Trump Media stock is halted after sudden plunge in DJT shares

Trump Media & Technology Group, whose stock trades under the ticker DJT — the same as former President Donald Trump's initials — was briefly halted on Wall Street Tuesday after the stock suddenly plunged. 

The pause occurred at 2:42 p.m. Eastern Time, with trading resuming about five minutes later, according to the New York Stock Exchange. Trading was temporarily suspended after a mechanism was triggered when stocks exhibit unusual volatility. 

DJT shares had climbed earlier on Tuesday, reaching an intraday high of $33.85 a share, representing a 13% gain. But the stock plummeted in the afternoon, triggering the halt. Trump Media's stock price continued to sink after the pause was lifted closed at $27.06, down $2.89, or 9.6%, on the day.

The downdraft erases some of the recent gains that had helped lift Trump Media from a September 24 low. The shares have been seen as a proxy for Trump's chances of winning the November 5 presidential election, with DJT swinging upwards when his odds appear to improve. In recent days, two prediction markets have switched to favoring Trump after previously giving Vice President Kamala Harris a better chance of winning.

While the polls haven't changed much, one of Trump's business ventures got off to a rough start on Tuesday, according to CNBC. The Trump family's new cryptocurrency platform, World Liberty Financial, suffered outages for much of the day, limiting the number of sales, the media outlet report.

It's unclear if that could cause DJT's stock to falter, given that Trump Media's shareholders largely consist of small investors who are also Trump supporters, rather than investors who are seeking profits, dividends or other traditional measures of financial health.

The volume of trading in DJT stock was also elevated on Tuesday, with about 97 million shares trading hands, according to financial data firm FactSet. The average daily trading volume for the prior 30 days has been about 20 million shares, FactSet shows. 

On Tuesday, Trump Media investors took to Truth Social to question the stock's halt and price decline, with some blaming short sellers, a frequent target of both DJT shareholders and its management. 

"None of us long-term DJT holders are fooled one bit by what happened today," one member of the DJT investing group wrote Tuesday on Truth Social. "Shorts were losing control, quickly and they called in their chips at the SEC" to halt trading.

The Securities and Exchange Commission doesn't control trading halts, which are activated by stock exchanges.

Earlier this year, Trump Media complained to Nasdaq, the stock exchange where the company is listed, that it was the victim of "potential market manipulation" due to short-selling activity. 

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