Hindsight Markets Small-cap stocks on August 20, 2026
IPST on August 20, 2026: why it ran
On August 20, 2026, IPST opened up 4.6% from the previous close of 8.40 and reached 15.25 at 10:30 a.m. ET. The exchange halted it 6 times.
- Previous close
- 8.40
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- 8.79
- Gap at the open
- up 4.6%
- Pre-market high
- 11.01 at 7:17 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 15.25 at 10:30 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 8.12
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 13.30 at 4:55 p.m.
- Last trade before 4:00 p.m.
- 10.28
- Volume
- 2.59 million
- Relative volume
- 0.8x
- Float
- 704,514 shares, from filings as of August 20, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 721,578
Replay IPST's day
It starts at 10:01 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 10:04 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
- Main move: the morning
- Pre-market high broken
- Halt run
- Halted six times
- Float traded 3x
The day before, and pre-market
On August 19, IPST opened at $12.66, hit $17.35 and traded as low as $7.78. The official close was $8.40.
The first trades on the 20th were at $9.47, already above that close. At 4:05 a.m. it touched $10.52, then slid back under $9. From 4:17 a.m. until about 7:12 a.m. it drifted between about $8.53 and $9.71.
The move came at 7:14 a.m. By 7:17 a.m. it had printed the pre-market high, $11.01. 199,146 shares traded before the bell.
Then it sold off. At 8:03 a.m. it dropped from $9.15 to $8.41 inside one minute. The pre-market low was $8.12 at 8:05 a.m., down 26% from the high.
The open: $8.40, then $10.37
It opened at $8.79, up 5% from the previous close. In the 9:31 minute it dipped to $8.40, exactly the previous close, and held.
At 9:38 it ran to $10.37, up 18% from the open. That minute traded 27,674 shares, the biggest of the opening half hour. Then it sold off to $8.67 by 9:48 and sat in a tight range near $8.90 for the next ten minutes.
At 10:02 it started up again, from $9.23. By 10:07 it was at $10.92, just under the pre-market high of $11.01. At 10:07:16 it was halted (a volatility pause).
The first halt
Stop It's 10:17. IPST last traded at $10.92, just under the $11.01 pre-market high, and has been halted since 10:07. Trading resumes in seconds. Would you buy the reopen?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 10:17 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 10:14 a.m. ET.
It reopened at 10:17:16 with a single print of 17,959 shares at $11.85, above the pre-market high. The 10:17 minute swung from $11.25 to $12.50. In the next minute it reached $13.03.
At 10:19:27 it was halted again, with the last trade at $13.30. It reopened at 10:24:27 at $13.35, on a print of 18,680 shares.
The 10:24 minute ran to $14.69. At 10:25:03 it was halted a third time at $14.69. It reopened at 10:30:03 at $14.70 on a print of 25,707 shares.
It hit $15.25, the high of the day, in the 10:30 minute. That minute is also where the float ran out: pre-market plus regular trading passed 704,514 shares, the whole float.
The top did not hold. At 10:30:12 a single sell order took 12,698 shares from $14.70 down to $14.00 across 35 price levels. By the end of the minute the last trade was $13.23.
Halts four to six, and the drop to $10.23
At 10:30:46 it was halted a fourth time. It reopened at 10:40:46 at $12.63, 60 cents below the $13.23 where it stopped. During that minute it traded down to $11.54. The last trade before the next halt was $11.37.
At 10:41:19 it was halted a fifth time. It reopened at 10:51:19 at $10.61 on a print of 26,331 shares, and in that minute touched $10.23, down 33% from $15.25.
It bounced right away: $12.34 by 10:54 and $12.49 at 10:55. At 10:55:20 it was halted a sixth time. It reopened at 11:00:20.
The lower high and the walls
At 11:02 it pushed to $14.42, a lower high under the $15.25 top.
Now look at the book, which a chart doesn't show. At 10:53:44 an ask wall appeared at $15.00. It peaked at 41,538 shares at 11:10:35, 5.9% of the float. At 11:12:01 a second wall showed up at $13.00 and peaked at 38,760 shares at 11:16:27. It was pulled at 11:17:13. In that same second a wall appeared at $12.20. It peaked at 37,406 shares at 11:20:38 and was pulled at 11:24:39.
Price fell through that stretch: $13.11 at 11:10, $11.80 at 11:17, and $11.42 at 11:24.
At 11:34 it ran again from $11.60. At 11:35:32 one buy order took 12,840 shares from $13.21 to $13.30 across 9 levels. It touched $13.60 at 11:43, still under the earlier highs.
From there it faded: $11.75 at 11:53, $9.81 at 12:52, $9.61 at 3:11 p.m., and $10.28 at the close, 33% below the high.
By the close, 2.22 million shares had traded: the float changed hands about 3 times. Relative volume was 0.79, a bit below normal for this stock. It was halted 6 times.
After hours
After the close it traded between about $9.85 and $10.40 until 4:50 p.m. At 4:50 p.m. it started up from $10.40 and hit $13.30 at 4:55 p.m., then slid to $11.51 by 5:03 p.m. It ended the extended session around $10.71. 168,283 shares traded after hours. No news or filing was recorded in our data for the day.
What to take from it
- After the top, the next push stopped lower. $15.25 in the 10:30 minute, then $14.42 at 11:02 and $13.60 at 11:43.
- Buying at a halt reopen costs more than the screen says. At 10:24 the screen showed 24 shares at $13.45. A 5,000-share order averaged $13.74.
- A halt can reopen lower than it stopped. The 10:30 halt stopped at $13.23 and reopened at $12.63. The stock closed at $10.28.
Why it ran
News and SEC filings for IPST published between the previous session's close and the first minute IPST traded 20% above it, at 4:04 a.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 4.6% at 8.79, then ran from the open to the high of 15.25 in 60 minutes through 3 halts.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 4:04 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of 8.40 | |
| 7:17 a.m. | Pre-market high, 11.01 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: 8.79, up 4.6% from the previous close | |
| 10:07 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 10:17 a.m. | |
| 10:19 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 10:24 a.m. | |
| 10:25 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 10:30 a.m. | |
| 10:30 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 704,514 shares | |
| 10:30 a.m. | High of the day to the close, 15.25 | |
| 10:30 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 10:40 a.m. | |
| 10:41 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 10:51 a.m. | |
| 10:55 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 11:00 a.m. | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, 10.28, 32.6% 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: 199,146 shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (8%), 112,346 in the first 30 minutes (4%), and 2.28 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (88%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 704,514 shares: past it once at 10:30 a.m., twice at 11:11 a.m., three times at 12:20 p.m.
- The halt at 10:07 a.m.: up 14.1% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 11.85, up 8.5% from the last trade before it, then up 12.2% over the next 5 minutes.
- The halt at 10:19 a.m.: up 21.8% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 13.35, up 0.4% from the last trade before it, then up 10.0% over the next 5 minutes.
- The halt at 10:25 a.m.: up 10.5% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 14.70, up 0.1% from the last trade before it.
- The halt at 10:30 a.m.: down 9.9% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 12.63, down 4.5% from the last trade before it, then down 10.0% over the next 5 minutes.
- The halt at 10:41 a.m.: down 14.1% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 10.61, down 6.7% from the last trade before it, then up 17.7% over the next 5 minutes.
- The halt at 10:55 a.m.: up 9.9% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 12.87, up 3.0% from the last trade before it, then up 5.0% over the next 5 minutes.
- Other days IPST met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 4, the latest on September 25, 2026.
Halts
| Halted | Resumed | Length | Reason in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:07 a.m. | 10:17 a.m. | 10 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 10:19 a.m. | 10:24 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 10:25 a.m. | 10:30 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 10:30 a.m. | 10:40 a.m. | 10 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 10:41 a.m. | 10:51 a.m. | 10 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 10:55 a.m. | 11:00 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 IPST on August 20, 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.