Hindsight Markets Small-cap stocks on September 25, 2026
APUS on September 25, 2026: why it ran
On September 25, 2026, APUS opened up 65.7% from the previous close of 5.04 and reached 9.14 at 9:34 a.m. ET. The exchange halted it once.
- Previous close
- 5.04
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- 8.35
- Gap at the open
- up 65.7%
- Pre-market high
- 8.46 at 9:29 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 9.14 at 9:34 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 4.90
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 7.36 at 4:00 p.m.
- Last trade before 4:00 p.m.
- 7.25
- Volume
- 15.33 million
- Relative volume
- 8.0x
- Float
- 805,943 shares, from filings as of September 25, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 1.51 million
Replay APUS's day
It starts at 9:16 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 9:19 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
- Gap and fade
- Halted once
- Bid wall broken
- Float traded 19x
The day before
On September 24, APUS ran from $2.26 to $8.74. It gave most of it back and closed at $5.04.
At 11:15 a.m. that day, Benzinga ran the headline "Apimeds Pharmaceuticals Stock Skyrockets Thursday: What's Happening?" After hours the stock was back up to about $5.74.
Pre-market: the float traded by 5:42 a.m.
The float is small: 805,943 shares. From $5.03 at 4:43 a.m. the stock ran to $6.21 at 5:28 a.m., up 23%.
By 5:42 a.m., more shares had traded than exist in the whole float. At 5:42 it hit $7.28, up 26% from $5.77 at 5:31.
Then it cooled to the $6s. From 7:49 a.m. there was an ask wall of 54,320 shares at $7.21, about 6.7% of the float. It was pulled at 8:52. At 8:59 the stock traded through that price. From $5.94 at 8:27 it ran to $7.25 at 8:59, up 22%.
The pre-market high was $8.46 at 9:29 a.m. 7.69 million shares traded before the bell, about 9.5 times the float.
The open
It opened at $8.35, up 66% from the $5.04 close. The 9:30 minute ran to $8.80 and traded 751,388 shares. By 9:32 it had dipped to $7.48.
Stop It's 9:34. APUS is at $8.36, up 66% from yesterday's close. It dipped to $7.48 two minutes ago and is back near the open. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 9:34 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 9:31 a.m. ET.
At 9:34:07 one buy order swept through 34 price levels, from $8.67 to $9.00, for 47,902 shares. The high so far, $9.14, came in that 9:34 minute. The stock held near $9 for a few more minutes, then fell. Within five minutes it was back at $7.92.
The 9:39 halt
Stop It's 9:44. APUS was halted at 9:39 (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $7.92, down from $9.14 ten minutes ago. It is still halted. Would you buy the reopen?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 9:44 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 9:41 a.m. ET.
At 9:39:47 it was halted. It reopened at 9:44:47 at $7.68, 3% below where it stopped. The first print was 36,606 shares at $7.68.
The 9:45 minute dropped to $7.20, down 21% from $9.14. It bounced, and at 9:48 it pushed to $8.25, a lower high under the $9.14 top. The 9:54 minute went back to $7.20.
The bid at $7.00
From 9:42 on, someone was bidding for a lot of stock at exactly $7.00. It peaked at 39,693 shares at 10:10, about 5% of the float. Through 10:21 the stock did not trade at or below $7.00; the lowest it got was $7.01 at 9:55.
Stop It's 10:22. APUS is at $7.11. A bid that peaked at 39,693 shares at 10:10 has sat at $7.00 since 9:42; the stock has not traded down to it. Would you buy here, just above it?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 10:22 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 10:19 a.m. ET.
At 10:22:04 trades began printing at $7.00. In 11.3 seconds, 36,450 shares traded at exactly $7.00 and the bid was gone. It wasn't pulled. Sellers hit it. A 40,285-share sell order then went from $7.00 down to $6.77 across 24 levels, and the minute's low was $6.61.
The rest of the day
It drifted lower to $6.41 at 11:08 and made the low after the open, $6.31, at 12:34. Late in the day it climbed back: $6.98 at 3:40 p.m. and $7.25 at the close.
Through the close, 15.06 million shares traded (pre-market and regular session): the float changed hands about 19 times, at about 8 times its normal volume.
What to take from it
- After the top, the next push stopped lower. $9.14 at 9:34, then $8.25 at 9:48.
- A halt can reopen below where it stopped, and the first seconds cost extra. The 9:39 halt stopped at $7.92 and reopened at $7.68. A 5,000-share buy right after averaged $645 over the screen.
- A big bid is not a floor. About 40,000 shares sat at $7.00 for 40 minutes. Sellers cleared it in 11 seconds, and the stock traded to $6.61.
Why it ran
News and SEC filings for APUS published between the previous session's close and the first minute APUS traded 20% above it, at 5:27 a.m. ET, newest first, from the same feeds the replay shows.
No news found before the move.
How it traded
Gap and fade. It gapped up 65.7% to 8.35 at the open and traded below the open by 4:00 p.m., at 7.25.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 5:27 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of 5.04 | |
| 5:42 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 805,943 shares | |
| 9:29 a.m. | Pre-market high, 8.46 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: 8.35, up 65.7% from the previous close | |
| 9:34 a.m. | High of the day to the close, 9.14 | |
| 9:39 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 9:44 a.m. | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, 7.25, 20.7% 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: 7.69 million shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (50%), 4.17 million in the first 30 minutes (27%), and 3.47 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (23%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 805,943 shares: past it once at 5:42 a.m., twice at 5:55 a.m., three times at 6:25 a.m.
- The halt at 9:39 a.m.: down 9.5% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 7.68, down 3.0% from the last trade before it, then up 2.9% over the next 5 minutes.
Halts
| Halted | Resumed | Length | Reason in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:39 a.m. | 9:44 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 APUS on September 25, 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.