Hindsight Markets Small-cap stocks on August 17, 2026
STFS on August 17, 2026: why it ran
On August 17, 2026, STFS opened up 16.7% from the previous close of 3.90 and reached 6.96 at 10:02 a.m. ET. The exchange halted it 3 times.
- Previous close
- 3.90
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- 4.55
- Gap at the open
- up 16.7%
- Pre-market high
- 5.14 at 7:21 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 6.96 at 10:02 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 3.54
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 5.60 at 5:56 p.m.
- Last trade before 4:00 p.m.
- 4.22
- Volume
- 2.96 million
- Relative volume
- 3.8x
- Float
- 1.12 million shares, from filings as of August 17, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 1.19 million
Replay STFS's day
It starts at 9:26 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 9:29 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, run and fade
- Bid wall
- Halted three times
- Float traded 2.3x
Pre-market: up to $5.14 and back under $3.90
STFS has a float of just 1,118,776 shares. The day before, August 14, it closed at $3.90 on a volume of only 4,536 shares.
Only 169 shares traded before 7:07 a.m. on the 17th. Then it started to move. At 7:20 a.m. it jumped from $4.20 to $4.89, and at 7:21 a.m. it hit $5.14, the pre-market high. That one minute traded 30,202 shares.
It gave it back almost as fast. By 7:27 a.m. it was at $3.54, down 31% from the high and below the previous close. 135,319 shares traded before the bell.
The open and the first halt
It opened at $4.55, up 17% from the previous close. At 9:31 a.m. it cleared the pre-market high of $5.14 and reached $5.32 on 73,368 shares in that minute.
At 9:32:32 a.m. it was halted (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $5.32. It reopened at 9:43 a.m. at $6.11, 15% above where it stopped. The reopen print alone was 37,487 shares at $6.11.
The bid at $5.32
The halt price had a big bid on the book. From 9:32 a.m. on, there was a bid for a lot of stock at exactly $5.32. It peaked at 44,683 shares at 9:40 a.m., about 4% of the float.
After the reopen, the stock ran to $6.45 at 9:45 a.m., up 6% from the reopen. An ask wall showed at $7.20 at 9:45 and grew to about 24,800 shares (2.2% of the float).
Stop It's 9:46. STFS is at $5.91, off the $6.45 high of a minute ago. Below, a bid wall that peaked at 44,683 shares at 9:40 sits at $5.32. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 9:46 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 9:43 a.m. ET.
Here's what happened. The price fell through the 9:46 minute to $5.33 and a 13,447-share sell order swept down from $5.54. At 9:47:23 the first trade printed at $5.32. In 1.5 seconds, 20,558 shares traded at exactly $5.32 and the wall was gone. It wasn't a quiet pull. Sellers hit it. A 21,205-share sell order went through five price levels, from $5.32 to $5.27.
At 9:47 a.m. it was halted again (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $5.27. It reopened at 9:52 a.m. at $5.47, 4% above where it stopped.
After the second reopen
By 9:58 a.m., counting pre-market, more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (1.12 million). The price kept swinging: $6.49 at 9:56, $5.40 at 9:58.
Ask walls kept appearing above the price, each about 24,000 shares. One sat at $7.20 from 9:52 and was pulled at 9:57. A new one showed at $6.97 at 9:57.
Stop It's 10:01. STFS is at $6.39, up from $5.69 a minute earlier. An ask wall has been on the book at $6.97 since 9:57. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 10:01 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 9:58 a.m. ET.
Here's what happened. At 10:01:03 a 15,896-share buy order swept from $6.44 to $6.65 across 17 price levels. At 10:02 a.m. it hit $6.96, the high of the day, one cent under that wall. The wall was pulled at 10:02:02. It was up 78% from the previous close.
It did not hold. A new ask wall showed at $7.43 at 10:02:13. By 10:04 it was down to $5.85, after a 13,068-share sell order swept from $6.04 to $5.85. That's about $1.11 off the high in two minutes.
At 10:05 a.m. it was halted a third time (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $5.85. It reopened at 10:10 a.m. at $5.85.
The rest of the day
It came back once more. At 10:10 a.m. it pushed to $6.39, a lower high under the $6.96 top. A new $7.46 ask wall of about 24,900 shares appeared at 10:10.
From there it faded: $5.11 by 10:30 a.m., $4.07 at 11:10 a.m., the low after the open, and $4.21 at the close. After the 11:10 low it traded between $4.15 and $4.63 until the close.
By the close, 2.60 million shares had traded: the float changed hands about 2.3 times.
After hours
After hours it ran from $4.18 at 4:06 p.m. to $5.60 by 5:56 p.m., up 34%. 223,255 shares traded after the close.
What to take from it
- A halt can reopen higher than it stopped. The 9:32 a.m. halt stopped at $5.32 and reopened at $6.11.
- Buying right after a reopen can cost more than the screen says. The book is thin in those seconds. Here, 5,000 shares cost $297 more at 9:52 and $1,066 more at 10:10.
- After the top, the next push stopped lower. $6.96 at 10:02 a.m., then $6.39 at 10:10 a.m. By the close it was at $4.21, 40% below the high.
Why it ran
News and SEC filings for STFS published between the previous session's close and the first minute STFS traded 20% above it, at 7:20 a.m. ET, newest first, from the same feeds the replay shows.
No news found before the move.
How it traded
Gap, run and fade. It gapped up 16.7% to 4.55 at the open, ran from the open to the high of 6.96 in 32 minutes through two halts, then gave back 114% of that move by 4:00 p.m., trading at 4.22.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 7:20 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of 3.90 | |
| 7:21 a.m. | Pre-market high, 5.14 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: 4.55, up 16.7% from the previous close | |
| 9:32 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 9:43 a.m. | |
| 9:47 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 9:52 a.m. | |
| 9:58 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 1.12 million shares | |
| 10:02 a.m. | High of the day to the close, 6.96 | |
| 10:05 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 10:10 a.m. | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, 4.22, 39.4% 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
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 135,319 shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (5%), 1.03 million in the first 30 minutes (35%), and 1.80 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (61%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 1.12 million shares: past it once at 9:58 a.m., twice at 10:28 a.m.
- The halt at 9:32 a.m.: up 21.5% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 6.11, up 14.8% from the last trade before it, then down 13.7% over the next 5 minutes.
- The halt at 9:47 a.m.: down 0.9% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 5.47, up 3.8% from the last trade before it, then up 15.2% over the next 5 minutes.
- The halt at 10:05 a.m.: down 9.2% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 5.84, down 0.2% from the last trade before it, then down 4.6% over the next 5 minutes.
- Other days STFS met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 1, the latest on August 10, 2026.
Halts
| Halted | Resumed | Length | Reason in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:32 a.m. | 9:43 a.m. | 10 min 47 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 9:47 a.m. | 9:52 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 10:05 a.m. | 10:10 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
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 STFS on August 17, 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.