Hindsight Markets Small-cap stocks on September 16, 2026
FTFT on September 16, 2026: why it ran
On September 16, 2026, FTFT opened up 22.1% from the previous close of 5.74 and reached 9.73 at 9:45 a.m. ET. The exchange halted it once.
- Previous close
- 5.74
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- 7.01
- Gap at the open
- up 22.1%
- Pre-market high
- 7.18 at 5:04 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 9.73 at 9:45 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 5.83
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 7.16 at 4:00 p.m.
- Last trade before 4:00 p.m.
- 7.08
- Volume
- 5.59 million
- Relative volume
- 1.2x
- Float
- 7.91 million shares, from filings as of September 16, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 8.06 million
Replay FTFT's day
It starts at 9:26 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 9:29 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 open
- No news in the data
- Pre-market high break
- Halted once
- Gap, run and fade
Pre-market: up to $7.18
The day before, FTFT traded between $4.84 and $6.84 and closed at $5.74. No news came out in the data for the 16th.
The first trades on the 16th were at $6.08, already above the $5.74 close. The pre-market low was $5.83 at 4:05 a.m. It then ran to $6.69 by 4:11 a.m.
The pre-market high was $7.18 at 5:04 a.m. It spent the rest of the pre-market between about $6.11 and $7.18. 807,901 shares traded before the bell.
The open and the halt
It opened at $7.01, up 22% from the previous close. That is just under the $7.18 pre-market high.
In the first minute it cleared that high and traded up to $7.70. A 14,087-share buy swept five price levels, $7.48 to $7.52, at 9:30:38. Two minutes later it was at $8.18 and at 9:32:53 it was halted (a volatility pause).
Stop It's 9:37. FTFT has been halted for about four minutes. The last trade before the halt was $8.18, and the stock is about to reopen. 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 9:37:53 at $8.26. The first trade was a single print of 83,445 shares at $8.26.
After the reopen
After the reopen it kept climbing: $8.88 by 9:40.
Stop It's 9:42. FTFT is at $8.56 and has been trading between $8.20 and $8.88 since the reopen. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 9:42 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 9:39 a.m. ET.
The 9:42 minute went to $9.48, with an 11,981-share buy sweeping five levels around $9.00. At 9:44 a 15,542-share buy ran through 19 price levels, $9.45 to $9.63. The high of the day, $9.73, came in the 9:45 minute, up 70% from the previous close.
The same minute also traded down to $8.70. By 9:57 the low was $7.93, 12 minutes after the high.
The drop to $7.00
For about 12 minutes from 9:58 it held roughly $7.95 to $8.19. Two big sell orders then went through the book. At 10:10:58 a 22,701-share sell ran from $7.96 to $7.81 across 15 levels. At 10:14:34 a 12,421-share sell ran from $7.83 to $7.68, also across 15 levels.
It kept sliding and hit $7.00 at 10:43 a.m., down 28% from $9.73. It bounced to $7.55 by 10:45.
A lower high, then the fade
At 11:18 it spiked to $7.97. Later it came back once more: at 11:39 a.m. it pushed to $8.44. An 11,578-share buy swept six levels, $8.25 to $8.30, in that minute. $8.44 was a lower high under the $9.73 top.
From there it faded: $7.47 at 11:49 a.m. and $6.60 at 1:55 p.m. The lowest price after the open was $6.43 at 3:27 p.m. A late bounce took it back to $7.08 in the last regular minute, 3:59 p.m.
By the close, 4.70 million shares had traded, about 60% of the 7.91 million-share float, at about 1.2 times normal volume. Another 84,670 traded after hours.
What to take from it
- After the top, the next push stopped lower. $9.73 at 9:45 a.m., then $8.44 at 11:39 a.m.
- The reopen fill cost more than the screen showed. The book was thin in the first second: 110 shares at the screen price, and a 5,000-share order averaged $8.48 and cost $265 more in total than the screen price.
- The best part of the move was the first 15 minutes. After the 9:45 high, the stock gave back most of the run by 10:43. It was at $7.08 at 3:59 p.m., 27% below $9.73.
Why it ran
News and SEC filings for FTFT published between the previous session's close and the first minute FTFT traded 20% above it, at 4:12 a.m. ET, newest first, from the same feeds the replay shows.
No news found before the move.
How it traded
Gap, run and fade. It gapped up 22.1% to 7.01 at the open, ran from the open to the high of 9.73 in 15 minutes through a halt, then gave back 97% of that move by 4:00 p.m., trading at 7.08.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 4:12 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of 5.74 | |
| 5:04 a.m. | Pre-market high, 7.18 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: 7.01, up 22.1% from the previous close | |
| 9:32 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 9:37 a.m. | |
| 9:45 a.m. | High of the day to the close, 9.73 | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, 7.08, 27.2% 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: 807,901 shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (14%), 2.29 million in the first 30 minutes (41%), and 2.49 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (45%).
- The halt at 9:32 a.m.: up 14.9% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 8.26, up 1.0% from the last trade before it, then up 3.8% over the next 5 minutes.
- Other days FTFT met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 5, the latest on September 23, 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) |
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 FTFT on September 16, 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.