Recaps · September 16, 2026

QCLS, September 16: 21 halts and $2.16

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Main move: midday
• Halted 21 times
• Float traded 9x
• Halt reopens
• Lower high after the top

Float

7.75 million shares

Volume

76.59 million shares

Previous close

$0.4477

Open

$0.4596 (up 2.7%)

High

$2.16 at 12:37 p.m.

Halts

21 (9:58 a.m. and 10:04 a.m. and 11:27 a.m. and 11:38 a.m. and 11:43 a.m. and 11:49 a.m. and 12:02 p.m. and 12:08 p.m. and 12:14 p.m. and 12:20 p.m. and 12:27 p.m. and 12:32 p.m. and 12:38 p.m. and 12:43 p.m. and 12:53 p.m. and 1:01 p.m. and 1:11 p.m. and 1:23 p.m. and 1:47 p.m. and 1:53 p.m. and 1:59 p.m.)

Close

$0.9700

The day before and pre-market

On September 15, QCLS traded between $0.40 and $0.54 and closed at $0.45. At 9:00 a.m. that day GlobeNewsWire carried a headline: Q/C Technologies named a new chief technology officer to lead optical processor development. We have no news for the 16th itself.

Pre-market was quiet. The first bar, at 4:00 a.m., traded at $0.43. The pre-market high was $0.48 at 4:12 a.m., on 14,347 shares in that one minute. For the rest of the morning it traded near $0.45. 114,271 shares traded before the bell, against a float of 7.75 million.

The open and the wall at $0.61

It opened at $0.46. The 9:30 minute traded 6,462 shares and the 9:31 low was $0.45. Then at 9:36 it started to climb from $0.48 and reached $0.52 by 9:39. For the next fifteen minutes or so it stayed between about $0.48 and $0.52.

At 9:55 volume picked up (49,890 shares). The next minute traded 301,340. The 9:57 minute traded 721,623 shares and ran to $0.70. At 9:58 it touched $0.72, and at 9:58:18 it was halted (a volatility pause).

It reopened at 10:03:18. The first print was 345,952 shares at $0.72. In that same minute it ran to $0.84, then fell back to $0.61.

Here is the part a chart doesn't show. From 10:03:53 a large ask wall sat at $0.61. At its peak, at 10:04:07, there were 453,704 shares for sale there, 5.9% of the float. At that second the stock was halted again. The wall was pulled at 10:04:55, while trading was still halted. The stock reopened at 10:09:07 at $0.59.

After the second reopen

From the $0.59 reopen it climbed to $0.85 by 10:11. By 10:13, counting pre-market, more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (7.75 million).

At 10:19:08 one buy order swept 81,532 shares from $0.8498 to $0.8868, across 51 levels. The high came a minute later: $0.93 at 10:20. Then it turned. The 10:21 minute traded down to $0.77 on over a million shares.

It slid for the next 25 minutes, reaching $0.62 at 10:39. At 10:46 one minute dropped from $0.66 to $0.58. That was 37% under the $0.93 high.

The late-morning climb

It turned up from a low of $0.62 at 11:01. By 11:20 it was at $0.72 and climbing.

The 11:26 minute traded 1,599,795 shares and closed at $0.99. At 11:27 it reached $1.02, and at 11:27:46 it was halted. It reopened at 11:32:46 with a 290,993-share print at $1.02. By 11:38 it was at $1.30, and at 11:38:37 it was halted again.

It reopened at 11:43:37 and traded up to $1.47 within the minute. At 11:43:56, 19 seconds after the reopen, it was halted again, the fifth halt of the day. A bid wall at $1.47 was first seen at 11:43:43. It peaked at 11:43:56 at 465,597 shares, 6.0% of the float.

At 11:48:56 it reopened with a 249,445-share print at $1.48, the high at 11:48. 22,173 shares traded at exactly $1.47 in the next three seconds. The bid wall was pulled at 11:49:00.

The 11:49 minute fell from $1.48 to $1.33. At 11:49:03 a buy order swept 86,765 shares from $1.33 to $1.40. Then at 11:49:08 an ask wall appeared at $1.33. It reached 635,362 shares, 8.2% of the float, at 11:49:22. At that second the stock was halted with the last trade at $1.33.

The top at $2.16, then the fade

It reopened at 11:59:22 with a 292,171-share print at $1.11. In the same second a sell order swept 93,516 shares from $1.26 to $1.06. It was halted six more times before 12:37.

At the 12:37:43 reopen a 302,578-share print went off at $2.01, and that minute reached the day's high of $2.16. It was halted again at 12:38:01.

After the 12:53:17 reopen (266,324 shares at $1.65) it fell, reaching $0.79 at 1:33 p.m. It came back to $1.47 at 1:58, a lower high under the $2.16 top. At 1:59:24 it was halted for the 21st and last time. It closed at $0.97.

What to take from it

• A big wall can vanish while trading is halted. The $0.61 ask wall peaked at 453,704 shares, 5.9% of the float, and was pulled at 10:04:55 while the stock was still halted.
• Volume can pass the whole float within minutes of a reopen. By 10:13, more shares had traded than the 7.75 million-share float, only about ten minutes after the first halt ended.
• A halt reopen can mark a short-term high. The 11:48:56 reopen printed 249,445 shares at $1.48, the high of that minute, and the stock fell to $1.33 in the next minute. It went on to set the day's high of $2.16 at 12:37.