Trump Media shares stalled after a sudden drop in price

Trade with Trump media The stock was briefly halted on Tuesday due to volatility after Truth Social's owner's share price suddenly plunged.

DJT shares continued to fall after the five-minute trading halt was lifted at 12:47 p.m. ET. The stock lost more than 11% in the final hour before the close.

Trump Media, which was up more than 13% early Tuesday afternoon, abruptly fell more than 6% on the day the halt was made.

The fluctuating stock price came during an extremely volatile trading session in which more than 84 million shares were traded as of 3:18 p.m. – multiple times the company's average 30-day trading volume.

Trump Media is on pace for its biggest day in terms of sales since going public on the Nasdaq in late March after merging with a blank-check company.

The busiest trading day so far was July 15, the first session after the company's majority owner, Republican presidential candidate 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 suspect they often buy and sell the stock to support him or bet on his chances of beating Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

Tuesday's decline reversed a weeks-long rise in stocks that coincided with developments in the presidential campaign that his supporters had touted as good news.

A handful of online betting markets have recently moved in Trump's favor after weeks of 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. According to Forbes, his stake is worth about $3 billion – more than half his net worth on paper.

Trump and other company insiders were barred from selling their shares until September 19, when a lock-up agreement expired.

Trump had vowed not to sell his stocks. But days after the suspension was lifted, Trump Media announced that another major shareholder, United Atlantic Ventures, had given up almost all of its 11 million share stake.

In a Truth Social post at 1:37 a.m. ET Tuesday morning, Trump wrote, “I LOVE TRUTH, THE TRUE VOICE OF AMERICA!”

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