Hindsight Markets Recaps Small-cap stocks on August 25, 2026
DFNS, August 25: two halts and $25.00
DFNS opened up 48%, then faded below its open by the close.
What happened
Draft for review. Not published.
Top before dawn
No news headline came with this move, so the tape is the story. It hit $25.00 at 4:01 a.m., 127% above the $11.01 close.
A 26K-share sell wall sat at $20.00 for hours. It was pulled at 9:28:01 without trading.
First halt
It opened at $16.31 and slid. At 9:32 a volatility pause froze it at $14.24.
Stop It's 9:37. DFNS has been halted since 9:32 with the last trade at $14.24, and the halt ends in 15 seconds. It opened the day at $16.31. Would you buy the reopen?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 9:34 a.m. and stop at 9:37 a.m. ET for your call.
It reopened at 9:37:15 at $14.29 and ran to $15.51 that minute.
Second halt
The selling came back. At 9:46:52 it was halted again at $12.88.
Stop It's 9:51. DFNS has been halted since 9:46 with the last trade at $12.88, and the halt ends in under a minute. It was $16.31 at the open. Would you buy the reopen?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 9:48 a.m. and stop at 9:51 a.m. ET for your call.
It reopened at 9:51:52 at $12.58, 2% lower. That minute's $12.50 was the low after the open. It ended the session at $13.07, 48% under the high.
What to take from it: On DFNS the top came before dawn, and the halts after the open only marked lower prices.
Replay DFNS's day
It starts at 9:42 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 9:45 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
Gap and fade. It gapped up 48.1% to $16.31 at the open and traded below the open by 4:00 p.m., at $13.07.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 4:00 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of $11.01 | |
| 4:01 a.m. | Pre-market high, $25.00 | |
| 4:01 a.m. | High of the day to the close, $25.00 | |
| 4:58 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 1.38 million shares | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: $16.31, up 48.1% from the previous close | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, $13.07, 47.7% 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
- $11.01
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- $16.31
- Gap at the open
- +48.1%
- Pre-market high
- $25.00 at 4:01 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $25.00 at 4:01 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $12.50
- Close, 4 p.m.
- $13.07
- Change at 4 p.m.
- +18.7%
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- $13.29 at 4:00 p.m.
- Volume, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 7.16 million
- Volume after hours, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 182,453
- Relative volume by 8 p.m.
- 3.5×
- Float
- 1.38 million shares, from filings as of August 25, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 1.66 million
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 4.32 million shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (59%), 858,260 in the first 30 minutes (12%), and 2.16 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (29%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 1.38 million shares: past it once at 4:58 a.m., twice at 6:40 a.m., three times at 9:03 a.m.
- Other days DFNS met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 3, the latest on October 14, 2026.
On the day's lists: the pre-market gappers, intraday runners. It is here because it met the small-cap rule on the pre-market gappers: 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 (2)
| Halted | Resumed | Length | The 5 minutes into it | Reopened at, against the last trade | The 5 minutes after | Reason in the feed | Watch it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:32 a.m. | 9:37 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | down 15.1% | $14.29, up 0.4% | up 6.6% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) | |
| 9:46 a.m. | 9:51 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | down 15.4% | $12.58, down 2.3% | up 6.4% | 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 DFNS on August 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.