What Happens When a Stock Get Halted?
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There are two major types of halts that you will very likely encounter during your career as a trader/investor:
1. The SEC Halt.
2. The Exchange Halt.
In the case of the SEC halt, federal securities laws allow the SEC to halt a stock for up to 10 trading days.
The SEC can halt a stock for a number of different reasons - here are a few:
a) inadequate or inaccurate public information
b) "serious questions" about a company's assets or operations
The SEC will halt a stock when "it serves the public interest and will protect investors".
 Stocks that trade on an exchange will resume trading after the 10 day suspension has come to an end, while OTC stocks must be reviewed by a broker-dealer (the broker-dealer will review company financial statements to make sure that they are accurate) before they will be allowed to trade again.
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More commonly, stocks will be halted by an exchange.
Stocks can be halted by an exchange for a number of different reasons, including non-compliance (failure to comply with listing requirements) or for not being current in its required filings.
The most common reason for an exchange halt is due to the pending release of material news.
The trade halt code for "pending release of material news" is T.1. This means that the stock has been halted, but that the news has not been released as of yet.
The exchanges halt stocks that are going to be releasing material news so that investors have an equal opportunity to react to the news.
Once the news has been released then the halt code changes to a T.2. This means that the news has been released but that the stock is still halted.
After that, the halt code will change to a T.3. This means that the news has been fully disseminated and there has been a time given when the security will be released for trading. There are actually two times given in a T.3 halt - the time when quotes can be entered, and the time when the security will be released for trading.
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These are the two basic halts that you will likely run into during your time as an investor/trader.
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