Hindsight Markets Small-cap stocks on August 18, 2026
TRUG on August 18, 2026: why it ran
On August 18, 2026, TRUG opened up 11.0% from the previous close of 1.54 and reached 2.40 at 7:20 a.m. ET. The exchange did not halt it.
- Previous close
- 1.54
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- 1.71
- Gap at the open
- up 11.0%
- Pre-market high
- 2.40 at 7:20 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 2.40 at 7:20 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 1.05
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 1.40 at 4:08 p.m.
- Last trade before 4:00 p.m.
- 1.08
- Volume
- 16.75 million
- Relative volume
- 12.2x
- Float
- 1.18 million shares, from filings as of August 18, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 1.21 million
- Halts
- none in the halt feed
Replay TRUG's day
It starts at 7:01 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 7:04 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 fade
- News: after the high
- Float traded 10x by 9:10
- Bid wall broke
- Lower high
- No halts
The day before
On August 17, TRUG ran from $1.56 to a high of $2.05. The official close was $1.54.
A headline came after the close. At 4:19 p.m. Benzinga ran: "TruGolf Shares Surge Monday: What's Driving the Action?" It described the move that had already happened.
Pre-market: the float traded by 7:18 a.m.
The stock was quiet for hours. It opened the 4 a.m. session at $1.55 and spent most of the early morning between $1.48 and $1.57. At 6:43 a.m. it was $1.54. It crept up to $1.60 by 7:00.
Then it woke up. At 7:15 a.m. it jumped to $1.80. The 7:16 minute traded 298,533 shares and reached $1.99. By 7:18 a.m., more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (1.18 million). In that minute it hit $2.31.
The high so far was $2.40 at 7:20 a.m. The minute opened at $2.34 and closed at $2.16.
It slid to $1.84 by 7:25 a.m. Then it tried again. At 7:32 a.m. it pushed to $2.33, a lower high under $2.40. It stayed around $2 until 8:30.
At 8:30 a.m. GlobeNewsWire ran: "TruGolf to Acquire Polymath Research Inc., Bringing Tokenization Innovator to the Public Markets on Nasdaq." The stock was $2.01 at the end of that minute and $1.82 by 8:33. An 8-K was filed at 8:43. The stock opened that minute at $1.69.
By 9:10 a.m. the pre-market volume was ten times the float. Pre-market volume ended at 12.02 million shares.
The bid at $1.60
The order book showed a large bid below the price.
From 8:16 a.m., someone was bidding for stock at exactly $1.60. It grew through the pre-market and peaked at 81,904 shares at 9:27 a.m., about 7% of the float. The stock sat above it at about $1.70.
It opened at $1.71, up 11% from the previous close. A 60,172-share trade printed at $1.70 at 9:30:01. The stock then dropped through the first minutes.
Stop It's 9:32. TRUG is at $1.62 and has been falling since the open. About 81,904 shares were bid at $1.60 a few minutes ago, just below. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 9:32 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 9:29 a.m. ET.
Here's what happened. At 9:32:09, 20,409 shares traded at exactly $1.60 in under a second, and the bid was gone. Sellers hit it. A sell order of 35,410 shares went through five levels, from $1.61 to $1.57.
The bid did not hold the price. The 9:32 candle closed at $1.57. At 9:35 it fell to $1.39, with a 66,556-share sell sweep. By 9:47 it had touched just under $1.19.
The rest of the day
It did not get back near the open. It touched $1.11 at 10:27 a.m., and the low after the open was $1.05 at 3:37 p.m. It closed at $1.08.
Sellers also showed up on the ask. An ask wall of about 81,000 shares sat at $2.00 from 9:26, far above the price. Later, ask walls sat at $1.21 and $1.20.
By the close, 4.33 million shares had traded in the regular session. For the whole day, 16.75 million shares traded, about 14 times the float, at 12 times the normal volume.
After hours
After the close it spiked on thin volume. A trade printed at $1.40 in the 4:08 p.m. minute and $1.30 at 4:20. The 4:16 minute printed down to $0.96, the low of the day. The rest of the evening it traded around $1.10 to $1.15, and closed out at $1.16 at 7:59 p.m.
What to take from it
- A big bid is not a floor. The bid at $1.60 peaked at 81,904 shares; at 9:32 it was eaten as 20,409 shares traded there in under a second, and the stock kept falling.
- A lower high can mark the top. $2.40 at 7:20 a.m., then $2.33 at 7:32 a.m. The stock never got back above $2.40.
- A headline after a run describes the past. The Benzinga piece came after the Aug 17 close, and the 8:30 a.m. release came after the 7:20 high; by the close the stock was 55% below that high.
Why it ran
News and SEC filings for TRUG published between the previous session's close and the first minute TRUG traded 20% above it, at 7:16 a.m. ET, newest first, from the same feeds the replay shows.
-
TruGolf Shares Surge Monday: What's Driving the Action?
News via Stock News API
How it traded
Gap and fade. It gapped up 11.0% to 1.71 at the open and traded below the open by 4:00 p.m., at 1.08.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 17, 4:19 p.m. | News (Benzinga): TruGolf Shares Surge Monday: What's Driving the Action? | |
| 7:16 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of 1.54 | |
| 7:18 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 1.18 million shares | |
| 7:20 a.m. | Pre-market high, 2.40 | |
| 7:20 a.m. | High of the day to the close, 2.40 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: 1.71, up 11.0% from the previous close | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, 1.08, 55.0% 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 14 hours 56 minutes after the latest news item before it (Benzinga, Aug 17, 4:19 p.m.).
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 12.02 million shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (72%), 2.11 million in the first 30 minutes (13%), and 2.61 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (16%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 1.18 million shares: past it once at 7:18 a.m., twice at 7:20 a.m., three times at 7:23 a.m.
- Other days TRUG met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 2, the latest on August 25, 2026.
Halts
The exchange's halt feed shows no halts for TRUG that day.
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 TRUG on August 18, 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.