Hindsight Markets Recaps Small-cap stocks on September 16, 2026
FTFT, September 16: a halt at $8.18, a top at $9.73, and a fade to $7.08
FTFT opened up 22%, ran to $9.73 through one halt, then gave back most of the run by the close.
What happened
The open and the halt
FTFT came in hot with no news in the data. It closed at $5.74 the day before and opened at $7.01, up 22%.
It cleared the $7.18 pre-market high in the first minute. Two minutes later it hit $8.18, and at 9:32:53 it was halted.
Stop It's 9:37. FTFT has been halted for about four minutes. The last trade before the halt was $8.18, and the stock is about to reopen. 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.
Here's what happened. It reopened higher at 9:37:53, at $8.26.
After the reopen
After the reopen it climbed to $8.88 by 9:40.
Stop It's 9:42. FTFT is at $8.56 and has been trading between $8.20 and $8.88 since the reopen. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 9:39 a.m. and stop at 9:42 a.m. ET for your call.
Here's what happened. That minute it ran to $9.48. The high, $9.73, came at 9:45, up 70% on the day. The same minute it traded down to $8.70.
The fade
The top did not hold. By 9:57 it was under $8, and it hit $7.00 by 10:43.
One more push at 11:39 stopped at $8.44, a lower high. It slid to $6.43 by 3:27 and closed the regular session at $7.08, 27% below the top.
What to take from it: The fast run peaked within 15 minutes of the open, and every later push stopped lower.
Replay FTFT's day
It starts at 9:26 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 9:29 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, run, gave some back. It gapped up 22.1% to $7.01 at the open, ran from the open to the high of $9.73 in 15 minutes through a halt, then gave back 97% of that move by 4:00 p.m., trading at $7.08, still above the open.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 4:12 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of $5.74 | |
| 5:04 a.m. | Pre-market high, $7.18 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: $7.01, up 22.1% from the previous close | |
| 9:45 a.m. | High of the day to the close, $9.73 | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, $7.08, 27.2% 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
- $5.74
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- $7.01
- Gap at the open
- +22.1%
- Pre-market high
- $7.18 at 5:04 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $9.73 at 9:45 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $5.83
- Close, 4 p.m.
- $7.08
- Change at 4 p.m.
- +23.3%
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- $7.16 at 4:00 p.m.
- Volume, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 5.51 million
- Volume after hours, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 84,670
- Relative volume by 8 p.m.
- 1.2×
- Float
- 7.91 million shares, from filings as of September 16, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 8.06 million
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 807,901 shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (14%), 2.29 million in the first 30 minutes (41%), and 2.49 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (45%).
- Other days FTFT met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 6, the latest on October 28, 2026.
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 | Watch it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:32 a.m. | 9:37 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | up 14.9% | $8.26, up 1.0% | up 3.8% | 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 FTFT on September 16, 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.