $4.01 through 22 price levels. The 9:35 minute went on to reach $5.10, above the $4.44 pre-market high.

At 9:36 it reached $5.25, up 45% from the open. Then it turned. By 9:37 it was at $3.74, and at 9:38:02 it was halted a second time.

The second halt and reopen

It reopened at 9:43:02. A 70,144-share print crossed at $3.60 in that second, and the 9:43 minute traded between $3.51 and $4.59.

By 9:44 it had reached $4.83, and at 9:45 it traded between $4.37 and $4.69.

Here's what happened. At 9:47 it hit $5.45, the high so far, 221% above the previous close. The 9:47 minute traded 542,464 shares. At 9:47:54, a 5,000-share market buy showed $5.28 on screen with 132 shares offered. It would have averaged $5.32, $218 more.

Then it turned fast. At 9:48:15 a 28,309-share sell order swept from $5.23 down to $4.96 through 27 levels. Within two minutes it was back at $4.63.

Halts three and four, and the slide

At 9:50 it pushed to $5.19, a lower high under the $5.45 top. The next minute it fell to $3.97, and at 9:51:54 it was halted a third time.

It reopened at 9:56:54 at $4.09, higher than where it stopped, with a 108,966-share print in that second. It did not hold. By 9:57 it was down to $3.39, and at 10:01 it closed the minute at $3.03.

At 10:02:16 it was halted a fourth time, at $2.98. It reopened at 10:07:16 at $2.89 on a 36,872-share print.

Here's what happened. At 10:11:26 a 28,377-share buy order swept from $3.01 to $3.30 through 29 levels, and the minute reached $3.30. It didn't last. By 10:16 it was back near $3.00, and until 11:13 it drifted between about $2.62 and $3.12.

Midday lows and a late rally

The late morning was quiet. At 11:17 it reached $3.27, still well under the earlier highs, and then settled around $2.70 to $2.80.

At 12:33 it broke. A 31,732-share sell order went through from $2.65 to $2.45 across 21 levels, and the minute low was $2.32. At 12:43 it hit $2.03, the low after the open.

By 2:34 p.m., counting pre-market, more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (14.38 million). At 2:29 it spiked to $3.41, then slid to $2.38 by 2:55. In the last two minutes before the close it ran from $2.88 to $3.29 at the close, 40% under the $5.45 high.

By the close, 13.57 million shares had traded in the regular session, a bit under the float, at about 340 times its normal volume. It was halted four times.

After hours

The 4:00 p.m. minute touched $3.53. Then it fell. By 4:11 p.m. it was at $2.10, down about 40% in eleven minutes. After hours added 1.21 million shares. It drifted around $2.15 to $2.50 for the rest of the evening.

What to take from it

• Halt reopens were thin here. 5,000-share buys one second after the four reopens cost $489, $808, $159 and $187 more than the screen showed.
• After the top, the next push stopped lower. $5.45 at 9:47, then $5.19 at 9:50. The stock was down near $3.00 by 10:01.
• A halt can reopen higher than it stopped and still fail. The 9:51 halt stopped at $3.97 and reopened at $4.09. The next minute it traded as low as $3.39.