SeqLL (NASDAQ: SQL) shares are up 50% on the day in premarket trading. That's already a fall of 30% or so from their peak in the premarket session. We would expect - but not go so far as to predict - that as the full market opens then that decline back to Friday's sort of price levels will continue. This is based on nothing more than an educated guess, we agree, but then that's all there is to go on at present, education and experience.
As background SeqLL is a microcap - $4 million in market capitalization even at this sort of price level. It really doesn't take all that much to get the price of such a stock moving. A little bit of aggressive - and possibly deliberately public - buying is pretty much all it takes. Actually, this company is so small that we'd not be surprised if someone valued the stock ticker - SQL - higher than the company itself. It's a “life sciences and instrumentation” company which, since its IPO all the way back in summer 2021 - not even 24 months ago - has managed to lose more than 90% of its value.
SeqLL stock price from NASDAQTo us a price chart like that has sticky fingers all over it. In the very, very thin markets of the early morning (the peak was at 04.02 am or something) then just a few strategically placed purchases at silly prices can be used to change the average quote. That then catches the eye of the speculators and off we go in a momentum trade. There's more trade, prices moving, simply because there's more trade and prices are moving. This can go on until the markets are fully open and the adults come into work.
We are not saying this is happening - we're saying this is what it looks like to us.
Let's also consider if we're wrong - we still expect that price to come back down. For back in February there was just such a spurt in the SQL stock price. A jump from around 50 cents to a dollar fifty - $1.50. At which point SeqLL did a quick stock issue to raise $1.8 million by issuing 2 million shares at $0.90. Now, that sort of opportunism from the company is so sensible we'd not even call it opportunism. But given that it's got perhaps $6 million in cash and marketable assets and loses $2 million or so a quarter we'd expect any stock price strength to be met with more stock issuance.
We really don't think this stock price surge at SQL is going to last. Might not even last until lunchtime but we're not, as we say, predicting that. Only that we'd not be surprised in the slightest if it turned out that way.
