Hindsight Markets Recaps Small-cap stocks on September 25, 2026
APUS, September 25: the $7.00 bid, one halt, and $9.14
APUS opened up 66%, then faded below its open by the close.
What happened
A run into the open
APUS gapped up 66% after a Benzinga headline on its run the day before. It opened at $8.35 and dipped to $7.48 by 9:32.
Stop It's 9:34. APUS is at $8.36, up 66% from yesterday's close. It dipped to $7.48 two minutes ago and is back near the open. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 9:31 a.m. and stop at 9:34 a.m. ET for your call.
One buy order swept up to $9.00 that minute. It reached $9.14 at 9:34. Five minutes later it was at $7.92.
The halt
Stop It's 9:44. APUS was halted at 9:39 (a volatility pause) with the last trade at $7.92, down from $9.14 ten minutes ago. It is still halted. Would you buy the reopen?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 9:41 a.m. and stop at 9:44 a.m. ET for your call.
It reopened at 9:44:47 at $7.68, 3% lower.
The $7.00 bid
A 40K-share bid had sat at $7.00 since 9:42.
Stop It's 10:22. APUS is at $7.11. A bid that peaked at 39,693 shares at 10:10 has sat at $7.00 since 9:42; the stock has not traded down to it. Would you buy here, just above it?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 10:19 a.m. and stop at 10:22 a.m. ET for your call.
Sellers cleared it in 11 seconds from 10:22:04. That minute hit $6.61. It closed at $7.25.
What to take from it: A big bid at $7.00 was not a floor; sellers cleared it in seconds.
Replay APUS's day
It starts at 9:16 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 9:19 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 65.7% to $8.35 at the open and traded below the open by 4:00 p.m., at $7.25.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 5:27 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of $5.04 | |
| 5:42 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 805,943 shares | |
| 9:29 a.m. | Pre-market high, $8.46 | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: $8.35, up 65.7% from the previous close | |
| 9:34 a.m. | High of the day to the close, $9.14 | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, $7.25, 20.7% 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
- $5.04
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- $8.35
- Gap at the open
- +65.7%
- Pre-market high
- $8.46 at 9:29 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $9.14 at 9:34 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $4.90
- Close, 4 p.m.
- $7.25
- Change at 4 p.m.
- +43.8%
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- $7.36 at 4:00 p.m.
- Volume, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 15.06 million
- Volume after hours, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 270,359
- Relative volume by 8 p.m.
- 8.0×
- Float
- 805,943 shares, from filings as of September 25, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 1.51 million
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 7.69 million shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (50%), 4.17 million in the first 30 minutes (27%), and 3.47 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (23%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 805,943 shares: past it once at 5:42 a.m., twice at 5:55 a.m., three times at 6:25 a.m.
- Other days APUS met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 9, 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 (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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:39 a.m. | 9:44 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | down 9.5% | $7.68, down 3.0% | up 2.9% | 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 APUS on September 25, 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.