Trump Media & Technology Group, whose shares trade under the ticker symbol DJT – the same as former President Donald Trump's initials – was briefly halted on Wall Street on Tuesday after its 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 show unusual volatility.

DJT stock had risen earlier Tuesday, hitting an intraday high of $33.85 per share, up 13%. But the stock plunged in the afternoon, triggering the shutdown. Trump Media's stock price continued to decline after the pause was lifted, closing at $27.06, down $2.89, or 9.6%, on the day.

The downdraft erases part of it recent successes That had helped lift Trump Media from a September 24 low. The stocks are seen as an indicator of Trump's chances of winning the presidential election on November 5th Choicewith DJT trending higher when its odds appear to be improving. In recent days, two prediction markets have moved to favor Trump after previously giving Vice President Kamala Harris better odds of winning.

Although there hasn't been much change in the polls, one of Trump's business ventures got off to a rocky start on Tuesday, according to CNBC. The Trump family new cryptocurrency platformWorld Liberty Financial, suffered outages for much of the day, limiting the number of sales, media reports.

It's unclear whether this could cause DJT stock to falter, since Trump Media's shareholders are largely made up of retail investors who are also Trump supporters, rather than investors looking at profits, dividends or other traditional measures strive for financial health.

Trading volume in DJT shares was also elevated on Tuesday, with about 97 million shares traded, according to financial data firm FactSet. The average daily trading volume over the past 30 days was about 20 million shares, FactSet shows.

On Tuesday, Trump Media investors turned to Truth Social to question the stock's stall and price decline. Some blamed short sellers, a common target of both DJT shareholders and management.

“None of us long-time DJT holders are fooled one bit by what happened today,” a member of the DJT investment group wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. “Shorts quickly lost control and demanded their chips from the SEC” to halt trading.

The Securities and Exchange Commission does not control trading halts activated by exchanges.

Earlier this year, Trump Media complained to Nasdaqthe stock exchange on which the company is listed that it had fallen victim to “potential market manipulation” due to short selling.