In this photo illustration, Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social is shown on a cell phone on March 25, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
Trading in Trump Media shares was briefly halted Tuesday due to volatility, after the Truth Social owner's stock suddenly plunged in price.
DJT shares continued to fall after the five-minute trading halt lifted at 12:47 p.m. ET. The stock was down more than 11% in the final hour before the market closed.
Trump Media, which had been up more than 13% earlier Tuesday afternoon, abruptly turned more than 6% lower on the day at the time the halt occurred.
The whipsawing stock price came during an extremely volatile trading session, in which more than 84 million shares had traded hands by 3:18 p.m. — multiple times the company's 30-day average trading volume.
Trump Media is on pace for its highest-volume day since it started publicly trading on the Nasdaq in late March, following a business merger with a blank-check firm.
Trump Media (DJT) Stock Price
The previous busiest trading day was July 15, the first session after the company's majority owner, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, narrowly survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Many of Trump Media's retail investors are fans of the former president, and analysts suggest they are often buying and selling the stock as a way to support him or bet on his chances of beating Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Tuesday's slide reversed a weekslong stock surge, which coincided with developments in the presidential race that his supporters have touted as good news.
A handful of online betting markets recently shifted in Trump's favor after weeks of showing either a neck-and-neck race or a slight lead for Harris. The online gambling platforms are not reliable indicators and are not based on methodologically sound data.
Trump owns nearly 57% of Trump Media, according to a Sept. 5 regulatory filing. His stake worth about $3 billion — more than half of his on-paper net worth, according to Forbes.
Trump and other company insiders were barred from selling their shares until Sept. 19, when a lockup agreement expired.
Trump had vowed not to sell his shares. But days after the lockup lifted, Trump Media revealed that another major shareholder, United Atlantic Ventures, had dumped nearly its entire 11-million-share stake.
In a Truth Social post Tuesday morning at 1:37 a.m. ET, Trump wrote, "I LOVE TRUTH, THE REAL VOICE OF AMERICA!"
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