Recaps · September 28, 2026
PMAX, September 28: an 8:30 headline, a fast spike, and bid walls
- Small cap
- Momentum
- Main move: pre-market
- Catalyst: news (8:30 a.m.)
- Bid wall break
- Lower high
- Float traded 6x
- Faded to the close
- Float
- 1.31 million shares
- Volume
- 7.98 million shares
- Previous close
- $1.62
- Open
- $1.76 (up 9.0%)
- High
- $2.79 at 8:31 a.m.
- Close
- $1.23
The day before and a quiet start
On September 25, PMAX traded between $1.21 and $1.72 and closed at $1.62.
The 28th started quietly. The first trade at 4:00 a.m. was $1.60. For the next four and a half hours it stayed between about $1.50 and $1.77, mostly around $1.65 to $1.75. Many minutes had no trades at all. At 8:29 a.m. it was $1.75.
8:30 a.m.: the headline
At 8:30 a.m. GlobeNewsWire ran: “Powell Max Limited Acquires Stake in Parent Company of the Iconic Remington Firearms Brand”. That one minute traded 353,668 shares and went from $1.76 to $2.45.
Stop It's 8:31. PMAX is at $2.26. At 8:29 it was $1.75, and the previous close was $1.62. The headline came out at 8:30. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 8:31 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 8:28 a.m. ET.
The next minute traded 701,913 shares and reached $2.79, the high so far, at 8:31 a.m. That is up 72% from the previous close.
During the 8:32 minute, total volume passed the whole float (1.31 million). By the bell, 6.41 million shares had traded, nearly five times the float.
Then it came down fast. At 8:33 several large sweeps hit the tape. A buy of 18,559 shares swept from $2.57 to $2.65 across 8 price levels. Nine seconds later a sell of 14,462 shares went from $2.48 to $2.40. Eleven seconds after that, 20,475 shares were sold from $2.36 to $2.30. By 8:34 the low was $1.90.
Walls and a second push
At 8:35 a.m. the company filed a 6-K (a foreign company's current report). Around then the book got busy. At 8:35:47 a single trade printed 16,227 shares at $2.03, at the bid. A bid wall of up to 32,762 shares at $2.01 showed up and was pulled at 8:38:02.
The stock climbed again. At 8:40:48 an ask wall appeared at $2.59 and grew to 27,583 shares. It was pulled at 8:41:59, and at 8:41 a.m. the stock hit $2.55, a lower high under the $2.79 top. Another ask wall at $2.50 appeared at 8:42:03 and grew to 32,817 shares by 8:42:39. By then the price was falling: $2.10 at the end of 8:43 and $1.93 at the end of 8:44.
From 8:43:50 a bid wall stood at exactly $1.82. It grew to 29,769 shares at 8:45:10, about 2.3% of the float.
Stop It's 8:46. PMAX is at $2.01, well under the $2.79 high. A bid wall that reached nearly 29,800 shares at 8:45 sits at $1.82, just below. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 8:46 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 8:43 a.m. ET.
At 8:47:19 a sell of 20,405 shares went through $1.91 to $1.85 across 7 levels. At 8:47:22 the first trade printed at $1.82. In 4.4 seconds, 27,602 shares traded at exactly $1.82 and the wall was gone at 8:47:27. It wasn't pulled. Sellers hit it. The 8:47 minute traded 268,719 shares and touched $1.77.
At 8:47:42 a buy of 13,303 shares went from $1.81 to $1.84. The stock then chopped between about $1.70 and $2.08 until the open. It bounced to $2.08 at 8:54, then slid to $1.70 at 9:08.
The open and the fade
Before the open, a bid wall of 32,472 shares at $1.78 showed up at 9:13:21. It was pulled at 9:27:40. The 9:28 minute dipped to $1.72.
It opened at $1.77, up about 9% from the previous close. The first minute went from $1.70 to $1.85. At 9:30:01 a single 11,773-share trade printed at $1.77. At 9:31:17 an ask wall appeared at $2.10, far above the price. It grew to 28,337 shares and was pulled at 9:45:03.
The price broke down at 9:35. That minute traded 105,338 shares and fell to $1.52. At 9:37:03 a buy swept 22,478 shares from $1.50 to $1.53 and a single 18,636-share trade printed at $1.50. It didn't hold. It hit $1.36 at 9:46.
It kept fading: $1.21 at 3:38 p.m., the low after the open, and $1.23 at the close.
After hours
After hours it moved between $1.16 (at 4:57 p.m.) and $1.40 (at 5:34 p.m.). 188,950 shares traded after the close.
For the whole day, 7.98 million shares traded: the float changed hands about 6 times, at 6.2 times its normal volume. The regular session itself traded 1.38 million. Most of the day's volume came before the bell, and most of it in the hour after 8:30 a.m.
What to take from it
- The whole move was gone by the close. It closed at $1.23, 56% below the $2.79 high and under the $1.62 previous close.
- After the top, the next push stopped lower. $2.79 at 8:31 a.m., then $2.55 at 8:41 a.m. The $1.82 wall that looked like support was eaten in about four seconds.
- A big bid wall is a level, not a floor. When sellers hit it hard, it can break in seconds, and the fills near the high cost more than the screen showed.
Replay this day
Trade PMAX on September 28, 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.