Hindsight Markets Recaps Small-cap stocks on August 21, 2026
HOWL, August 21: one halt and a gap that faded
HOWL more than doubled at the open, then faded below its open by the close.
What happened
Before the open
We found no news or filing before the move. Before the bell it reached $1.19, on 51M shares.
The open
It more than doubled at the open, at $0.981.
The halts
Trading stopped once, at 7:55 a.m.
The close
It closed at $0.88, 26% under its high.
What to take from it: A big gap is not a trend. This one traded below its open by the close.
The details
How it traded, step by step
Gap and fade. It gapped up 127.5% to $0.981 at the open and traded below the open by 4:00 p.m., at $0.88.
| Time (ET) | What happened |
|---|---|
| 4:00 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of $0.4312 |
| 8:21 a.m. | Pre-market high, $1.19 |
| 8:21 a.m. | High of the day to the close, $1.19 |
| 9:12 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 45.93 million shares |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: $0.981, up 127.5% from the previous close |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, $0.88, 26.1% 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
- $0.4312
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- $0.981
- Gap at the open
- +127.5%
- Pre-market high
- $1.19 at 8:21 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $1.19 at 8:21 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $0.7001
- Close, 4 p.m.
- $0.88
- Change at 4 p.m.
- +104.1%
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- $0.8999 at 4:00 p.m.
- Volume, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 89.01 million
- Volume after hours, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 2.74 million
- Relative volume by 8 p.m.
- 52.3×
- Float
- 45.93 million shares, from filings as of August 21, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 48.60 million
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 50.60 million shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (55%), 12.13 million in the first 30 minutes (13%), and 29.02 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (32%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 45.93 million shares: past it once at 9:12 a.m.
- In our recaps, this is the only day HOWL met the small-cap rule.
On the day's lists: the intraday runners. It is here because it was in play on the intraday runners: up 30% or more on $3 million or more really traded, outside the small-cap rule's price, relative volume or float, its high reached $1 or more and it started the day at $20 or under (the rule every page uses).
Halts (1)
| Halted | Resumed | Length | The 5 minutes into it | Reopened at, against the last trade | The 5 minutes after | Reason in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7:55 a.m. | 8:20 a.m. | 25 min 0 s | down 0.1% | $0.789, up 4.8% | up 34.3% | News pending |
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 HOWL 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.