Recaps · September 18, 2026

TCRT, September 18: the $2.77 wall, $3.14 at 5:03 a.m., and a 9:00 break

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Main move: pre-market
• Catalyst: news
• Float traded 7x
• Wall break
• Lower high
• Faded after the open

Float

2.40 million shares

Volume

18.01 million shares

Previous close

$1.57

Open

$1.57 (up 0.0%)

High

$3.14 at 5:03 a.m.

Close

$1.20

The day before

On September 17, TCRT ran from $1.28 to $2.71. It gave most of it back and closed at $1.57.

After hours it traded back up to $2.06. So it came into the 18th already well above the close.

Pre-market: the float traded by 4:50 a.m.

The first trade on the 18th was $1.99, already above the $1.57 close. It slipped to $1.84 within two minutes and then spent a long stretch around $1.90 to $1.95 on thin volume.

At 4:25 a.m. Benzinga ran: “Why Alaunos Therapeutics Shares Are Trading Higher By Around 22%; Here Are 20 Stocks Moving Premarket”. The stock was at $1.97 that minute. It stayed near $1.95 for another ten minutes.

The move began at 4:36 a.m. That minute it went from $2.00 to $2.17 on 114,374 shares. From there it climbed steadily. By 4:50 a.m., more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (2.40 million).

From $1.92 at 4:24 a.m. it ran to $2.73 at 4:52 a.m., up 42%. Then it pulled back to $2.35 by 4:56.

The wall at $2.77

Someone started offering stock at exactly $2.77 at 4:42 a.m. By 4:46 there were 47,442 shares for sale at $2.77, about 2% of the float. It stayed there while the stock worked around it. At 4:56 the stock was back at $2.35, and from then it climbed toward the wall again.

Here's what happened. At 5:00:28 a buy order of 49,124 shares went through eight price levels, from $2.70 to $2.77. In four seconds, 26,714 shares traded at exactly $2.77 and the wall was gone. It was eaten at 5:00:32.

$3.14, then the fade

The move kept going. At 5:02:48 another buy order went through nine levels, from $2.95 to $3.03. The high so far was $3.14, at 5:03 a.m.

Then it fell to $2.23 at 5:18 a.m., down 29% from $3.14. A 31,895-share sell order at 5:12 had gone through five levels, from $2.57 to $2.53, on the way.

It came back once more. At 5:33 a.m. it pushed to $2.64, a lower high under the $3.14 top. By 6:00 it was at $2.19.

Two more walls came and went. An ask wall of 50,661 shares at $2.81 appeared at 6:17 a.m. and was pulled at 6:23. A bid wall of 40,693 shares at $2.28 appeared at 7:39 and was pulled at 7:51. At 7:51:53, 11,231 shares traded at exactly $2.28.

9:00: the bid wall at $1.79

From 7:00 a.m. on, someone was bidding for a lot of stock at exactly $1.79. It peaked at 50,768 shares at 7:00 a.m., about 2% of the float. The stock was trading around $2.23 to $2.29 at the time, more than 40 cents above it.

At 9:00 GlobeNewsWire ran: “Alaunos Therapeutics, Inc. Announces Pricing of Registered Direct Offering priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules”. The same minute the stock dropped. At 9:00:46 a sell order of 57,932 shares went through nine levels, from $2.31 to $2.23. The next second another 70,203 shares sold from $2.21 to $2.07.

Trading at $1.79 began at 9:00:51. In 1.3 seconds, 50,870 shares traded at exactly $1.79 and the wall was gone. It wasn't pulled. Sellers hit it. A single 23,310-share print at $1.79 came at 9:00:52.

The 9:00 minute went from $2.33 to a low of $1.55 on 582,193 shares. It closed that minute at $1.57, the same as the previous close.

The open and the close

It opened at $1.57, the same as the previous close. A 38,506-share print at $1.60 came one second into the session. By 9:36 it was at $1.30.

It kept fading: $1.02 at 11:47 a.m., the low of the day, then back up to $1.27 by 1:42 p.m., down to $1.15 at 3:49 and $1.22 at the close. After hours it traded as high as $1.40.

The regular session (9:30 to 4:00) traded 2.13 million shares. For the whole day, 18.01 million shares traded: the float changed hands more than 7 times, at about 40 times its normal volume. Most of that was before the bell.

What to take from it

• A big ask wall can be a level the stock trades through. The $2.77 wall was eaten in four seconds. A 5,000-share buy right after it filled $32 worse than the screen.
• After the top, the next push stopped lower. $3.14 at 5:03 a.m., then $2.64 at 5:33 a.m.
• Most of the day's volume came before the open, and most of the move was gone by the close. It closed at $1.22, 61% below the $3.14 high.