Recaps · September 3, 2026

TLYS, September 3: earnings after the close, one halt, and $6.25

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Gap, run and fade
• Catalyst: earnings news
• Ask wall at $5.45
• Halted once
• Halt reopened lower

News

Seeking Alpha, the day before at 8:14 p.m.

Float

10.54 million shares

Volume

6.14 million shares

Previous close

$3.83

Open

$5.55 (up 44.9%)

High

$6.25 at 9:32 a.m.

Halts

1 (9:33 a.m.)

Close

$4.24

The night before

TLYS closed on September 2 at $3.83. The news came after the close.

At 4:05 p.m. Business Wire ran: “Tilly's, Inc. Beats Outlook, Reports Third Consecutive Quarter of Double-Digit Percentage Comp Sales Increases.” More stories followed: MarketBeat at 6:05 p.m., Zacks at 6:26 p.m. (“Q2 Earnings and Revenues Surpass Estimates”) and a Seeking Alpha call transcript at 8:14 p.m.

The last bar of the evening on September 2 was at $5.19.

Pre-market: a long, flat $4.90s

The first trades on the 3rd, at 4:00 a.m., were at $4.93, already well above the $3.83 close. Then it mostly sat near $4.90 to $5.00 for hours.

At 8:06 a.m. it jumped to $5.20 on 24,415 shares in one minute. It drifted in the $5.00s after that and pushed up through the last half hour.

The pre-market high was $5.57 at 9:29 a.m. 931,707 shares traded before the bell.

The open and the 9:32 spike

It opened at $5.55, up 45% from the previous close.

At 9:30:27 an ask wall appeared at $5.45. It peaked at 61,218 shares at 9:30:59 and was gone at 9:32:30. At 9:32:29 a single trade of 227,729 shares printed at $5.68 on the NYSE.

The 9:32 minute traded 743,095 shares and hit $6.25. By the end of that minute it was at $5.89. At 9:32:49 a sell sweep of 25,865 shares went through 14 price levels, from $6.13 to $5.96.

Here's what happened. At 9:33:04 a 24,000-share trade printed at $5.65, and a sell sweep of 56,498 shares ran from $5.70 to $5.52 across 19 levels. At 9:33:40 it was halted (a volatility pause). The 9:33 minute closed at $5.43.

The halt and the reopen

While it was halted, a new ask wall showed up at $5.40. It was first seen at 9:36:22 and peaked at 102,653 shares (1.0% of the float) at 9:36:37.

It reopened at 9:38:48 at $5.25, below where it stopped. The wall was gone at 9:38:49. The reopen print was 45,975 shares at $5.25.

Here's what happened. The wall at $5.45 peaked at 61,848 shares at 9:39:06. In the same second a sell sweep of 24,337 shares went from $5.23 to $5.01 across 23 levels. The 9:39 minute traded 303,157 shares, fell as low as $4.93 and closed at $5.00. At 9:39:27 another sweep sold 19,884 shares from $5.20 to $5.00.

The drop to $4.25

It kept sliding. Sell sweeps hit at 9:41:17 (35,994 shares, $4.87 to $4.79) and 9:42:51 (20,470 shares, $4.78 to $4.67). It touched $4.62 in the 9:42 minute.

After a quiet stretch near $4.60, it fell again. At 9:53:47 a sell sweep of 52,132 shares ran from $4.53 to $4.34. It hit $4.25 at 9:54 a.m., down 32% from $6.25. A smaller sweep of 20,230 shares hit at 9:54:49.

The rest of the day

It tried once more. At 9:56 it pushed to $4.74, a lower high under the $6.25 top, and faded again.

From there it chopped lower and then sideways: $4.06 at 11:32 a.m., then a drift around $4.10. At 3:44 p.m. it touched $4.00, the low after the open. A late push took it to $4.24 in the last regular minute, 3:59 p.m.

Through the close, 4.95 million shares traded, close to half the 10.5 million float, at about 35 times normal volume.

After hours

At 4:03 p.m. one bar traded 149,614 shares, between $4.11 and $4.40. At 4:05 p.m. the company filed a 10-Q (the quarterly report). After hours, 254,324 shares traded, and it was at $4.30 near 8 p.m.

What to take from it

• After the top, the next push stopped lower. $6.25 at 9:32, then $4.74 at 9:56.
• This halt reopened lower than it stopped, and the book was thin at the reopen. The halt stopped at $5.43 and reopened at $5.25. A 5,000-share buy one second later averaged $5.31 against a $5.16 screen.
• Most of the move was gone by the close. It ended near $4.24, about 32% below the $6.25 high.