Hindsight Markets Small-cap stocks on August 25, 2026
DFNS on August 25, 2026: why it ran
On August 25, 2026, DFNS opened up 48.1% from the previous close of 11.01 and reached 25.00 at 4:01 a.m. ET. The exchange halted it 2 times.
- Previous close
- 11.01
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- 16.31
- Gap at the open
- up 48.1%
- Pre-market high
- 25.00 at 4:01 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 25.00 at 4:01 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 12.50
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 13.29 at 4:00 p.m.
- Last trade before 4:00 p.m.
- 13.07
- Volume
- 7.34 million
- Relative volume
- 3.5x
- Float
- 1.38 million shares, from filings as of August 25, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 1.66 million
Replay DFNS's day
It starts at 9:42 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 9:45 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: pre-market
- Gap and fade
- Lower high
- Halted twice
- Float traded 5x
The day before
On August 24, DFNS opened at $20.62 and traded as high as $21.03. It also traded as low as $10.68. The official close was $11.01.
We have no news headline for August 25 in the data, so this recap sticks to the tape.
Pre-market: $25.00 at 4:01 a.m.
The 4:00 a.m. bar opened at $13.80, already above the $11.01 close. In that minute it traded as low as $12.70 and as high as $18.00.
At 4:01 a.m. it hit $25.00, the high so far. That is 127% above the previous close. It closed that minute at $23.48. By the 4:02 minute it had dropped to $18.00.
It bounced to $19.98 at 4:03 a.m., then fell to $13.50 at 4:08 a.m., down 32% from that bounce.
By 4:58 a.m., more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (1.38 million). 4.32 million shares traded before the bell.
A lower high, and the wall at $20.00
After 5 a.m. the stock settled mostly between $17 and $19. At 6:21 a.m. it reached $21.03, the same as the previous day's high.
At 6:22 a.m. it pushed to $24.86, a lower high under the $25.00 top. That minute carried 147,896 shares, the heaviest of the pre-market. By 7:00 a.m. it had slipped to $17.85.
At 7:47 a.m. a wall of shares appeared for sale at exactly $20.00. The stock was near $17 then. The wall grew to a peak of 25,821 shares at 9:20 a.m., about 2% of the float.
At 9:28:01 a.m. it was pulled. The size left the book without trading there. The stock was about $16.73 at the time. In the minutes before the bell it had pushed from $15.46 to $16.77.
The open and the first halt
It opened at $16.31, up 48% from the previous close. A 34,661-share print went through at $16.31 right at the open. The 9:30 minute dropped to $15.50 on 84,454 shares. Another ask wall, about 20,000 shares at $19.92, was on the book from 9:30:03.
The slide kept going. At 9:32 a.m. it was halted (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $14.24, 13% under the open.
Stop It's 9:37. DFNS has been halted since 9:32 with the last trade at $14.24, and the halt ends in 15 seconds. It opened the day at $16.31. Would you buy the reopen?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 9:37 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 9:34 a.m. ET.
It reopened at 9:37:15 at $14.29, with a 10,078-share print at that price. The 9:37 minute ran to $15.51, but the next few minutes were rough. By 9:40 it had traded as low as $13.55.
The second halt
At 9:44 a.m. it was back near $15.50, then dropped. The 9:45 minute traded 81,272 shares and ended at $13.22. At 9:46:20 a sell order of 10,101 shares went through 17 price levels, from $13.12 to $12.95, in a fraction of a second.
At 9:46:52 it was halted again (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $12.88.
Stop It's 9:51. DFNS has been halted since 9:46 with the last trade at $12.88, and the halt ends in under a minute. It was $16.31 at the open. Would you buy the reopen?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 9:51 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 9:48 a.m. ET.
It reopened at 9:51:52 at $12.58, 2% below where it stopped. An 18,365-share print went through at that price. The low after the open was $12.50, in the 9:51 minute. It closed that minute at $13.00 and was at $13.45 by 9:53.
The rest of the day
From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. it stayed between $12.88 and $14.34, and volume thinned. In the 12:12 minute just 32 shares traded.
It woke up in the afternoon. From 1:19 p.m. it climbed to $14.96 at 1:31 p.m., the high of the afternoon. At 1:32:23 the $19.92 wall came off the book while the stock was under $15.
Then it slid. At 1:50:42 a sell order of 12,774 shares went through 37 price levels, from $14.10 to $13.56. At 3:25:01 another, 11,083 shares, went from $13.35 to $13.22.
The last regular-session minute, 3:59 p.m., ended at $13.07, 48% under the $25.00 high. That high came before the bell, 53% above the open.
After hours it dropped to $11.88 at 4:33 p.m., the low of the day, and drifted back to around $12.50. Regular-session volume was 2.84 million shares. Counting pre-market, 7.16 million shares had traded by the close: the float changed hands about 5 times.
What to take from it
- After the top, the next push stopped lower. $25.00 at 4:01 a.m., then $24.86 at 6:22 a.m.
- A halt reopen can be a thin, costly place to buy. At 9:37:16 the screen said $14.48, and a 5,000-share order averaged $15.24.
- A halt can reopen lower than it stopped. The 9:46 halt stopped at $12.88 and reopened at $12.58.
- Most of the move was gone by the close. It ended the regular session at $13.07, 48% below the $25.00 high.
Why it ran
News and SEC filings for DFNS published between the previous session's close and the first minute DFNS traded 20% above it, at 4:00 a.m. ET, newest first, from the same feeds the replay shows.
No news found before the move.
How it traded
Gap and fade. It gapped up 48.1% to 16.31 at the open and traded below the open by 4:00 p.m., at 13.07.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 4:00 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of 11.01 | |
| 4:01 a.m. | Pre-market high, 25.00 | |
| 4:01 a.m. | High of the day to the close, 25.00 | |
| 4:58 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 1.38 million shares | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: 16.31, up 48.1% from the previous close | |
| 9:32 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 9:37 a.m. | |
| 9:46 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 9:51 a.m. | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, 13.07, 47.7% 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: 4.32 million shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (59%), 858,260 in the first 30 minutes (12%), and 2.16 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (29%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 1.38 million shares: past it once at 4:58 a.m., twice at 6:40 a.m., three times at 9:03 a.m.
- The halt at 9:32 a.m.: down 15.1% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 14.29, up 0.4% from the last trade before it, then up 6.6% over the next 5 minutes.
- The halt at 9:46 a.m.: down 15.4% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 12.58, down 2.3% from the last trade before it, then up 6.4% over the next 5 minutes.
- Other days DFNS met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 2, the latest on August 5, 2026.
Halts
| Halted | Resumed | Length | Reason in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:32 a.m. | 9:37 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 9:46 a.m. | 9:51 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 DFNS on August 25, 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.