Hindsight Markets Recaps Small-cap stocks on September 23, 2026
HCTI, September 23: six halts, a $3.13 high, and a $1.00 bid that held for hours
HCTI opened up 28% after news, ran to $3.13 through six halts, then fell below its open by the close.
News via Stock News API
What happened
The deal headline
A buyout letter at 9:17 a.m. woke up a quiet stock. That minute traded 66K shares, more than the whole day before.
Stop It's 9:30. HCTI opens at $1.11, up from the $0.86 previous close. The pre-market high is $1.24 and about 3 million shares have traded. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 9:27 a.m. and stop at 9:30 a.m. ET for your call.
Here's what happened. It hit $1.28 in the first minute. Then the trading pauses began.
Halts up to $3.13
Each early reopen came in higher. The third halt froze it at $2.63. It reopened at 10:01:53 at $3.00 and hit $3.13.
One second later a 348K-share sell order swept it down to $2.64.
The next halt stopped it at $2.40. It reopened at 10:12:14 at $2.12, then fell to $1.87.
Stop It's 10:13. HCTI is at $1.97. It reopened a minute ago after stopping at $2.40, and dropped to $1.87. The high was $3.13 at 10:01. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 10:10 a.m. and stop at 10:13 a.m. ET for your call.
Here's what happened. The bounce stalled at $2.25. It halted at $1.60 and reopened at 10:24:43 at $1.35.
The slow fade
A $1.00 bid built after that reopen and sat for hours. It was pulled at 3:45:12. The stock closed at $0.91, 71% below the high.
What to take from it: On this day the top lasted one minute, and each reopen after it came in lower.
Replay HCTI's day
It starts at 9:24 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 9:27 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 and fade. It gapped up 28.4% to $1.11 at the open, ran from the open to the high of $3.13 in 31 minutes through 3 halts, then gave back 110% of that move by 4:00 p.m., trading at $0.9128, below the open.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 9:17 a.m. | News (PRNewsWire): Healthcare Triangle Signs Letter of Intent to Pursue the Proposed Acquisition of Roboticom's Cutting-Edge Industrial Precision Robotics Automation Business | |
| 9:20 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of $0.8647 | |
| 9:23 a.m. | Pre-market high, $1.24 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: $1.11, up 28.4% from the previous close | |
| 10:01 a.m. | High of the day to the close, $3.13 | |
| 11:25 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 14.97 million shares | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, $0.9128, 70.8% 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
- $0.8647
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- $1.11
- Gap at the open
- +28.4%
- Pre-market high
- $1.24 at 9:23 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $3.13 at 10:01 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $0.825
- Close, 4 p.m.
- $0.9128
- Change at 4 p.m.
- +5.6%
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- $0.95 at 5:17 p.m.
- Volume, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 17.62 million
- Volume after hours, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 733,317
- Relative volume by 8 p.m.
- 199.7×
- Float
- 14.97 million shares, from filings as of September 23, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 14.97 million
- From news to the move: the first trade 20% above the previous close came 3 minutes after the latest news item before it (PRNewsWire, 9:17 a.m.).
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 2.98 million shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (16%), 2.27 million in the first 30 minutes (12%), and 13.10 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (71%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 14.97 million shares: past it once at 11:25 a.m.
- Other days HCTI met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 2, the latest on November 3, 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 (6)
| Halted | Resumed | Length | The 5 minutes into it | Reopened at, against the last trade | The 5 minutes after | Reason in the feed | Watch it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:31 a.m. | 9:41 a.m. | 10 min 1 s | up 17.4% | $1.68, up 31.3% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) | ||
| 9:41 a.m. | 9:51 a.m. | 10 min 0 s | up 57.8% | $2.19, up 8.4% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) | ||
| 9:51 a.m. | 10:01 a.m. | 10 min 0 s | up 30.2% | $3.00, up 14.1% | down 20.0% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) | |
| 10:02 a.m. | 10:12 a.m. | 10 min 0 s | down 8.7% | $2.12, down 11.7% | down 24.5% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) | |
| 10:14 a.m. | 10:24 a.m. | 10 min 0 s | down 33.3% | $1.35, down 15.6% | down 7.4% | LULD pause (limit up-limit down) | |
| 10:29 a.m. | 10:34 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | down 17.0% | $1.08, down 3.6% | up 22.2% | 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 HCTI on September 23, 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.