Hindsight Markets Small-cap stocks on August 14, 2026
HHS on August 14, 2026: why it ran
On August 14, 2026, HHS opened up 50.2% from the previous close of 2.81 and reached 4.99 at 9:02 a.m. ET. The exchange halted it once.
- Previous close
- 2.81
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- 4.22
- Gap at the open
- up 50.2%
- Pre-market high
- 4.99 at 9:02 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 4.99 at 9:02 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 2.91
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 4.35 at 4:01 p.m.
- Last trade before 4:00 p.m.
- 4.28
- Volume
- 2.72 million
- Relative volume
- 411.1x
- Float
- 6.74 million shares, from filings as of August 14, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 7.42 million
Replay HHS's day
It starts at 9:53 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 9:56 a.m. and asks what you would do. Or press Play on any moment in How it traded.
The day, step by step
- Small cap
- Momentum
- Gap and hold
- Catalyst: acquisition news
- Halt reopen
- Halted once
- Lower high
The day before
On August 13, HHS traded between $2.74 and $3.22 on 47,655 shares. The official close was $2.81.
The halt and the reopen
The only pre-market trade before the halt was one share at $2.91 at 4:04 a.m. At 8:25 a.m. the stock was halted (news pending), with $2.91 as the last trade.
During the halt, at 8:30 a.m., two headlines came out. GlobeNewsWire: “Star Equity Holdings Enters Into Merger Agreement to Acquire Harte Hanks”. Accesswire: “Harte Hanks Enters Definitive Agreement to Be Acquired by Star Equity Holdings for $5.00 Per Share”.
It reopened at 9:00 a.m. at $4.55, 56% above the last trade before the halt.
The 9:00 minute went up to $4.88. The high so far was $4.99 at 9:02 a.m., before the bell. Then it slid. By the 9:04 minute it had dipped to $4.61. 1.43 million shares traded before the open.
The open and the drift
At 9:30 the first print was 27,852 shares at $4.22. It opened at $4.22, 50% above the $2.81 previous close and 15% below the pre-market high.
It drifted down to $4.08 at 9:35 a.m., 18% under $4.99. After that it settled into a narrow range around $4.30.
The wall at $4.50
At 10:09 a large ask showed up at exactly $4.50. It was 34,044 shares, about 0.5% of the float, across all exchanges.
Stop It's 10:10. HHS is at $4.33. About 34,000 shares are offered at $4.50, an offer that appeared at 10:09. The high so far is $4.99. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 10:10 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 10:07 a.m. ET.
At 10:10 a.m. Business Wire ran: “HHS Stock Alert: Halper Sadeh LLC is Investigating Whether Harte Hanks, Inc. is Obtaining a Fair Price for its Shareholders”.
Here is what the tape did. At 10:11 it pushed to $4.50 on 38,036 shares, a lower high under the $4.99 top. At 10:12:26 a buy of 10,547 shares went through $4.48 to $4.50 in three price levels. By 10:17 it was back to $4.35.
The bid at $4.27
The rest of the morning and the early afternoon were slow, in a band between about $4.22 and $4.49. Many minutes traded only a few hundred shares.
From 3:41 p.m. on, a large bid sat at exactly $4.27.
Stop It's 3:45. HHS is at $4.28. A large bid has been sitting at $4.27, just below the price, since 3:41. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 3:45 p.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 3:42 p.m. ET.
Starting at 3:45:55, shares began trading at $4.27 into the bid. In 5.6 seconds, 48,073 shares traded at exactly $4.27 and the bid was gone. It wasn't pulled. The shares traded. One print alone was 39,784 shares. The bid had grown to 48,289 shares at 3:45:53. The 3:46 minute closed at $4.24 on 54,026 shares. It touched $4.22 at 3:48 and was back to $4.30 by 3:52.
The close and after hours
The last regular-session minute (3:59) closed at $4.28, 14% under the $4.99 high. That high came before the bell, at 9:02 a.m., 18% above the open.
By the close, 1.24 million shares had traded in the regular session. Counting pre-market and after hours, 2.72 million shares changed hands: about 0.4 times the 6.74-million-share float, at about 411 times its normal volume.
At 4:48 p.m., after the close, PRNewsWire ran: “Shareholder Alert: Ademi LLP investigates whether Harte Hanks, Inc. is obtaining a Fair Price for Public Shareholders”. At 5:08 p.m. the company filed a 10-Q (the quarterly report). After hours, the stock traded between $4.21 and $4.35.
What to take from it
- A halt can reopen far above where it stopped, and the first seconds cost more than the screen says. The stock stopped at $2.91 and reopened at $4.55. A 5,000-share buy one second later averaged $4.81 against $4.55 on screen.
- After the top, the next push stopped lower. $4.99 at 9:02 a.m., then $4.50 at 10:11 a.m. It never traded above $4.50 again.
- A big resting order can disappear by trading, not by being pulled. The $4.27 bid was filled in 5.6 seconds.
Why it ran
News and SEC filings for HHS published between the previous session's close and the first minute HHS traded 20% above it, at 9:00 a.m. ET, newest first, from the same feeds the replay shows.
-
Star Equity Holdings Enters Into Merger Agreement to Acquire Harte Hanks
-
Harte Hanks Enters Definitive Agreement to Be Acquired by Star Equity Holdings for $5.00 Per Share
News via Stock News API
How it traded
Gap and hold. It gapped up 50.2% to 4.22 at the open and held above it, trading at 4.28 at 4:00 p.m.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 8:25 a.m. | Halted: News pending. Trading resumes at 9:00 a.m. | |
| 8:30 a.m. | News (GlobeNewsWire): Star Equity Holdings Enters Into Merger Agreement to Acquire Harte Hanks | |
| 8:30 a.m. | News (Accesswire): Harte Hanks Enters Definitive Agreement to Be Acquired by Star Equity Holdings for $5.00 Per Share | |
| 9:00 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of 2.81 | |
| 9:02 a.m. | Pre-market high, 4.99 | |
| 9:02 a.m. | High of the day to the close, 4.99 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: 4.22, up 50.2% from the previous close | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, 4.28, 14.2% below the high |
The shape is a fixed rule, not a judgement: gapped 10% or more at the open, ran 10% or more from the open to the high, and faded if it gave back 30% or more of that move by the close.
The day in numbers
- From news to the move: the first trade 20% above the previous close came 30 minutes after the latest news item before it (GlobeNewsWire, 8:30 a.m.).
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 1.43 million shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (53%), 262,962 in the first 30 minutes (10%), and 1.03 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (38%).
- The halt at 8:25 a.m.: reopened at 4.55, up 56.4% from the last trade before it, then up 2.9% over the next 5 minutes.
- In our recaps, this is the only day HHS met the small-cap rule.
Halts
| Halted | Resumed | Length | Reason in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:25 a.m. | 9:00 a.m. | 35 min 0 s | News pending |
On this date the LULD plan ran under Amendment 18, in force from February 24, 2020: no band doubling at the open, and the closing doubling only for Tier 1 stocks and Tier 2 stocks whose previous close was at or below three dollars. See LULD halts or work out a band with the LULD calculator.
Trade this day
Replay HHS on August 14, 2026 in Hindsight Markets: the real tape, the order book and the halts, on a clock you control, and see where your orders would have filled.