EPSM on September 22, 2026: why it ran

The day, step by step

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Main move: midday
• Low-float run
• Halt run
• Bid wall
• Halted once
• Faded into the close

A quiet morning

The official previous close was $1.24. Pre-market was almost empty. The high was $1.25 at 9:09 a.m., and only 9 shares traded before the bell.

It opened at $1.26 and then sat there. Most minutes from 9:30 to 11:25 printed a few shares at $1.26, and the high in that stretch was $1.27. No news came out. The float is 2.65 million shares, and almost none of it traded.

11:41 to the halt

At 11:41 it woke up. The bar opened at $1.28 and the next minute traded $1.35. By 12:10 it was at $1.37 on bigger volume (6,967 shares).

The push came at 12:17. It went from $1.41 to $1.49 that minute. The next minute it hit $1.78 on 42,149 shares.

At 12:19:04 it was halted (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $1.78. It reopened at 12:24:04. The reopen print was a single block of 35,196 shares at $1.79.

Here's what happened. The 12:24 minute ranged from $1.59 to $1.84. It closed the minute at $1.68, on 221,182 shares.

The bid at $1.57

The next 20 minutes were wild. It fell to $1.42 at 12:26, jumped to $1.76 at 12:27, and was back at $1.43 at 12:30. Then it ran to $1.84 at 12:33 and dropped to $1.54 at 12:34. Each minute traded tens of thousands of shares.

This part a chart doesn't show. From 12:39 on, a large bid sat at exactly $1.57. It peaked at 23,975 shares at 12:39:57, about 0.9% of the float.

From 12:42:20, trades printed at $1.57. In 37.6 seconds, 22,368 shares traded at exactly $1.57 and the wall was gone at 12:42:58. It wasn't pulled. Sellers hit it.

The low that minute was $1.57, and the next minute's low was $1.52. Then it turned. A buy sweep at 12:44:12 took 14,813 shares from $1.71 to $1.76 across 6 levels. It reached $1.85 at 12:44, and 257,922 shares traded in that minute.

Walls above, and a float traded

From 12:45 sellers were stacked above. An ask wall of 80,426 shares at $1.99 (3.0% of the float) appeared at 12:45:00. A wall of 38,656 shares at $1.96 was there at 12:47:30 and was pulled at 12:47:34. Then an ask wall showed up at $2.08 at 12:47:34, peaking at 38,337 shares at 12:58:37.

At 12:47:02 a buy sweep took 15,315 shares from $1.85 to $1.88. At 12:47:25 a single trade of 10,964 shares printed at $1.88 at the ask. The 12:47 minute hit $1.92 on 322,185 shares. By the end of the 12:47 minute, more shares had traded since 12:17 than exist in the whole float (2.65 million).

It never traded through $1.99 in that run. Sellers then started hitting it. A 14,668-share sell sweep at 12:48:04 ran from $1.73 to $1.70. Three sell sweeps of about 13,500 to 18,200 shares at 12:50:26, 12:50:30 and 12:50:40 pushed it down to $1.62 by 12:50.

The drop to $1.21

It bounced to $1.89 at 12:54, then faded. It reached $1.78 at 1:00 p.m. Then selling picked up. Sell sweeps of 16,391 shares at 1:03, 16,495 at 1:04 and 30,540 at 1:05 walked it down from $1.65 to $1.55.

It kept falling. The 1:15 minute dropped from $1.36 to $1.21, the low since the open, on 72,489 shares. That was down 32% from $1.78 at 1:00.

A bid wall of 32,783 shares at $1.22 showed up at 1:20 and was pulled at 1:22. Another bid, 23,872 shares at $1.29, was there from 1:25 and pulled at 1:36. By 1:30 it was back near $1.37.

Afternoon creep and the 3:44 jump

The afternoon was slow. From about $1.38 at 2:24 p.m. it crept up in small steps. It was $1.50 by 3:05 and $1.62 at 3:42. Volume stayed low, mostly a few thousand shares a minute.

At 3:44 it jumped from $1.65 to $1.78. The 3:47 minute went from $1.68 to $1.89 on 60,969 shares.

Here's what happened. It hit $1.93, the high of the day, in the 3:48 minute, and 98,856 shares traded. An 11,982-share print went at $1.88 at 3:48:20. The minute closed at $1.84.

Within five minutes it was back at $1.65 at 3:53. It hit $1.56 at 3:54, down 19% from $1.93.

The close and after hours

It came back once more. At 3:55 p.m. it pushed to $1.69, a lower high under the $1.93 top. The regular session closed at $1.58 on the 3:59 bar, 18% under the high of the day.

By the close, 5.68 million shares had traded: the float changed hands about 2 times, at 381 times its normal volume. Normal volume is tiny, about 15,000 shares a day.

After hours it traded another 206,929 shares. It drifted down to $1.31 at 4:40 p.m. and sat near $1.40 for a long stretch. After 7:46 p.m. it bounced, and the after-hours high was $1.73 at 7:54 p.m.

What to take from it

• A bid wall can be eaten by sellers. The 23,975-share bid at $1.57 was sold into for 37.6 seconds and then gone. The price dipped to $1.52 the next minute, then ran to $1.85 at 12:44.
• Chasing a halt reopen or a spike costs more than the screen says. Both fills here averaged $45 to $47 over the screen on 5,000 shares, with only 320 and 2,770 shares offered at the screen price.
• After the top, the next push stopped lower. $1.93 at 3:48 p.m., then $1.69 at 3:55 p.m. It closed at $1.58.

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