Hindsight Markets Small-cap stocks on August 19, 2026
ZSTK on August 19, 2026: why it ran
On August 19, 2026, ZSTK opened up 16.8% from the previous close of 1.97 and reached 12.40 at 12:07 p.m. ET. The exchange halted it 4 times.
- Previous close
- 1.97
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- 2.30
- Gap at the open
- up 16.8%
- Pre-market high
- 2.57 at 9:21 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 12.40 at 12:07 p.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 1.51
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 5.42 at 4:01 p.m.
- Last trade before 4:00 p.m.
- 4.88
- Volume
- 11.56 million
- Relative volume
- 1178.4x
- Float
- 17.48 million shares, from filings as of August 19, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 17.49 million
Replay ZSTK's day
It starts at 10:39 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 10:42 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
- Main move: midday
- Catalyst: news at 9:20 a.m.
- Faded below the previous close
- Halt run
- Halted four times
- Faded into the close
The day before
On August 18, ZSTK was a quiet stock. It traded between $1.83 and $2.03 on 1,602 shares and closed at $1.97.
At 5:34 p.m. that evening, Newsfile Corp ran: “ZeroStack Announces Completion of Continuance to Texas”.
Pre-market: a thin start, then news at 9:20
The first trade on the 19th was 100 shares at $1.87 at 6:29 a.m. That is below the $1.97 close. The last trades before the news were around $1.85 at 8:35 a.m.
At 9:20 a.m. Newsfile Corp ran: “ZeroStack Announces US$1.0 Billion Strategic Contribution of Memecore ($M) Tokens at US$25.19 Per Share”. The 9:21 candle opened at $2.14 and hit $2.57, the pre-market high. At 9:26 a.m. the company filed an 8-K (a current report).
A total of 227,165 shares traded before the bell, against a float of about 17.5 million.
The open, and a fade below where it started
It opened at $2.30, up 17% from the previous close. At 9:32 it pushed to $2.68, above the pre-market high.
Then it turned. The 9:33 candle fell to $1.86. By 9:43 it hit $1.51, the low so far and about 23% below the $1.97 close. So the pre-market spike had been erased within 13 minutes of the open.
After that it went quiet. From 9:55 to 10:36 it stayed between $1.74 and $2.06. Many minutes had only a handful of shares, and some had no trades at all.
10:37: moving again
At 10:37 it began to move again from $1.95. It was $2.40 by 10:40.
Stop It's 10:42. ZSTK is at $2.68. It was $1.95 five minutes ago and is up from $1.51 at the low. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 10:42 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 10:39 a.m. ET.
Here's what happened. At 10:42:53 it was halted (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $2.74. The halt lasted until 11:24:09, more than 41 minutes.
It reopened at $4.08, 49% above where it stopped. The reopening print was 40,807 shares.
Three more halts, up to $9.93
The 11:24 candle ran from $4.08 to $4.90. At 11:24:25 it was halted again, with the last trade at $4.90. It reopened at 11:44:44 at $6.00, 22% higher. The reopening print was 123,731 shares, the biggest single trade of the day in the data. The 11:44 candle reached $7.20, and during it a 32,900-share sell order swept down from $6.24 to $5.66 across 33 price levels.
At 11:45:07 it was halted a third time. It reopened at 11:50:07 at $7.21 on a 77,008-share print. That minute was wild. It went as low as $5.90 and closed at $8.65. A 19,160-share sell swept from $7.31 to $6.65, then buy orders swept through $5.91 to $6.85 and $6.96 to $7.71.
At 11:50:33 it was halted a fourth time, and this one lasted about ten minutes. It reopened at 12:00:47 at $9.93, on a 47,346-share print. That is more than three and a half times where the 10:42 halt stopped. The 12:00 candle traded through $10.00 for the first time, to $10.97.
After the last reopen
It went up to $11.66 in the 12:01 minute and $11.84 in the 12:02 minute. Then it dropped to $9.22 in that same 12:02 minute and chopped between roughly $9.73 and $11.45 for a few minutes.
Stop It's 12:07. ZSTK is at $10.99. It reopened from the last halt at $9.93 and its high so far is $11.84. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 12:07 p.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 12:04 p.m. ET.
Here's what happened. In the 12:07 minute it ran to $12.40, the high of the day. A 17,806-share buy swept from $11.24 to $11.75 across 49 levels at 12:07:10. That candle closed at $11.51 on 251,481 shares.
Within four minutes it was back at $9.53, at 12:11. It pushed up to $11.40 at 12:13, then fell to $8.36 at 12:18, down 27% from $11.40.
A lower high, and the fade
It came back once more. At 12:25 it pushed to $11.44, a lower high under the $12.40 top.
From there it faded: $9.60 at 12:31, $8.80 at 12:50, $6.23 at 1:40 p.m., and $4.88 at the close. That is above the $1.51 low, but 61% below the high.
By the close, 10.86 million shares had traded, about 62% of the 17.5 million float, and more than 1,000 times its normal volume. It was halted four times.
After hours
After hours it traded between $4.15 and $5.42, with the high at 4:01 p.m. About 479,000 shares changed hands.
At 4:03 p.m., after the close, Benzinga ran: “ZeroStack (ZSTK) Stock Skyrockets Wednesday: What's Driving the Action?”.
What to take from it
- News spikes can fade fast. After the 9:20 headline, ZSTK hit $2.57 in the 9:21 minute, and by 9:43 it was at $1.51, below the previous close. The big run started about an hour later.
- A halt can reopen far above where it stopped. The 10:42 halt stopped at $2.74 and reopened at $4.08. The last one reopened at $9.93.
- Thin books cost real money at some moments. Five-thousand-share buys averaged $1,111 to $1,701 above the screen price at three of the five sampled moments. The other two, at $194 and $46, were much smaller.
Why it ran
News and SEC filings for ZSTK published between the previous session's close and the first minute ZSTK traded 20% above it, at 9:21 a.m. ET, newest first, from the same feeds the replay shows.
-
ZeroStack Announces US$1.0 Billion Strategic Contribution of Memecore ($M) Tokens at US$25.19 Per Share
-
ZeroStack Announces Completion of Continuance to Texas
News via Stock News API
How it traded
Gap, run and fade. It gapped up 16.8% to 2.30 at the open, ran from the open to the high of 12.40 in 157 minutes through 4 halts, then gave back 74% of that move by 4:00 p.m., trading at 4.88.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 18, 5:34 p.m. | News (Newsfile Corp): ZeroStack Announces Completion of Continuance to Texas | |
| 9:20 a.m. | News (Newsfile Corp): ZeroStack Announces US$1.0 Billion Strategic Contribution of Memecore ($M) Tokens at US$25.19 Per Share | |
| 9:21 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of 1.97 | |
| 9:21 a.m. | Pre-market high, 2.57 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: 2.30, up 16.8% from the previous close | |
| 10:42 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 11:24 a.m. | |
| 11:24 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 11:44 a.m. | |
| 11:45 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 11:50 a.m. | |
| 11:50 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 12:00 p.m. | |
| 12:07 p.m. | High of the day to the close, 12.40 | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, 4.88, 60.6% 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
- From news to the move: the first trade 20% above the previous close came 1 minute after the latest news item before it (Newsfile Corp, 9:20 a.m.).
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 227,165 shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (2%), 228,523 in the first 30 minutes (2%), and 11.11 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (96%).
- The halt at 10:42 a.m.: up 37.7% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 4.08, up 48.9% from the last trade before it.
- The halt at 11:24 a.m.: up 78.8% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 6.00, up 22.4% from the last trade before it, then up 20.0% over the next 5 minutes.
- The halt at 11:45 a.m.: up 46.9% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 7.21, up 0.1% from the last trade before it.
- The halt at 11:50 a.m.: up 20.1% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 9.93, up 14.8% from the last trade before it, then up 3.7% over the next 5 minutes.
- In our recaps, this is the only day ZSTK met the small-cap rule.
Halts
| Halted | Resumed | Length | Reason in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:42 a.m. | 11:24 a.m. | 41 min 16 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 11:24 a.m. | 11:44 a.m. | 20 min 19 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 11:45 a.m. | 11:50 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 11:50 a.m. | 12:00 p.m. | 10 min 14 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 ZSTK 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.