ARTL on September 23, 2026: why it ran

The day, step by step

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Main move: late morning and early afternoon
• Catalyst: news (patent filing)
• Halted 11 times
• Round-number break
• Float traded 20x
• Faded into the close

Pre-market: a spike that faded

On September 22, ARTL ran between $3.86 and $4.59 on 112,648 shares and closed at $4.15. The float is small: 510,398 shares.

The first trade on the 23rd was 11 shares at $4.46 at 4:00 a.m. After that it was quiet. Through 7:24 a.m. it traded in small lots around $4.12 to $4.36.

At 7:33 a.m. GlobeNewsWire ran: “Artelo Biosciences Files New Provisional Patent Application Covering ART27.13 for Obesity, Alone and in Combination with GLP-1 Receptor Agonists, Following Unexpected Nonclinical Findings”. In that same minute the stock went from $4.27 to the pre-market high, $5.98, on 67,974 shares.

It did not hold. The next minute it traded as high as $5.49 and as low as $3.81. At 7:37 a.m. it hit $3.60, the low so far, 40% under the spike high and below the $4.15 close. Most of the 285,786 pre-market shares traded in those five minutes.

The open: quiet

From 7:40 a.m. to the bell it sat between about $3.75 and $4.00 on thin volume. It opened at $3.99, below the previous close. After the open the low was $3.90 at 9:40.

It then crept up. It was $4.40 around 10:40 and $4.72 by the end of the 10:48 minute.

Halts one through six: $5.33 to $12.75

At 10:53 it traded 42,736 shares in one minute and reached $5.30. At 10:54:26 it was halted (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $5.33.

It reopened at 11:14:22 at $6.33, 19% above where it stopped. The opening print was a single trade of 55,139 shares. By the end of that 11:14 minute, more than the whole float of 510,398 shares had traded that day. It ran to $6.96 and was halted again at 11:14:49.

The second halt ended at 11:34:50. The reopen was at $8.63, 24% above the $6.96 where it stopped. One print of 71,934 shares set the price.

Four more halts followed, each lasting 5 to 10 minutes. The reopens were $8.83 at 11:40, $9.25 at 11:46, $10.89 at 11:57 and $12.75 at 12:08. Each reopen came on one big print: 64,138, 45,825, 56,715 and 70,805 shares. The reopen at 12:08 took the stock from $5.33 to $12.75 across six halts in about 74 minutes.

$14.83, then two drops

Right at the 12:08:01 reopen, a buy order for 24,854 shares swept from $12.74 to $13.60 across 49 price levels. In the 12:08 minute the stock hit $14.83. At 12:09:22 it was halted with the last trade at $12.22, 18% under that high.

It reopened at 12:19:22 at $10.90, 11% below where it stopped, and fell to $10.53. A bid wall at $10.40 was first seen at 12:15:08 and peaked at about 28,800 shares at 12:20:02. It was pulled at 12:20:51, in the next halt, which began at 12:20:34.

That halt ended at 12:30:34. It reopened at $13.89 and ran to $14.70 in the same minute, helped by a buy sweep of 22,343 shares from $13.93 to $14.34. At 12:31:32 it was halted again, with the last trade at $12.37.

It reopened at 12:46:32 at $10.29 and dropped to $9.26 in that minute, 37% under the $14.70 reached at 12:30.

The wall at $15.00

At 12:20:13, just before the halt that began at 12:20:34, an ask wall appeared at exactly $15.00. It stayed there through the next two halts. Meanwhile the stock climbed from $9.26 at 12:46 to $12.41 at the close of the 12:57 minute.

Here's what happened. It touched $13.12 at 12:59 and was halted at 12:59:39. The $15.00 wall peaked at 30,554 shares at 1:05 p.m., about 6% of the float. During the halt a bid wall of up to 32,360 shares showed at $13.30. It was pulled at 1:01:55.

Trading resumed at 1:09:39 p.m. at $14.30, 9% above where it stopped. The reopen print was 47,268 shares. By 1:09 p.m. about ten times the float had traded.

Twelve seconds later, at 1:09:51, trading at $15.00 began. In under a second, 23,581 shares traded at exactly $15.00 and the wall was gone. It wasn't pulled. Buyers ate it. One buy order of 30,057 shares swept from $14.99 to $15.73 across 42 price levels. $15.73 was the high of the day. That is 279% above the $4.15 close.

Five seconds later, at 1:09:56, a sell order of 23,343 shares swept from $15.10 down to $13.40 across 86 levels. At 1:11:37 it was halted again, with the last trade at $12.75. It reopened at 1:21:37 at $11.50 and hit $11.26 at 1:21, 28% under the top.

The rest of the day

It tried once more. At 1:23 p.m. it reached $13.97, a lower high under $15.73. After that it faded in steps: $11.53 at 1:31 p.m., $10.54 at 1:48 p.m., $7.62 at 3:00 p.m. and $6.74 at 3:16 p.m.. It closed the regular session at $7.30, 54% under the high and still 76% above the previous close.

By the close, 10.15 million shares had traded: the float changed hands about 20 times. Over the whole day, volume was about 200 times its normal level, and the stock was halted 11 times.

After hours it was $7.61 at the high of the 4:00 p.m. minute and fell to $5.60 by 4:26 p.m.. It then bounced to $7.42 at 5:48 p.m. and ended the evening near $5.70. After-hours volume was 767,801 shares.

What to take from it

• A big ask wall at a round number is a level, not a ceiling. The $15.00 wall held about 30,000 shares and was eaten in under a second, and a sell sweep took the price down to $13.40 five seconds later.
• Halt reopens cost more than the screen says. Here, 5,000-share buys averaged $110 to $1,777 above the screen on the seven reopens checked and the wall break.
• The next push after the top stopped lower. $15.73 at 1:09 p.m., then $13.97 at 1:23 p.m. The close was $7.30.

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