Recaps · September 17, 2026

PAAI, September 17: a dead morning, three halts, and $3.47

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Main move: late morning
• Halt run
• Halted three times
• Thin pre-market
• Ask wall during halt
• News after the close

Float

12.83 million shares

Volume

12.82 million shares

Previous close

$0.8999

Open

$0.9463 (up 5.2%)

High

$3.47 at 11:47 a.m.

Halts

3 (11:25 a.m. and 11:36 a.m. and 11:50 a.m.)

Close

$3.33

A quiet start

The previous close was $0.90. The first trade on the 17th was at $0.98 at 8:05 a.m. That was the pre-market high. Only 862 shares traded before the bell.

It opened at $0.95 and then barely traded. Many minutes had no trades at all. The low since the open was $0.915 at 10:11. Through 11:03 it stayed between $0.915 and $0.984. The float is 12.8 million shares, and almost none of it had moved.

11:04: the move starts

At 11:04 it pushed from $0.99 to $1.10. Volume in that minute was 4,799 shares. At 11:08, 36,554 shares traded. At 11:14, 251,365 shares traded and the range was $1.05 to $1.22.

It chopped between $1.00 and $1.25 until 11:20. Then it sped up. The 11:22 minute traded 547,460 shares and closed at $1.46. By 11:25 it was at $1.81, with between 547,000 and 609,000 shares traded in each of the minutes from 11:22 to 11:25.

The first halt at $1.81

At 11:25:50 a bid wall appeared at $1.81. It peaked at 101,629 shares two seconds later.

At 11:25:59 it was halted (a volatility pause). The last trade was $1.81. The halt lasted ten minutes.

It reopened at 11:35:59 at $2.05, 13% above where it stopped. A single trade of 202,603 shares printed at $2.05 on the reopen. A 5,000-share market buy one second later would have averaged $2.09, the same as the screen. The book was deep enough that time.

Second halt

At 11:36 it ran to $2.46. A buy sweep of 56,754 shares at 11:36:03 went from $2.14 to $2.25 across 12 levels. At 11:36:22 it was halted again at $2.46.

It reopened at 11:41:22. A trade of 240,351 shares printed at $2.39. A second later the screen showed $2.26, but only 952 shares were offered there.

The 11:41 minute traded 1.63 million shares. It opened at $2.47, ranged from $2.01 to $2.92 and closed at $2.91. At 11:42 it hit $3.21, with 1.40 million shares traded.

The top at $3.47

It did not hold $3.21. At 11:43 it fell to $2.69. At 11:45 it swung from $3.10 to $2.42. Sell sweeps hit at 11:45:56 and 11:45:57, 40,644 and 45,583 shares, taking it down toward $2.62.

At 11:46 it found $2.49. At 11:47:36 and 11:47:37, two buy sweeps of 45,097 and 54,937 shares pushed it from $3.02 to $3.26 in a second. The high of the day was $3.47 in the 11:47 minute. It closed that minute at $3.29.

A 5,000-share buy at 11:47:37 would have averaged $3.07 against $3.05 on screen, $122 more. By 11:48 it traded as low as $3.13.

The third halt and the wall at $3.30

At 11:50:06 it was halted a third time, this time for news pending. The last bar closed at $3.33. No trades appear after that. The regular session ended with 12.82 million shares traded, about 384 times its normal volume. Normal volume is only about 33,000 shares a day.

The book still moved during the halt. From 12:21:04, someone offered stock at exactly $3.30. It peaked at 107,366 shares at 12:28:35, and was pulled at 12:35:01. Then a wall of about 100,000 shares showed at $3.17 from 12:35:12 until 1:05:48 p.m. Later walls appeared at $3.10, $3.31 and $3.40, the biggest being 130,307 shares at $3.40.

After the close

At 5:45 p.m., Business Wire ran: “Paradium.AI Signs 10-Year Strategic Platform Agreement with Roundtable (Nasdaq: RTB)”. It came about six hours after the news-pending halt.

What to take from it

• A halt can reopen higher than it stopped. The first halt stopped at $1.81 and reopened at $2.05.
• Reopens can be thin. One reopen cost nothing over the screen. One second after the second reopen, a 5,000-share buy cost $168 more.
• A stock can be quiet for hours and then move in minutes. PAAI sat near $0.95 until 11:04, then reached $3.47 by 11:47.