August 24, 2026
Palantir: The Volume Screens Flagged It First
Palantir appeared on Strong Volume Gains and J Pattern on August 3, one session before a 29% overnight repricing. A precise timeline from the screener data.
Most screener reviews on this blog cover gradual moves, because gradual is what markets mostly do. This one covers the other kind. Between August 3 and August 21, Palantir Technologies (PLTR) rose 43.2% on a closing basis, and the majority of that came in a single overnight gap. What makes the episode worth a careful writeup is the timestamp: the volume-based screeners listed the stock on the session before the gap, and the entire sequence is preserved in the data.
The timeline, session by session
| Date | Event | Close | Change since Aug 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 3 | Appears on Strong Volume Gains and J Pattern | $125.65 | 0.0% |
| Aug 4 | The gap: re-listed on both screeners | $162.66 | +29.5% |
| Aug 5 | Appears on Trend Watch | $158.43 | +26.1% |
| Aug 6 | Lowest close after the gap | $155.92 | +24.1% |
| Aug 13 | Re-listed on Strong Volume Gains | $179.01 | +42.5% |
| Aug 21 | Latest close in this review | $179.94 | +43.2% |
What the August 3 listings actually measured
Let us be precise about what happened on August 3, because this is where a review can slide into mythology if written carelessly. The Strong Volume Gains screener lists stocks whose price gains are accompanied by unusually elevated volume. The J Pattern screener requires a fresh one-month high, a five-day gain above 5%, and five-day volume running above the 20-day average. Both filters fired on PLTR based on the August 3 session: the stock was already rising on expanding volume before the gap.
Neither screener knew anything about what the next morning would bring. The gap from $125.65 to $162.66 was a reaction to new information reaching the market overnight, and no volume filter predicts news. What the filters measured, accurately, was that participation in the stock had already changed character. Sometimes that precedes nothing. On August 3, it preceded a 29.5% overnight repricing.
After the gap: what the follow-through looked like
Gap-day chasing is the most uncomfortable trade in markets, and the data shows why it was at least defensible here. The post-gap pullback was shallow: two red sessions to $155.92 on August 6, just 4.1% below the gap-day close, and the stock never traded below the gap again on a closing basis. From there it ground higher to $179.94 by August 21. The Trend Watch listing on August 5 marked the transition from event to trend; measured from that listing alone, the stock added a further 13.6%.
The honest frame
Three things should be said plainly. First, a 43% three-week gain is an outlier, not an expectation; the same screeners list dozens of names that do nothing comparable. Second, most of this particular gain was one overnight move that no screener user could have fully captured from the listing close unless they held through the event. Third, and this is the durable lesson: the only part of the sequence that was knowable in advance was the volume signature, and it was published on the August 3 lists for anyone reading them. Screeners cannot see news coming. They can see participation changing, and this episode is as clean an example as our data contains.
Related Resources
- Strong Volume Gains Screener for today's volume-driven list.
- J Pattern Screener for the continuation structure.
- How Strong Volume Gains works for the methodology.
This article is a retrospective review of historical data for educational purposes only. It is not investment advice, no outcome shown here is a promise of future results, and screener appearances are data points, not recommendations.