Stock halted due to volatility with just a few hundered shares traded?

[BaconFat]

Weird thing today. I put in a market order to cover some shares of a short position, and after it didn't go through, I called my broker to find out what was going on. I was told there was a temporary halt issued by Nasdaq due to volatility.

It's a very sparsely traded stock of late. When I checked the volume after my order finally went through, I saw there were only 740 shares traded (500 of which came from my order).

What I don't get is how a stock with 6.9 million shares and a 4 million+ float could be halted for volatility with just 240 shares traded. How is that even possible?

 

[eastern_warrior]

How far did you move the stock? What was the bid/ask spread?

 

[Metamega]

http://nasdaq.cchwallstreet.com/NAS..._1_1_4_1/default.asp&selectedNode=chp_1_1_4_1

If the prints are too far apart theirs reason for a pause.

 

[BaconFat]

How far did you move the stock? What was the bid/ask spread?

The bid/spread is quite large - $.40
Oddly enough though, my order didn't move the stock at all. It's CNFR btw

 

[qlai]

Oddly enough though, my order didn't move the stock at all.

Which one? First one was rejected, no?

 

[BaconFat]

Which one? First one was rejected, no?

No, it was just on hold until after the trading pause.

 

[qlai]

There's a matching period during the halt, just like at the open, I believe. So your order would not move anything but would be opportunity for someone willing to take other side.

 

[BaconFat]

What I don't understand is why trading was paused to begin with.

 

[qlai]

I don't know where you sent the order, but theoretically, it's possible that your order was front run and moved the market.

 

[BaconFat]

Are you saying it moved it up before it even went through? I'm not sure I quite understand. The stock had dropped before the pause and then came out of the pause back up again.