Hindsight Markets Small-cap stocks on August 21, 2026
MFI on August 21, 2026: why it ran
On August 21, 2026, MFI opened up 0.1% from the previous close of 8.62 and reached 15.00 at 12:17 p.m. ET. The exchange halted it 6 times.
- Previous close
- 8.62
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- 8.63
- Gap at the open
- up 0.1%
- Pre-market high
- not available
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 15.00 at 12:17 p.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 8.63
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 9.90 at 7:42 p.m.
- Last trade before 4:00 p.m.
- 9.61
- Volume
- 171,626
- Relative volume
- 74.4x
- Float
- 525,597 shares, from filings as of August 21, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 50.18 million
Replay MFI's day
It starts at 12:01 p.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 12:04 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
- Tiny float
- Intraday run
- Halted six times
- Halt reopens
- Faded to the close
The day before, and a quiet open
On August 20, MFI traded 8,977 shares and the official close was $8.62. At 8:15 a.m. that day, a press release said the company had launched new corporate and investor relations websites. That is all the news in the data.
Nothing traded pre-market. The float is only 525,597 shares, and normal volume is about 2,200 shares a day. The first trade came at the 9:30 open, one share at $8.63. The next trade was at 9:51, at $8.75.
10:08 to noon: a halt, then a slow grind
At 10:08:52 it was halted (a volatility pause). It reopened at 10:18:52. The first bar after that, at 10:19, opened at $10.16, well above the $8.75 of the last bar before the halt.
Then it chopped on very thin volume. Many minutes had no trades at all. It touched $10.49 at 10:31, fell to $9.67 at 10:37, and was back at $10.50 at 10:42. After 11:00 it slipped as low as $9.50 at 11:09, and traded $9.57 at 11:52.
At 11:55 volume picked up: 1,595 shares in one minute, at $10.00. That was more than the 10:41 minute (1,584 shares), the busiest minute of the morning up to then.
12:02: the run starts
From 12:02 it climbed fast: $10.70 at 12:02, $11.42 at 12:03, $11.81 at 12:06. At 12:06:36 it was halted, and it reopened at 12:11:36.
Stop It's 12:11. MFI was halted at 12:06 after reaching $11.81 and is about to reopen. The float is only 525,597 shares. Would you buy the reopen?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 12:11 p.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 12:08 p.m. ET.
The 12:11 minute ran from $12.00 to $13.20 on 8,593 shares.
At 12:12:04 it was halted again, last trade $13.20. It reopened at 12:17:04. The 12:17 minute opened at $13.64 and hit $15.00, the high so far, on 17,733 shares.
At 12:17:28 it was halted a fourth time. It reopened at 12:22:28 at $14.87. At 12:22:28 a single print of 10,717 shares went through at $14.87.
The drop and the fifth halt
The 12:22 minute traded 24,308 shares, the most of any minute that day, and closed at $13.41. At 12:22:57 it was halted again, this time for ten minutes, until 12:32:57.
The stock reopened well below $14.87. The 12:32 minute went as low as $11.69. At 12:34 it hit $11.05, down from $15.00.
It bounced. At 12:36 it pushed to $12.41, a lower high under the $15.00 top. After that it slid, to $10.85 at 12:42 and then sideways around $11 for the next 20 minutes.
1:04 p.m.: the slide and the sixth halt
At 1:04 p.m. it began to slip: $10.52 at 1:05 p.m., $10.01 at 1:08 p.m. At 1:09:39 p.m. it was halted a sixth time. The 1:09 p.m. bar had gone down to $9.39. It reopened at 1:14:39 p.m.
Stop It's 1:14 p.m. MFI has been halted since 1:09 p.m. and is about to reopen. The last trade before the halt was $9.39, down from $15.00 about an hour earlier. Would you buy the reopen?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 1:14 p.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 1:11 p.m. ET.
The 1:14 p.m. bar opened at $9.40 and closed at $9.68. It bounced to $10.84 at 1:18 p.m., then fell back to $9.11 by 1:24 p.m.
The rest of the day
There were no more halts. The stock traded mostly between about $9.05 and $9.75 on very little volume, after a brief pop to $10.20 at 1:35 p.m. Then $9.51 repeated over and over, then $9.05 at 3:17 p.m. The last regular-session bar, 3:59, ran from $9.10 to $9.65 and closed at $9.61.
After hours it ranged from $8.50 at 4:22 p.m. to $9.90 at 7:42 p.m. 6,756 shares traded after the close.
By the close, 164,870 shares had traded, about 74 times its normal volume. That is roughly 31% of the float.
What to take from it
- On a tiny float, the screen price at a halt reopen can be far from what you pay. Here, 5,000 shares cost $6,309 more than the screen at 12:11 and $7,192 more at 1:14 p.m.
- The $15.00 high came in the 12:17 reopen minute and was matched once in the 12:22 reopen minute. After the 12:32:57 reopen, highs kept getting lower. $13.20 at 12:32, then $12.41 at 12:36.
- Most of the move was gone by the close. The last regular-session bar closed at $9.61, 36% below the $15.00 high and only 4 cents above the $9.57 of 11:52.
Why it ran
News and SEC filings for MFI published between the previous session's close and the first minute MFI traded 20% above it, at 10:31 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 0.1% at 8.63, then ran from the open to the high of 15.00 in 167 minutes through 3 halts.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: 8.63, up 0.1% from the previous close | |
| 10:08 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 10:18 a.m. | |
| 10:31 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of 8.62 | |
| 12:06 p.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 12:11 p.m. | |
| 12:12 p.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 12:17 p.m. | |
| 12:17 p.m. | High of the day to the close, 15.00 | |
| 12:17 p.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 12:22 p.m. | |
| 12:22 p.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 12:32 p.m. | |
| 1:09 p.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 1:14 p.m. | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, 9.61, 35.9% 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: 0 shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (0%), 284 in the first 30 minutes (0%), and 171,342 in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (100%).
- The halt at 10:08 a.m.: up 1.4% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 10.16, up 16.1% from the last trade before it.
- The halt at 12:06 p.m.: up 16.7% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 12.00, up 1.6% from the last trade before it, then up 10.0% over the next 5 minutes.
- The halt at 12:12 p.m.: up 11.8% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 13.64, up 3.3% from the last trade before it.
- The halt at 12:17 p.m.: up 13.6% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 14.87, down 0.9% from the last trade before it.
- The halt at 12:22 p.m.: down 10.6% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 12.35, down 7.9% from the last trade before it, then down 4.9% over the next 5 minutes.
- The halt at 1:09 p.m.: down 14.2% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 9.40, up 0.1% from the last trade before it, then up 15.3% over the next 5 minutes.
- In our recaps, this is the only day MFI met the small-cap rule.
Halts
| Halted | Resumed | Length | Reason in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:08 a.m. | 10:18 a.m. | 10 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 12:06 p.m. | 12:11 p.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 12:12 p.m. | 12:17 p.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 12:17 p.m. | 12:22 p.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 12:22 p.m. | 12:32 p.m. | 10 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 1:09 p.m. | 1:14 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 MFI on August 21, 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.