Hindsight Markets Recaps Small-cap stocks on August 21, 2026
SDOT, August 21: three halts, a thin book at each reopen, and $19.95
SDOT opened near its previous close, then ran to $19.95 through three halts during the session.
What happened
Draft for review. Not published.
Under $10.00
No headline was out yet. It opened at $8.24 and touched $8.20 that first minute. From 9:39 it climbed, reaching $9.07 by 9:45.
Stop It's 9:52. SDOT is at $9.90, up from the $8.20 low at the open. $10.00 is right above, and it has not traded there today. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 9:49 a.m. and stop at 9:52 a.m. ET for your call.
It broke $10.00 that minute. At 9:53:42 it was halted at $10.65.
Thin book at reopen
At 10:03:42 it reopened 10% higher, at $11.71. Almost nothing was offered above.
Two more halts followed. The third reopened 2% lower, at $16.89.
Toward $20.00
By 11:16 it had reached $18.93.
Stop It's 11:20. SDOT is at $18.30. The high so far today is $18.93, set at 11:16, and $20.00 is the next round number. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 11:17 a.m. and stop at 11:20 a.m. ET for your call.
That minute a 29K-share buy order pushed it to the high, $19.95. Within three minutes it was back at $17.50. It closed at $13.29, 33% below the high.
What to take from it: On this day, the screen price at a halt reopen was far from what 5,000 shares actually cost.
Replay SDOT's day
It starts at 10:14 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 10:17 a.m. and asks what you would do. Or press Play on any moment in How it traded.
The details
How it traded, step by step
Intraday run. It opened down 2.4% at $8.24, then ran from the open to the high of $19.95 in 110 minutes through 3 halts.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 4:53 a.m. | Pre-market high, $8.74 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: $8.24, down 2.4% from the previous close | |
| 9:52 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of $8.44 | |
| 10:30 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 1.29 million shares | |
| 11:20 a.m. | High of the day to the close, $19.95 | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, $13.29, 33.4% below the high |
The shape's name comes from a fixed rule, not a judgement (how shapes are named). Halts are in the halt table below.
The day in numbers
- Previous close
- $8.44
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- $8.24
- Gap at the open
- −2.4%
- Pre-market high
- $8.74 at 4:53 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $19.95 at 11:20 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $8.20
- Close, 4 p.m.
- $13.29
- Change at 4 p.m.
- +57.5%
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- $16.39 at 4:02 p.m.
- Volume, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 7.24 million
- Volume after hours, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 772,435
- Relative volume by 8 p.m.
- 100.0×
- Float
- 1.29 million shares, from filings as of August 21, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 1.32 million
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 6,354 shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (0%), 44,939 in the first 30 minutes (1%), and 7.97 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (99%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 1.29 million shares: past it once at 10:30 a.m., twice at 10:52 a.m., three times at 11:15 a.m.
- Other days SDOT met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 3, the latest on October 1, 2026.
On the day's lists: the gainers, intraday runners. It is here because it met the small-cap rule on the gainers: price $2 to $20, up 10% or more, relative volume 5× or more, float under 20 million shares, its high reached $1 or more and it started the day at $20 or under (the rule every page uses).
Halts (3)
| Halted | Resumed | Length | The 5 minutes into it | Reopened at, against the last trade | The 5 minutes after | Reason in the feed | Watch it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:53 a.m. | 10:03 a.m. | 10 min 0 s | up 13.7% | $11.71, up 10.0% | up 5.8% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) | |
| 10:21 a.m. | 10:26 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | up 15.1% | $13.76, up 3.1% | up 4.4% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) | |
| 10:41 a.m. | 10:46 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | up 10.3% | $16.89, down 2.4% | down 4.7% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
Halt bands that day: the LULD plan's Amendment 18 rules (what that means, LULD calculator).
How we read the data, name a day's shape and pick the stocks: methodology.
Trade this day
Replay SDOT on August 21, 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.