Recaps · August 31, 2026
RDHL, August 31: a 7:00 headline, three halts, and $2.16
- Small cap
- Momentum
- Main move: pre-market
- Catalyst: news
- Halted three times
- Bid wall break
- Float traded 10x
- Gap, run and fade
- Float
- 5.11 million shares
- Volume
- 50.24 million shares
- Previous close
- $0.6522
- Open
- $1.37 (up 110.1%)
- High
- $2.16 at 7:39 a.m.
- Halts
- 3 (6:57 a.m. and 9:36 a.m. and 9:42 a.m.)
- Close
- $0.9125
Before the halt: almost no trading
On August 28, RDHL closed at $0.65 on 29,660 shares. It was a quiet, sub-dollar stock with a 5.11-million-share float.
On the 31st it barely traded before the news. Only four pre-market minutes show any trades, 41 shares in total, the first at 4:59 a.m. around $0.66 and the last at 5:43 a.m. at $0.68.
At 6:57 a.m. it was halted (news pending) with the last trade at $0.68. At 7:00 a.m. PRNewsWire ran: “RedHill Divests Talicia® to Apotex for $18 Million Cash Upfront Plus Milestones to Fuel Strategic Growth Opportunities.” At 7:03 a.m. the company filed a 6-K, a foreign company's current report. The stock was still halted for both.
The reopen and the spike to $2.16
It reopened at 7:35 a.m. at around $1.07, 58% above where it stopped. There was no trading in between.
It ran hard. Each minute from 7:35 through 7:39 traded between 422,000 and 1.31 million shares. By 7:39 a.m., more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (5.11 million).
The high so far was $2.16 at 7:39 a.m., before the bell. By 7:42 it had traded as low as $1.67.
It bounced to $1.97 at 7:40 and $1.94 at 7:42, both lower highs under the $2.16 top. From there it slid to $1.31 by 7:51 and spent the rest of the pre-market mostly between $1.23 and $1.51. 32.44 million shares traded before the bell.
The open and a halt
It opened at $1.37, up 110% from the previous close. A single 79,095-share print went through at $1.39 at 9:30:01. At 9:35 it jumped to $1.54, and the next minute it reached $1.58.
At 9:36:51 it was halted (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $1.58. A bid wall at $1.58 had been first seen at 9:36:37, before the halt, and peaked at 369,722 shares at 9:36:47, 7.2% of the float. It reopened at 9:41:51 at $1.54. A 370,501-share print went through at $1.54 on the reopen, and the $1.58 wall was gone one second later.
Stop It's 9:42. RDHL reopened from a five-minute halt at 9:41:51 and is at $1.54. The stock was up 110% at the open and the day's high so far is $2.16. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 9:42 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 9:39 a.m. ET.
It didn't hold. At 9:42:19 it was halted again (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $1.39. An ask wall at $1.39 had been first seen at 9:42:05 and peaked at 343,020 shares at 9:42:19, 6.7% of the float. It was gone by 9:44:17, still inside the halt.
It reopened at 9:47:19 at $1.30, 6% below where it stopped. That minute traded over a million shares, and the low was $1.21. A 242,754-share print at $1.30 and a 66,769-share sell sweep from $1.37 to $1.28 both came at the reopen.
The bid at $1.25
From 9:48 a.m. on, a large bid sat at exactly $1.25. It peaked at 146,732 shares at 9:50 a.m., about 3% of the float. Another bid at $1.20 peaked at 151,781 shares at 9:48:31. Above the price, an ask wall at $1.35 had been sitting there since 9:49.
Stop It's 9:52. RDHL is at $1.28. A bid of up to about 147,000 shares has been sitting at $1.25, just below. The stock has been between $1.25 and $1.33 since 9:48. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 9:52 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 9:49 a.m. ET.
Starting at 9:52:59, sellers hit the $1.25 bid. In 6 seconds, 129,886 shares traded at exactly $1.25 and the wall was gone. It wasn't pulled. Sellers hit it. The $1.20 bid was eaten at 9:53:08.
The 9:53 minute traded 870,438 shares and closed at $1.12, down from $1.25. At 10:09 a 194,748-share sell sweep ran from $1.11 to $1.07.
The rest of the day
From 10:15 a.m. until 2:54 p.m. it sat in a narrow band, between $1.01 and $1.15. Volume dried up, and many minutes traded only a few thousand shares.
At 2:54 p.m. it broke. The minute opened at $1.03 and low was $0.96, on 366,907 shares. Two sell sweeps went through at 2:54:21, one of 64,375 shares from $1.03 to $0.9899 and one of 131,021 shares from $0.9899 to $0.9593. It was the first time under $1.00 in the regular session.
It closed at $0.91, 58% under the $2.16 high of the day. That high came before the bell, at 7:39 a.m. The low after the open was $0.90 at 3:51 p.m.
After hours it kept sliding, to $0.82 by 5:53 p.m., and the last bar of the night, at 7:59 p.m., closed at $0.86.
The volume: 32.44 million shares pre-market, 16.37 million in the regular session and 1.44 million after hours. For the whole day, 50.24 million shares traded: the float changed hands about 10 times, at over 4,000 times its normal volume.
What to take from it
- A halt can reopen higher than it stopped. The 6:57 a.m. halt stopped at $0.68 and reopened at $1.07.
- A 5,000-share buy cost very different amounts at different reopens. At 7:35 it averaged $115 over the screen. At 9:47 it averaged $0 over. It depends on how deep the book is in that second.
- After the top, the next pushes stopped lower, and the support that looked big didn't hold. $2.16 at 7:39 a.m., then $1.97 at 7:40 and $1.94 at 7:42. A 146,732-share bid at $1.25 broke in 6 seconds and the stock fell to $1.12 within the minute.
Replay this day
Trade RDHL on August 31, 2026 yourself in Hindsight Markets: the real tape, the order book and the halts, on a clock you control, with fills from the real book.