Hindsight Markets Recaps Small-cap stocks on September 30, 2026
NCI, September 30: a 4:00 a.m. top, a 9:35 halt, and the $1.32 wall
NCI opened up 41%, ran to $1.97 through one halt, then fell below its open by the close.
What happened
Top before the bell
On this day the high came first. NCI had closed at $1.26 the day before. It hit $2.56 in the 4:00 a.m. minute, then slid to near $1.59 by 8:27.
The offering and the halt
The offering news sank it. It opened at $1.78. At 9:35 the company priced a $2.0 million share offering, and the stock was paused at 9:35:29 at $1.49.
It reopened at 9:40:29 at $1.37, 8% lower, and hit $1.10 at 9:41.
The wall at $1.32
After the reopen, offers stacked at $1.32, peaking near 60K shares.
Stop It's 9:44. NCI is at $1.24. The low so far was $1.10, three minutes ago. Since 9:40, a wall of offers at $1.32 has peaked near 59,657 shares. Would you buy here?
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.
Here's what happened. Buyers ate the wall at 9:44:53. About 46K shares traded at $1.32 in 2.4 seconds. It stalled at $1.36 and was back at $1.22 by 10:03.
A late pop
Stop It's 11:01. NCI is at $1.34. It sat near $1.29 until 10:58, then traded up to $1.35 in the 10:59 and 11:00 minutes. Would you buy here?
Press play: the real Level 2, tape and chart run from 10:58 a.m. and stop at 11:01 a.m. ET for your call.
Here's what happened. That minute ran to $1.46 on 134K shares, then faded to $1.37 by 11:03. It drifted to $1.19 at 2:06 p.m. and ended near $1.26.
What to take from it: After the offering news, the halt reopened lower and the broken wall led back down.
Replay NCI's day
It starts at 9:38 a.m. ET with the real Level 2, time and sales and chart, from the same feed the replay plays, stops at 9:41 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 41.3% to $1.78 at the open, ran from the open to the high of $1.97 in 3 minutes, then gave back 371% of that move by 4:00 p.m., trading at $1.26, below the open.
| Time (ET) | What happened | Watch it |
|---|---|---|
| 4:00 a.m. | First trade 20% above the previous close of $1.26 | |
| 4:00 a.m. | Pre-market high, $2.56 | |
| 4:00 a.m. | High of the day to the close, $2.56 | |
| 4:32 a.m. | Volume since 4:00 a.m. passes the whole float, 2.03 million shares | |
| 9:30 a.m. | The open: $1.78, up 41.3% from the previous close | |
| 3:59 p.m. | Last trade before the 4:00 p.m. close, $1.26, 50.6% 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
- $1.26
- Open, 9:30 a.m.
- $1.78
- Gap at the open
- +41.3%
- Pre-market high
- $2.56 at 4:00 a.m.
- High, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $2.56 at 4:00 a.m.
- Low, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- $1.10
- Close, 4 p.m.
- $1.26
- Change at 4 p.m.
- +0.4%
- After-hours high, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- $1.34 at 5:39 p.m.
- Volume, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- 8.38 million
- Volume after hours, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 260,666
- Relative volume by 8 p.m.
- 8.2×
- Float
- 2.03 million shares, from filings as of September 30, 2026
- Shares outstanding
- 2.36 million
- Volume, from the one-minute bars: 4.28 million shares before the 9:30 a.m. open (50%), 2.32 million in the first 30 minutes (27%), and 2.03 million in the rest of the day to 8 p.m. (24%).
- Float rotation, the volume since 4 a.m. against the float of 2.03 million shares: past it once at 4:32 a.m., twice at 8:27 a.m., three times at 9:44 a.m.
- Other days NCI met the small-cap rule in our recaps: 1, the latest on September 29, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:35 a.m. | 9:40 a.m. | 5 min 0 s | down 15.3% | $1.37, down 8.1% | down 5.1% | 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 NCI on September 30, 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.