Hindsight Markets Recaps Small-cap stocks on August 18, 2026
IPST, August 18: twelve halts and $25.35
IPST opened near its previous close, then ran to $25.35 through twelve halts during the session.
What happened
Before the open
We found no news or filing before the move. Before the bell it reached $8.51, on 295K shares.
The open
It opened near its previous close, at $7.49. It ran to $25.35 by 1:52 p.m.
The halts
Each halt froze the price and reopened it somewhere new. The exchange halted it twelve times, from 9:59 a.m. to 3:10 p.m.
The close
It closed at $15.81, 38% under its high.
What to take from it: The move came during the session, not at the open.
The details
How it traded, step by step
Intraday run. It opened up 1.4% at $7.49, then ran from the open to the high of $25.35 in 262 minutes through 10 halts.
| Time (ET) | What happened |
|---|---|
| 4:03 a.m. | Pre-market high, $8.51 |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: $7.49, up 1.4% from the previous close |
| 10:04 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of $7.39 |
| 10:10 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 696,891 shares |
| 1:52 p.m. | High of the day to the close, $25.35 |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, $15.81, 37.6% 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
- $7.39
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- $7.49
- Gap at the open
- +1.4%
- Pre-market high
- $8.51 at 4:03 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $25.35 at 1:52 p.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $6.50
- Close, 4 p.m.
- $15.81
- Change at 4 p.m.
- +113.9%
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- $17.47 at 6:30 p.m.
- Volume, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 12.83 million
- Volume after hours, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 422,496
- Relative volume by 8 p.m.
- 5.2×
- Float
- 696,891 shares, from filings as of August 18, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 721,578
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 294,964 shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (2%), 214,318 in the first 30 minutes (2%), and 12.74 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (96%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 696,891 shares: past it once at 10:10 a.m., twice at 10:20 a.m., three times at 10:43 a.m.
- Other days IPST met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 5, the latest on October 27, 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 (12)
| Halted | Resumed | Length | The 5 minutes into it | Reopened at, against the last trade | The 5 minutes after | Reason in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:59 a.m. | 10:04 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | up 20.0% | $8.50, up 1.1% | up 10.0% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 10:05 a.m. | 10:10 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | up 11.2% | $9.35, unchanged | up 15.0% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 10:13 a.m. | 10:18 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | up 15.0% | $10.75, unchanged | down 7.7% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 10:25 a.m. | 10:30 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | down 13.5% | $8.55, down 3.8% | up 9.8% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 10:45 a.m. | 10:50 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | up 13.9% | $12.00, down 0.2% | up 14.9% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 10:54 a.m. | 10:59 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | up 14.6% | $13.11, down 4.9% | up 12.9% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 11:07 a.m. | 11:12 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | up 15.1% | $17.63, up 0.1% | down 3.2% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 11:14 a.m. | 11:19 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | down 3.1% | $17.07, unchanged | down 6.2% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 1:25 p.m. | 1:30 p.m. | 5 min 0 s | up 11.0% | $19.10, up 3.4% | up 9.9% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 1:45 p.m. | 1:50 p.m. | 5 min 0 s | up 11.4% | $23.99, down 2.0% | down 7.4% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 1:55 p.m. | 2:00 p.m. | 5 min 0 s | down 6.7% | $21.21, down 0.2% | down 3.7% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) |
| 3:10 p.m. | 3:20 p.m. | 10 min 0 s | down 14.5% | $17.38, down 3.7% | down 3.9% | 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 IPST on August 18, 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.