Hindsight Markets Small-cap stocks on October 5, 2026
APUS on October 5, 2026: why it ran
On October 5, 2026, APUS opened up 54.7% from the previous close of 3.22 and reached 7.00 at 8:29 a.m. ET. The exchange halted it 2 times.
- Previous close
- 3.22
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- 4.98
- Gap at the open
- up 54.7%
- Pre-market high
- 7.00 at 8:29 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 7.00 at 8:29 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 3.20
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 5.33 at 7:49 p.m.
- Last trade before 4:00 p.m.
- 4.56
- Volume
- 15.63 million
- Relative volume
- 5.7x
- Float
- 805,943 shares, from filings as of October 5, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 1.51 million
Replay APUS's day
It starts at 7:52 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 7:55 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: pre-market
- Gap, run and fade
- Ask wall pulled
- Halted twice
- Float traded 12x before the open
The day before
On October 2, APUS traded 70,526 shares, between $3.10 and $4.24. The official close was $3.22.
Our data has no news headline for October 5. So the chart is all there is to go on for what follows.
Pre-market: the float traded by 8:02 a.m.
From 4:00 a.m. to 7:56 a.m. trading was sparse. Prices mostly stayed between $3.20 and $3.58, with a few small prints as high as $3.75.
Then at 8:00 a.m. it woke up. It ran from $3.27 to $5.12 inside that one minute and traded through $5.00 for the first time. By 8:02 a.m., more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (805,943). At 8:02 it hit $6.46, up 98% from the 8:00 low.
It kept swinging. From $5.42 at 8:06 it ran to $6.54 at 8:07, up 21%. It made $6.16 at 8:10, then fell to $4.71 at 8:14, down 24%.
The $6.93 wall
This is the part a chart doesn't show you.
At 8:07 a lot of stock appeared offered at exactly $6.93. It peaked at 50,030 shares at 8:07:56, about 6% of the float. It sat there for 15 minutes. At 8:22:54 it was pulled from the book.
From $4.88 at 8:17 the stock ran to $6.59 at 8:24, up 35%. It pulled back to $5.88 at 8:27.
Stop It's 8:28. APUS is at $6.30. The low a minute ago was $5.88. The big offer at $6.93 left the book at 8:22. This is pre-market, and volume has been heavy since 8:00. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 8:28 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 8:25 a.m. ET.
Here's what happened. At 8:29:07 a single print of 10,795 shares went through at $6.74. In that same minute it reached $7.00, the high so far, at 8:29 a.m. By 8:30 it had dipped to $6.35.
A new sell wall showed up at $6.96 at 8:37, peaking at 27,548 shares at 8:42. At 8:43 the stock reached $6.33, well under $7.00. The $6.96 wall was pulled at 9:09.
Below, a bid wall of up to 27,757 shares sat at $5.70 from 8:56 to 8:58. Then a bid wall at $5.50 grew to 36,756 shares. At 9:05, 7,243 shares traded at exactly $5.50 in about 13 seconds, and the wall was pulled at 9:05:34. The 9:05 candle dropped to $5.21.
The open and the first halt
It opened at $4.98, up 55% from the previous close but 29% below the $7.00 high. An 18,957-share print at $4.99 went through at 9:30:00. Then the stock slid. By 9:33 it was at $4.26.
At 9:33:41 it was halted (a volatility pause). The last trade was $4.26.
Stop It's 9:38. APUS has been halted since 9:33 with a last trade of $4.26. It opened the day at $4.98. Would you buy the reopen?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 9:38 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 9:35 a.m. ET.
It reopened at 9:38:41 at $4.25. A 13,520-share print went through at that price. Two seconds later a buyer swept 16,399 shares from $4.21 to $4.26. The low since the open was $4.20, in the 9:38 minute.
The next minute it jumped to $4.74. Until 10:54 it stayed between about $4.32 and $5.44. A buyer swept 20,500 shares from $5.35 to $5.44 at 10:19, and by 10:21 it was down to $4.58.
The second halt at 11:00
At 10:54 it started up from $4.88. It made $5.41 at 10:55, $5.74 at 10:56 and $5.82 at 10:57. Then a seller swept 24,688 shares from $5.74 to $5.66 at 10:57:11. By 10:59 it was down to $4.94.
At 11:00:26 it was halted (a volatility pause). The last trade was $4.94. Two seconds later a sell wall showed up at $5.99.
Stop It's 11:05. APUS has been halted since 11:00 with a last trade of $4.94. It had reached $5.82 at 10:57. An ask wall sits at $5.99. Would you buy the reopen at $4.83?
Press play: the real Level 2, time and sales and chart stop at 11:05 a.m. ET for your call, then show what happened. The clip starts at 11:02 a.m. ET.
It reopened at 11:05:26 at $4.83, 2% below where it stopped. A 15,455-share print went through at $4.83. The next minute's low was $4.51 at 11:06.
The rest of the day
After that it drifted. It chopped around $4.60 until about 11:30, then slid to a low of $4.23 at 12:11. Over the afternoon it worked back up to $4.83 at 2:33 p.m. and closed at $4.56, 35% under the $7.00 high. That high came before the bell, at 8:29 a.m.
After hours it climbed to $5.33 by 7:49 p.m. on low volume. 230,650 shares traded after the close.
9.63 million shares traded before the bell: the float changed hands about 12 times before the open. The regular session added 5.76 million shares. Relative volume for the day was 5.7.
What to take from it
- After the top, it never got back to it. $7.00 at 8:29 a.m., and the highest it reached after that was $6.72 at 8:32 a.m.
- Two halt reopens, two very different books. At 9:38 a 5,000-share buy cost the screen price. At 11:05 it cost $469 more, because only 13 shares were at the screen price.
- Most of the move from the high was gone by the close. It closed at $4.56, 35% below the $7.00 high, and the high came before the open.
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 8:00 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 54.7% to 4.98 at the open, ran from the open to the high of 5.82 in 87 minutes through a halt, then gave back 150% of that move by 4:00 p.m., trading at 4.56.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of 3.22 | |
| 8:02 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 805,943 shares | |
| 8:29 a.m. | Pre-market high, 7.00 | |
| 8:29 a.m. | High of the day to the close, 7.00 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: 4.98, up 54.7% from the previous close | |
| 9:33 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 9:38 a.m. | |
| 11:00 a.m. | Halted: LULD pause (limit up-limit down). Trading resumes at 11:05 a.m. | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, 4.56, 34.9% 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: 9.63 million shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (62%), 1.00 million in the first 30 minutes (6%), and 4.99 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (32%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 805,943 shares: past it once at 8:02 a.m., twice at 8:05 a.m., three times at 8:07 a.m.
- The halt at 9:33 a.m.: down 15.6% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 4.25, down 0.2% from the last trade before it, then up 7.1% over the next 5 minutes.
- The halt at 11:00 a.m.: down 8.2% in the 5 minutes into it, reopened at 4.83, down 2.2% from the last trade before it, then down 2.9% over the next 5 minutes.
Halts
| Halted | Resumed | Length | Reason in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:33 a.m. | 9:38 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 11:00 a.m. | 11:05 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 October 5, 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.