Recaps · August 26, 2026

XPON, August 26: the $10 wall, three halts, and $11.76

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Main move: the morning
• Round-number break
• Halt run
• Halted three times
• Lower high after the top
• Float traded 13x

Float

962,335 shares

Volume

13.86 million shares

Previous close

$5.27

Open

$6.40 (up 21.4%)

High

$11.76 at 10:15 a.m.

Halts

3 (9:50 a.m. and 10:08 a.m. and 10:17 a.m.)

Close

$9.10

The day before

On August 25, XPON opened at $4.94 and ran to $8.62. It closed at $5.27.

After hours it was back up to $6.66. So the next morning it started well above the close.

Pre-market: up to $7.21

The first trades on the 26th were at $6.10, already above the $5.27 close.

From $6.26 at 4:01 a.m. it ran to the pre-market high, $7.21 at 4:08 a.m. 903,903 shares traded before the bell. That is just under the float of 962,335.

The open and the first halt

It opened at $6.40, up 21% from the previous close. The low since the open was $6.31 at 9:31.

By 9:37 a.m., more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (962,335). At 9:44 it cleared the pre-market high of $7.21.

The volume built fast from there. The 9:45 minute traded 154,864 shares. At 9:50 a.m. it was halted (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $8.66. It reopened at 9:55:29 at $8.67, with a single 43,998-share trade at that price.

The wall at $10.00

This is the part a chart doesn't show you.

From 9:50 a.m. on, someone was offering a lot of stock at exactly $10.00. It peaked at 27,400 shares at 9:51, about 3% of the float, and it was still there as the stock came up toward it.

Here's what happened. At 9:56:38 shares began trading at $10.00. In under a second, 16,706 shares traded at exactly $10.00 and the wall was gone. It wasn't pulled. Buyers ate it. One buy order of 27,326 shares went through 21 price levels, from $9.88 to $10.13. The high of that minute was $10.13, up 58% from the $6.40 open.

It tagged $10.18 at 9:59. Then it dropped, and the 10:04 minute hit $8.66, giving back the whole move from the 9:55 reopen. During that drop a bid wall appeared at $8.50 at 10:01. It peaked at 32,049 shares at 10:06 and was pulled at 10:18.

The second halt

It climbed again, and at 10:08 a.m. it was halted (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $10.33. It reopened at 10:13:43 at $10.56, 2% above where it stopped. The reopen print was 89,736 shares.

The 10:14 minute went to $11.69. The next minute hit $11.76, the high of the day, at 10:15, up 123% from the previous close. By 10:17 it was back at $9.94.

At 10:17:14 a sell order of 22,623 shares went through 44 levels, from $10.50 down to $10.06. At 10:17 a.m. it was halted again with the last trade at $9.94. This halt lasted ten minutes. It reopened at 10:27:47 at $9.70, 2% below where it stopped.

The rest of the day

It came back once more. At 10:29 a.m. it pushed to $10.56, a lower high under the $11.76 top. From 10:31 it slid again. A 19,179-share sell order went from $10.00 to $9.80 that minute.

A new ask wall showed up at $11.00 at 10:49. It peaked at 30,550 shares at 11:43. The stock did not trade above $10.45 after 10:49.

It kept fading: $8.71 at 11:07 a.m. and $8.33 at 11:21 a.m. From noon on it stayed between $7.69 (1:05 p.m.) and $9.40 (3:57 p.m.), and it ran up late to $9.10 at the close.

By the close, 12.49 million shares had traded: the float changed hands about 13 times. Counting pre-market, it had already traded ten times the float by 11:06 a.m.

What to take from it

• After the top, the next push stopped lower. $11.76 at 10:15 a.m., then $10.56 at 10:29 a.m.
• A market buy after a halt reopen or near the top could cost more than the screen showed. Here a 5,000-share buy ran $309 to $643 over the screen at the 9:55 and 10:27 reopens and at the 10:15 high; at the 10:13 reopen it cost nothing extra.
• A halt can reopen lower than it stopped. The 10:17 a.m. halt stopped at $9.94 and reopened at $9.70.