MSS on August 26, 2026: why it ran

The day, step by step

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Main move: pre-market
• Catalyst: news
• Level 2 walls
• No halts
• Gap, run and fade
• Float traded 41x

The day before

On August 25, MSS traded between $1.33 and $1.52 and closed at $1.48. Volume was 193,053 shares, about half the 378,539-share float.

At 9:00 a.m. that day Accesswire carried a headline: “Maison Solutions Inc. Receives Nasdaq Notification Regarding Delayed Filing of Annual Report on Form 10-K”.

Pre-market: quiet, then 9:00

The first trade on the 26th was at 4:00 a.m., 260 shares at $1.37, below the $1.48 close. For the next five hours it barely traded. It stayed between $1.37 and $1.48. The last trade before 9:00 was at 8:29, at $1.48.

At 9:00 a.m. Accesswire ran: “Maison Solutions Eliminates All Outstanding Convertible Notes, Removing Legacy Financing Overhang”. The stock started moving in that same minute. The 9:00 bar went from $1.49 to $2.01 on 156,156 shares.

In the 9:01 minute it hit $2.29, the high so far, up 55% from the previous close. That minute traded 608,326 shares, more than the whole float (378,539) in the bar's volume alone. In the 9:02 minute it dipped to $1.82.

It kept swinging. It fell to $1.63 at 9:06, then ran back to touch $2.29 again at 9:18. By 9:11, about ten times the float had traded. Nearly all of the 7.86 million pre-market shares traded after 9:00. There were no halts.

The open and the wall at $1.79

It opened at $2.05, up 38% from the previous close. The 9:30 bar ranged from $2.14 to $1.94, and in the 9:31 minute it traded as low as $1.84.

From 9:30:08 on, a large bid sat at exactly $1.79, below the price. It peaked at 85,174 shares at 9:32:03, about 22.5% of the float. Above the price, an ask wall at $2.40 had been on the book since 9:16.

At 9:34:35 a buy sweep of 22,910 shares ran from $2.17 to $2.20 across 4 levels. At 9:34:37 the $1.79 bid wall was pulled. The 9:34 minute went from $1.91 to $2.24 on 824,692 shares.

The next minute was the busiest of the day, 1,168,224 shares, with a high of $2.27 at 9:35. At 9:35:25 a buy sweep of 34,297 shares ran from $2.24 to $2.27. Twelve seconds later, a sell sweep of 31,126 shares ran from $2.22 to $2.18. At 9:35:52 another sell sweep, 45,239 shares, ran from $2.26 to $2.16 across 11 levels. In the 9:36 minute it traded down to $1.88.

After the spike

It spent the next ten minutes between about $1.85 and $2.14. The $2.40 ask wall peaked at 44,235 shares at 9:34:58, 11.7% of the float. So far the price had not reached $2.40; the high was $2.29.

At 9:48:18 a sell sweep of 61,852 shares ran from $1.86 to $1.78 across 9 levels. The 9:48 bar fell to $1.69 on 433,197 shares and closed at $1.78. At 9:50:44 a buy sweep of 33,568 shares took it from $1.82 to $1.90, but the bounce didn't hold. By 9:57 it was at $1.65.

The wall at $2.55 and a quiet hour

From 9:21:05, someone was offering stock at exactly $2.55. It peaked at 49,213 shares at 10:06:52, about 13% of the float. At that minute MSS was trading at $1.71, 84 cents below it.

From 10:00 to 11:00 the stock traded between $1.62 and $1.72, and some minutes had only a few hundred shares. A few single trades of 16,000 to 18,000 shares printed between 10:17 and 10:24, at $1.65 to $1.68.

At 11:11:36 the $2.55 wall was pulled: the size left the book without trading there. At 11:15 the stock dropped to $1.60 on 29,879 shares, and at 11:25 it hit $1.58, the low after the open.

The rest of the day

The afternoon stayed in a narrow range, roughly $1.59 to $1.71. A small burst at 3:26 to 3:28 pushed it to $1.70, and it reached $1.71 at 3:41. It closed at $1.64, 28% below the $2.29 high and 11% above the $1.48 previous close.

Before the 4 p.m. close, pre-market and regular session together traded 15.64 million shares: the float changed hands about 41 times, at about 8 times its normal volume. The regular session alone traded 7.77 million. After hours added 180,495.

What to take from it

• The tops stopped getting higher. $2.29 at 9:01, $2.29 again at 9:18, then $2.27 at 9:35. The next push came up short.
• The $2.55 wall was never reached. The $2.55 ask wall peaked at 49,213 shares while the stock was at $1.71, and it was pulled at 11:11 without trading there.
• The move was made between 9:00 and 9:36. Nearly all the pre-market volume traded after the 9:00 headline, and 15.64 million shares traded before the close. The stock finished at $1.64.

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