Hindsight Markets Small-cap stocks on September 24, 2026
HCWB on September 24, 2026: why it ran
On September 24, 2026, HCWB opened up 1.8% from the previous close of 1.66 and reached 3.12 at 10:29 a.m. ET. The exchange halted it 2 times.
- Previous close
- 1.66
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- 1.69
- Gap at the open
- up 1.8%
- Pre-market high
- 1.79 at 5:20 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 3.12 at 10:29 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 1.40
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 2.00 at 4:59 p.m.
- Last trade before 4:00 p.m.
- 1.98
- Volume
- 4.71 million
- Relative volume
- 29.9x
- Float
- 1.65 million shares, from filings as of September 24, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 1.84 million
Replay HCWB's day
It starts at 9:53 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 9:56 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 morning
- Catalyst: news
- Halted twice
- Halt reopen
- Lower high
- Float traded 2.8x
Pre-market: $1.79, then a headline
The previous close was $1.66. The pre-market high was $1.79, first reached at 5:20 a.m. 32,787 shares traded before the bell, and 19,457 of those came in the 8:25 and 8:26 minutes.
At 8:25 a.m. GlobeNewsWire ran: “HCW Biologics Announces Pricing of $1.5 Million Private Placement”. The stock was trading around $1.70 and fell to $1.60 in that minute. At 8:26 a.m. it hit $1.40, down 22% from $1.79. At 8:30 a.m. the company filed an 8-K (a current report). By 8:51 it was back at $1.74.
The open and the bid at $1.70
It opened at $1.69, up 2% from the previous close. The low since the open was $1.67 at 9:34. For the first 15 minutes it barely moved.
Here is what a chart doesn't show. From 9:44 a.m. someone was bidding for stock at exactly $1.70. It peaked at 63,799 shares at 9:52 (3.9% of the 1.65-million-share float).
At 9:52 the stock cleared the pre-market high of $1.79 and reached $1.81. Over the next few minutes it traded between $1.75 and $1.82.
The run toward $2.00
At 10:01 it moved to $1.89 on 23,184 shares. In the 10:02 minute it reached $1.96.
Stop It's 10:03. HCWB is at $1.97, above its $1.79 pre-market high and just under $2.00. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 10:03 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 10:00 a.m. ET.
Here's what happened. In the 10:03 minute it ran from $1.97 to $2.38 on 45,156 shares, trading through $2.00 for the first time. At 10:04:05 it was halted (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $2.38.
Something showed up on the book during the pause. From 10:12 a.m. someone was bidding at $2.46, above the last trade. It peaked at 37,882 shares at 10:18 (2.3% of the float).
Stop It's 10:29. HCWB has been halted since 10:04, with its last trade at $2.38. The previous close was $1.66. Would you buy when it reopens?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 10:29 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 10:26 a.m. ET.
The reopen came at 10:29:01 at $3.12, 31% above where it stopped. A 105,200-share print went through at $3.12. In the same second a 26,901-share buy order swept from $2.50 to $3.12 across 10 price levels.
The top and the second halt
$3.12 was the high so far, in that same 10:29 minute. Two seconds after the reopen, a 30,505-share sell order swept down from $3.07 to $2.65 across 36 levels. The 10:29 minute traded 410,089 shares and closed at $2.50.
At 10:29:38 it was halted again (a volatility pause), with the last trade at $2.50. The $2.46 bid was pulled at 10:30:31, during the halt. The stock reopened at 10:34:38 at $2.45, with a 41,824-share print at that price.
After the 10:34 reopen it fell to $2.22 that minute. At 10:35 it hit $1.87, down 40% from $3.12. Then it chopped between about $1.83 and $2.30 for the next half hour.
The wall at $2.25
From 10:39 a.m. there was a wall of ask orders at $2.25. It peaked at 34,781 shares at 10:39:58 (2.1% of the float). At 11:10 the stock was still below it, at $2.13.
Stop It's 11:11. HCWB is at $2.12. A wall of sellers has sat at $2.25, with up to about 34,000 shares, since 10:39. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 11:11 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 11:08 a.m. ET.
At 11:11:37 the wall was pulled. Twelve seconds later a 12,407-share buy swept from $2.30 to $2.35. The 11:11 minute went from $2.12 to a high of $2.60 and the 11:12 minute reached $2.69. By 11:12 more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (1.65 million).
It came back once more. At 11:17 it pushed to $2.84, a lower high under the $3.12 top. That minute traded 324,490 shares. It was at $2.36 by the close of the next minute and $2.18 by 11:20.
Around the same time more size appeared on the book. An ask wall at $3.00 first showed at 11:17:47 and peaked at 56,930 shares at 11:25 (3.4% of the float). Another at $2.77 peaked at 31,953 shares at 11:26.
The bid at $2.02
From 11:18 a.m. someone was bidding for a lot of stock at exactly $2.02. It peaked at 34,128 shares at 11:25 (2.1% of the float).
At 11:38:55 it was pulled. The stock had been trading near $2.05. In the next two minutes it touched $2.00.
The rest of the day
At 12:11 a 16,070-share sell swept from $1.85 to $1.80, and it hit $1.78 at 12:12 p.m. After that it was quiet. From about 12:20 it drifted between about $1.90 and $2.04 for the rest of the afternoon and was at $1.98 in the last regular-session minute, 3:59 p.m.
By the close, 4.60 million shares had traded: the float changed hands about 2.8 times, at about 30 times its normal volume. After hours another 78,384 shares traded, between $1.85 and $2.00.
What to take from it
- A halt can reopen higher than it stopped, and the reopen can be the top. The first halt stopped at $2.38 and reopened at $3.12. That was the high of the day.
- At the reopen, the screen price wasn't the fill price. At the $3.12 reopen only 27 shares were offered at the screen price, and the high came within seconds.
- After the top, the next push stopped lower. $3.12 at 10:29 a.m., then $2.84 at 11:17 a.m. By 3:59 p.m. the stock was at $1.98.
Why it ran
News and SEC filings for HCWB published between the previous session's close and the first minute HCWB traded 20% above it, at 10:03 a.m. ET, newest first, from the same feeds the replay shows.
-
8-K
-
HCW Biologics Announces Pricing of $1.5 Million Private Placement
News via Stock News API
How it traded
Intraday run. It opened up 1.8% at 1.69, then ran from the open to the high of 3.12 in 59 minutes through a halt.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 5:20 a.m. | Pre-market high, 1.79 | |
| 8:25 a.m. | News (GlobeNewsWire): HCW Biologics Announces Pricing of $1.5 Million Private Placement | |
| 8:30 a.m. | SEC filing 8-K: 8-K | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: 1.69, up 1.8% from the previous close | |
| 10:03 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of 1.66 | |
| 10:04 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 10:29 a.m. | |
| 10:29 a.m. | High of the day to the close, 3.12 | |
| 10:29 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 10:34 a.m. | |
| 11:12 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 1.65 million shares | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, 1.98, 36.5% 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
- From news to the move: the first trade 20% above the previous close came 1 hour 32 minutes after the latest SEC filing before it (8-K, 8:30 a.m.).
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 32,787 shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (1%), 13,837 in the first 30 minutes (0%), and 4.66 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (99%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 1.65 million shares: past it once at 11:12 a.m., twice at 11:24 a.m.
- The halt at 10:04 a.m.: up 31.5% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 3.12, up 31.1% from the last trade before it.
- The halt at 10:29 a.m.: up 5.0% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 2.45, down 2.0% from the last trade before it, then down 10.6% over the next 5 minutes.
- Other days HCWB met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 2, the latest on September 8, 2026.
Halts
| Halted | Resumed | Length | Reason in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:04 a.m. | 10:29 a.m. | 24 min 56 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 10:29 a.m. | 10:34 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 HCWB on September 24, 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.