DRMA on August 12, 2026: why it ran

The day, step by step

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Gap, run and fade
• Catalyst: earnings news
• Float traded pre-market
• Bid walls eaten
• Lower high

The day before

On August 11, DRMA opened at $1.13 and hit $1.79. It closed at $1.08, below where it started.

The news came after the close. At 4:05 p.m. Accesswire ran: “Dermata Therapeutics Provides Corporate Update and Reports Financial Results for the Second Quarter 2026”. The last after-hours bar that day was $1.60.

4:00 a.m.: $1.68 in the first minute

The first trades on the 12th were at $1.51, already above the $1.08 close. The high so far, $1.68, printed in the 4:00 a.m. minute. By the end of the next minute it had traded as low as $1.32.

A 24,040-share sell order went through five price levels at 4:01:38, from $1.42 to $1.38. It bounced back to $1.54 by 4:07.

A bid wall at exactly $1.40 first appeared at 4:18 a.m. It peaked at 38,348 shares at 4:19 a.m., about 1.2% of the float. For the next 20 minutes the stock mostly traded above it, around $1.43 to $1.46.

Here's what happened. Trades at exactly $1.40 began at 4:38:45. In 35.5 seconds, 43,310 shares traded at exactly $1.40 and the wall was gone. The price slid to $1.35 by 4:47, and it reached $1.32 at 5:08 a.m., down 14% from the $1.54 at 4:07.

6:00 a.m.: the second push

It spent most of an hour between $1.32 and $1.40, then started climbing at 5:52 from $1.39.

At 6:00:06 a buy order of 34,261 shares went through six price levels, $1.50 to $1.55. The stock pushed to $1.59 in that minute, a lower high under the $1.68 top, and 270,677 shares traded in the minute. From 6:01 a.m. there was an ask wall at $1.60 that peaked at 41,947 shares at 6:06. Through 7:24 the stock did not trade above $1.59 again.

It faded from there: $1.41 by 6:07 and $1.38 at 6:30. By 6:06 a.m., more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (3.19 million).

7:25 a.m.: the $1.35 and $1.30 bid walls

From 6:30 a.m. there was a bid wall at $1.35. By 7:23 it had grown to 41,610 shares, about 1.3% of the float.

At 7:25:44 trades started hitting $1.35. In about 27 seconds, 22,122 shares traded at exactly $1.35 and the wall was gone at 7:26:11.

Another bid wall sat one more step down, at $1.30. It was first seen at 4:40 a.m. and peaked at 32,803 shares at 5:33. At 7:28:43, 15,493 shares traded at exactly $1.30 in under two seconds and that wall was gone too. The 7:28 candle low was $1.29. By 7:51 it was $1.25.

The open and the rest of the day

It opened at $1.26, up 17% from the previous close. A single 33,572-share trade printed at $1.25 at 9:30:01. At 9:34 a sell order of 33,905 shares went through four levels, $1.23 to $1.20, and the low of the day was $1.19 at 9:34. A bid wall sat at $1.08, the previous close, from 9:26, and the low of the day stayed 11 cents above it.

It bounced to $1.40 at 9:48, then at 11:36 pushed to $1.46 on a 23,901-share buy sweep. That was the best of the regular session. It held between about $1.27 and $1.35 for most of the afternoon, and it was at $1.37 in the last regular-session minute.

Regular-session volume was 2.08 million shares. Pre-market was 4.95 million. Counting after hours, 7.13 million shares traded: the float changed hands about 2 times, at about 12 times its normal volume.

What to take from it

• After the top, the next push stopped lower. $1.68 at 4:00 a.m., then $1.59 at 6:00 a.m.
• A bid wall is a level, not a floor. The walls at $1.40, $1.35 and $1.30 each got hit and were gone within seconds to under a minute.
• The float traded over before the open. By 6:06 a.m. more shares had traded than the float holds, and the high had come in the first minute of pre-market.

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