Hindsight Markets Recaps Small-cap stocks on October 20, 2026
MF, October 20: three halts and a gap that faded
MF opened up 17%, 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 $15.00, on 57K shares.
The open
It opened up 17%, at $12.30.
The halts
Each halt froze the price and reopened it somewhere new. The exchange halted it three times, from 9:30 a.m. to 9:57 a.m. The biggest jump was the reopen after 9:41 a.m.: 25% above the last trade before it.
The close
It closed at $11.25, 25% 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 17.1% to $12.30 at the open and traded below the open by 4:00 p.m., at $11.25.
| Time (ET) | What happened |
|---|---|
| 9:20 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of $10.50 |
| 9:21 a.m. | Pre-market high, $15.00 |
| 9:21 a.m. | High of the day to the close, $15.00 |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: $12.30, up 17.1% from the previous close |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, $11.25, 25.0% 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
- $10.50
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- $12.30
- Gap at the open
- +17.1%
- Pre-market high
- $15.00 at 9:21 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $15.00 at 9:21 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $9.96
- Close, 4 p.m.
- $11.25
- Change at 4 p.m.
- +7.1%
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- $11.58 at 7:53 p.m.
- Volume, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 134,361
- Volume after hours, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 1,803
- Relative volume by 8 p.m.
- 2.2×
- Float
- 1.51 million shares, from filings as of October 20, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 1.51 million
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 57,395 shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (42%), 56,656 in the first 30 minutes (42%), and 22,113 in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (16%).
- Other days MF met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 2, the latest on October 15, 2026.
On the day's lists: the pre-market gappers. 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 (3)
| Halted | Resumed | Length | The 5 minutes into it | Reopened at, against the last trade | The 5 minutes after | Reason in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:30 a.m. | 9:40 a.m. | 10 min 0 s | down 10.6% | $11.07, unchanged | down 3.1% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 9:41 a.m. | 9:56 a.m. | 15 min 8 s | down 3.1% | $13.37, up 24.6% | down 10.0% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 9:57 a.m. | 10:07 a.m. | 10 min 0 s | up 12.1% | $11.12, down 7.6% | up 2.5% | 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 MF on October 20, 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.