Hindsight Markets Recaps Small-cap stocks on August 26, 2026
SMTK, August 26: a $5.74 high at 4:00 a.m. and a day spent below it
SMTK opened up 20%, then faded below its open by the close.
What happened
Draft for review. Not published.
A top in the first minute
On this day the high came before the open. The first minute, 4:00 a.m., ran to $5.74 and closed at $5.07. Later pushes stopped lower: $5.54 at 4:04, then $5.40 at 5:34. By 4:15 a.m. more shares had traded than the whole float.
Headline, then a slide
The 8:13 a.m. headline barely moved it. SmartKem welcomed Ferrox plans to speed up its Tivani project. By 9:00 it was $4.59.
It opened at $4.45 and kept sliding. At 9:42 it hit $3.85, the low since the open. Then it hovered around $4.00 to $4.20.
Stop It's 10:40. SMTK is at $4.57. At 10:29 it was $4.15, and the volume has picked up over the last ten minutes. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 10:37 a.m. and stop at 10:40 a.m. ET for your call.
The push ran out fast. At 10:41 it hit $4.85, in the heaviest minute of the regular session. One minute later it was $4.40, and by 10:50 it was $4.11.
A quiet fade
The afternoon drifted on thin volume. At 2:05:37 p.m. one 11K-share sell order swept from $4.04 to $3.98. The 4:00 p.m. minute printed at $4.22. After hours it touched $3.71, the day's low.
What to take from it: Each push after the 4:00 a.m. top stopped lower, and the regular session never got near $5.74.
Replay SMTK's day
It starts at 10:23 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 10:26 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 20.3% to $4.45 at the open and traded below the open by 4:00 p.m., at $4.16.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 4:00 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of $3.70 | |
| 4:00 a.m. | Pre-market high, $5.74 | |
| 4:00 a.m. | High of the day to the close, $5.74 | |
| 4:15 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 564,683 shares | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: $4.45, up 20.3% from the previous close | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, $4.16, 27.5% 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
- $3.70
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- $4.45
- Gap at the open
- +20.3%
- Pre-market high
- $5.74 at 4:00 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $5.74 at 4:00 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $3.85
- Close, 4 p.m.
- $4.16
- Change at 4 p.m.
- +12.4%
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- $4.22 at 4:00 p.m.
- Volume, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 2.88 million
- Volume after hours, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 110,030
- Relative volume by 8 p.m.
- 27.2×
- Float
- 564,683 shares, from filings as of August 26, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 565,275
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 2.06 million shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (69%), 137,213 in the first 30 minutes (5%), and 792,313 in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (27%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 564,683 shares: past it once at 4:15 a.m., twice at 5:34 a.m., three times at 7:15 a.m.
- Other days SMTK met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 2, the latest on October 12, 2026.
On the day's lists: the pre-market gappers, gainers, 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 (none)
The exchange's halt feed shows no halts for SMTK that day.
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 SMTK on August 26, 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.