Hindsight Markets Small-cap stocks on August 19, 2026
BTCT on August 19, 2026: why it ran
On August 19, 2026, BTCT opened up 3.2% from the previous close of 0.4649 and reached 1.32 at 3:09 p.m. ET. The exchange halted it 5 times.
- Previous close
- 0.4649
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- 0.4800
- Gap at the open
- up 3.2%
- Pre-market high
- 0.4800 at 9:05 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 1.32 at 3:09 p.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 0.4561
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 2.14 at 6:24 p.m.
- Last trade before 4:00 p.m.
- 0.8239
- Volume
- 48.31 million
- Relative volume
- 466.2x
- Float
- 11.79 million shares, from filings as of August 19, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 11.80 million
Replay BTCT's day
It starts at 2:45 p.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 2:48 p.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
- Main move: after hours
- Bid wall break
- Halt run
- Halted five times
- Faded into the close
- After-hours run
A quiet morning
BTCT's official previous close was $0.46. The day before, 98,116 shares traded. The data shows no news or filing for August 19.
The first trade was at 4:00 a.m., around $0.46. The pre-market high was $0.48 at 9:05 a.m. Just 1,295 shares traded before the bell.
It opened at $0.48, then slid to $0.47 at 9:40. From 10:07 to 11:16 it stayed between $0.48 and $0.49. It touched $0.50 at 11:26 and $0.51 at 11:31. Many minutes had no trades at all.
1 p.m.: two spikes and a drop
At 12:56 p.m. volume picked up (19,501 shares in the minute) and it went from $0.54 to $0.56. It touched $0.60 at 12:59 and $0.64 at 1:01. The 1:02 minute fell back to $0.56.
At 1:10 it dropped to $0.52, then ran to $0.69 at 1:14 on 205,495 shares in that one minute. By 1:37 it was back at $0.53.
From there it held between about $0.53 and $0.66 until 2:52.
2:53 to 3:08: the run, the halt, and the bid at $1.15
At 2:53 p.m. it began to run from $0.64. Volume went from about 20,000 shares a minute to 157,706, then over 300,000 a minute. It reached $0.91 at 2:57.
At 2:58:14 it was halted (a volatility pause). A bid of up to 133,754 shares at $0.91 peaked just before the halt and was pulled at 3:05:07. The stock reopened at 3:03:14 at $1.00, above that bid, with a 204,074-share print.
From 3:03:44 a bid built at exactly $1.15. It peaked at 296,028 shares at 3:03:57, 2.5% of the float. One second later, at 3:03:58, it was halted again. It reopened at 3:08:58 with a 280,524-share print at $1.17.
At the reopen, the bid wasn't pulled. Sellers hit it. In about a tenth of a second, 92,927 shares traded at exactly $1.15 and the wall was gone. One sell order swept 112,813 shares from $1.15 down to $1.07 across nine levels.
Stop It's 3:09. BTCT is at $1.08. It reopened from its second halt at $1.17 two seconds ago, and the nearly 300,000-share bid at $1.15 was hit and gone within a second. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 3:09 p.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 3:06 p.m. ET.
3:09: $1.32 and the turn
The 3:09 minute ran from $1.02 to $1.32, the regular-session high so far. At 3:09:08 a buy order took 53,520 shares from $1.29 to $1.32. Three seconds later a sell took 56,245 shares from $1.32 to $1.30. At 3:09:15 another sell went from $1.32 to $1.22 across 11 levels. The minute closed at $1.18.
An offer for 78,597 shares at $1.35 first showed at 3:04:03 and peaked at 3:05:49. The regular-session high of $1.32 stayed below it.
It came back once more. At 3:13 it pushed to $1.30, a lower high under $1.32. By 3:15 it was $1.10.
Three more halts
At 3:16:18 it was halted a third time, with the last bar at $1.05. It reopened at 3:21:18 lower, with a 169,505-share print at $0.95.
A bid of up to 313,309 shares built at $1.10 and peaked at 3:21:52. One second later, at 3:21:53, it was halted a fourth time. The bid was pulled at 3:23:29, while the stock was still halted. It reopened at 3:26:53 at $1.20, with an 88,072-share print.
By 3:28, more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (11.79 million). It faded to $0.95 by 3:32. At 3:33:03 it was halted a fifth time. It reopened at 3:38:03 around $1.00.
The bids at $0.85 and $0.90
A bid at $0.85 appeared at 3:38. A bigger bid at $0.90 started at 3:42 and peaked at 136,581 shares at 3:45.
Stop It's 3:48. BTCT is at $0.92. A bid at $0.90, just below, peaked at 136,581 shares at 3:45. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 3:48 p.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 3:45 p.m. ET.
Here's what happened. At 3:48:52, 103,435 shares traded at exactly $0.90 in about half a second, and the wall was gone. The 3:48 minute went down to $0.87.
It kept sliding: $0.78 at 3:55, then $0.82 at the close. By the close, 15.56 million shares had traded in the regular session: the float changed hands about 1.3 times. It was halted five times.
After hours: $2.14
The biggest run of the day came after the close. It went from $0.82 at the 3:59 p.m. close to $1.29 by 4:06, then past the regular-session high of $1.32 at 4:33. It reached $1.60 at 5:02 and hit $2.00 at 5:56.
The high of the day was $2.14 in the 6:24 p.m. minute, up 159% from $0.825 at 4:00 p.m. It closed the extended session near $1.78 at 7:59 p.m. After-hours volume was 32.7 million shares, more than double the regular session's.
What to take from it
- After the top, the next push stopped lower. $1.32 at 3:09 p.m., then $1.30 at 3:13 p.m.
- A halt can reopen higher or lower than it stopped. The 2:58 halt stopped at $0.91 and reopened at $1.00. The 3:16 halt stopped at $1.05 and reopened at $0.95.
- A big bid is not a floor. The $1.15 bid peaked at 296,028 shares and was eaten in a tenth of a second once sellers hit it. The $0.90 bid went the same way.
Why it ran
News and SEC filings for BTCT published between the previous session's close and the first minute BTCT traded 20% above it, at 12:56 p.m. ET, newest first, from the same feeds the replay shows.
No news found before the move.
How it traded
Intraday run. It opened up 3.2% at 0.4800, then ran from the open to the high of 1.32 in 339 minutes through two halts.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 9:05 a.m. | Pre-market high, 0.4800 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: 0.4800, up 3.2% from the previous close | |
| 12:56 p.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of 0.4649 | |
| 2:58 p.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 3:03 p.m. | |
| 3:03 p.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 3:08 p.m. | |
| 3:09 p.m. | High of the day to the close, 1.32 | |
| 3:16 p.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 3:21 p.m. | |
| 3:21 p.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 3:26 p.m. | |
| 3:28 p.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 11.79 million shares | |
| 3:33 p.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 3:38 p.m. | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, 0.8239, 37.6% 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: 1,295 shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (0%), 5,804 in the first 30 minutes (0%), and 48.31 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (100%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 11.79 million shares: past it once at 3:28 p.m., twice at 4:32 p.m., three times at 5:22 p.m.
- The halt at 2:58 p.m.: up 31.0% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 1.00, up 9.9% from the last trade before it.
- The halt at 3:03 p.m.: up 26.4% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 1.17, up 1.7% from the last trade before it, then down 0.9% over the next 5 minutes.
- The halt at 3:16 p.m.: down 11.8% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 0.9516, down 9.4% from the last trade before it.
- The halt at 3:21 p.m.: up 4.8% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 1.20, up 9.1% from the last trade before it, then down 9.2% over the next 5 minutes.
- The halt at 3:33 p.m.: down 13.6% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 1.00, up 5.3% from the last trade before it, then down 9.2% over the next 5 minutes.
- Other days BTCT met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 5, the latest on September 18, 2026.
Halts
| Halted | Resumed | Length | Reason in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2:58 p.m. | 3:03 p.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 3:03 p.m. | 3:08 p.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 3:16 p.m. | 3:21 p.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 3:21 p.m. | 3:26 p.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 3:33 p.m. | 3:38 p.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 BTCT on August 19, 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.