UNUSUAL VOLUME - 4/28/2026

Unusual Volume Scan — 2026-04-28

25 tickers at 3.0x+ their 20-day avg volume. SPY: -0.49%.

Badge key: ER earnings, 52w high near 52-wk high, 52w low near 52-wk low, SI % short interest % of float.

Sector Breakdown

 High-Conviction Breakouts (2)

Volume spike + up 3.0%+ + beat SPY + within 2.0% of 52-wk high (non-earnings).

▲ Bullish Momentum (6)

Volume spike + up 3.0%+ + outperforming SPY.

 Breakdowns (3)

Volume spike + down 3.0%+ + near 52-wk low. Technical breakdown risk.

▼ Bearish Momentum (6)

Volume spike + down 3.0%+. Often downgrades, bad news.

Unresolved Volume Spikes (8)

High volume but muted price action. Often accumulation or pending news.

Filters: price ≥ $5.0, avg volume ≥ 500,000. Momentum threshold: ±3.0%. Click tickers for Finviz.

Here's the breakdown ranked by quality of setup:

Top Signal: ACLX (the real story in this scan)

16.1x volume on a +0.03% close at 52-wk high — that's the highest conviction signal in the entire email. Massive accumulation with price held flat = institutional building. No earnings flag. This is the one worth digging into tonight before the next session. Check the tape, options flow, and any pending catalyst. If volume sustains tomorrow with a breakout, it's a momentum entry.

The Flagged "Breakout": RMAX — be careful

$11.29, +13.58%, 4.5x vol, near 52w high. Meets the screen criteria but it's a sub-$12 small cap that already moved 13.58%. You're chasing strength at the high. If you take it, size small and use a tight stop just below today's open or VWAP. Not a high-conviction setup despite the label.

The Wheel Candidate: RMBS — read the fine print

The screen suggests $95P @ $5.05 (Δ0.23, 38% annualized). But RMBS is also in the bearish momentum list at -21.26% today, and the email shows IV Rank as 0 which is almost certainly a data error after a 21% drop — IV should be elevated, hence the rich premium.

The setup itself isn't bad: $95 strike is ~15% below spot, 51 DTE gives time. The question is why it dropped 21%. Since it's not in the earnings movers section, this was news-driven (downgrade, guidance cut, lawsuit, etc.). Don't sell that put until you know the catalyst. If it's clean (downgrade only), the wheel works. If it's a fundamental impairment, you're catching falling knives at $95.

Post-Earnings Wheel Watchlist (better setups in 1-2 days after IV crush)

• ZBH — $82.80, -10.57%, 52w low, Health Care. Large-cap medtech at the lows post-ER. Classic setup if you'd own it — let IV settle, then look at puts 5-8% below.
• PNR — $82.86, -10.20%, 52w low, Industrials. Same profile. Pentair is a quality industrial; weakness here is often buyable for the patient.
• BBIO — 19% short interest with a bad print. Either a squeeze setup or further downside. Skip unless you have a thesis.

Bullish Momentum

SANM is the only one with real size ($215, +14.56% on 4.5x vol). The others (EDSA +27%, MLEC, LFST) are sub-$15 small caps — speculative, not in your risk lane.

NTLA — watchlist for squeeze

$13.20, 37% SI, 3.2x volume, slightly green. High short interest with elevated volume on a flat-to-up day is the early signature of a squeeze build. Not actionable today, but flag it if it starts trending.

Avoid

• HTCO -78.83%, ERAS -48.30%, VISN -49.31% — falling knives. No bottom-fishing here regardless of how rich the puts look.
• WNC -4.45% — not enough volatility or signal to justify a position.

Net takeaway: One real idea (ACLX), one decent wheel pending news verification (RMBS), and a 1-2 day watchlist on ZBH and PNR for post-ER IV crush plays. Everything else is either too small-cap, too chased, or too broken.

Want me to put together a quick action plan with strike/sizing math for the ones you actually want to pursue?

You said: ACLX is showing up on my scanner for a bull gap up from last earnings.

ACLX is showing up on my scanner for a bull gap up from last earnings. I can't find any flow for today in unusual whales, but have previous days info.

6:11 PM

Claude responded: Hard stop on this one — ACLX isn't tradeable.

Identified completed merger acquisition, not earnings breakoutIdentified completed merger acquisition, not earnings breakout

Hard stop on this one — ACLX isn't tradeable. It got delisted today.

What you're looking at is the tail end of a completed merger arbitrage, not a breakout setup. Here's what actually happened:

The Backstory

Gilead announced a deal to acquire Arcellx on February 22, 2026, at $115 per share in cash plus a $5 CVR contingent on anito-cel hitting $6B in cumulative sales by end of 2029. The "gap up from earnings" you saw on the chart was actually the Feb 23 deal announcement gap — a 79% premium over the prior close. StocktitanYahoo Finance

Today's Action

Gilead completed its tender offer on April 28, 2026, accepting all validly tendered shares — about 77.2% of outstanding shares combined with what Gilead already owned. ACLX shares ceased trading on Nasdaq on April 28, 2026 and are being delisted. Business WireStocktitan

That 16.1x volume spike at $115.07 with a flat close in your scanner email? That was arb desks closing out the final positions on the last day of trading. Not accumulation. Not a breakout. Just the lights getting turned off.

What Every Data Point in Your Screenshot Now Means

• Price pinned in a 50¢ range from 04/02–04/27 ($114.66–$115.13): merger arb pegging the stock to the $115 deal price minus a small risk premium for deal-break risk
• IVR 0.00–0.59 (mostly tiny): zero implied vol because the outcome was known
• Implied vol of 0.40–0.60%: vanishingly low — the market was 99%+ certain the deal closed at $115
• Today's 42.30% OI drop: options being closed/settled as the underlying disappears
• P OI 15,476 vs C OI 2,002: end-state OI distribution typical of a closing merger — calls below $115 got exercised long ago, leaving stranded OTM puts above $115 that expire worthless
• Today's "Total Prem" line is dashes: no flow to find because there's nothing to trade

What You Walk Away With

1. Don't trade it. The stock is gone. Any open options are on a delisted security and will be settled per OCC adjustment rules (typically cash equivalent to $115 + the CVR right).
2. CVR holders (if you somehow held shares through the tender) get $5 if anito-cel hits $6B cumulative sales by Dec 31, 2029. PDUFA decision is expected in December 2026, so there's a near-term catalyst but the $6B bar is high. Yahoo Finance
3. Scanner improvement: Add a filter for stocks with implied vol under ~5% AND tight 30-day range. That signature catches definitive deal targets and lets you skip them — your scanner gave a textbook false positive here because the volume rule fired without context.
4. The real GILD trade angle: The acquisition is projected to be earnings accretive from 2028, with a December 2026 PDUFA decision on anito-cel as the near-term catalyst. If you want exposure to the thesis, GILD itself is the only way to play it now. Yahoo Finance

So scratch ACLX from the watchlist. Of the original scan, RMBS post-news still warrants the wheel investigation, and ZBH/PNR are still worth queuing for the post-earnings IV crush window.