Archer Aviation Shares Rally 2.78% as Volume Plummets 25.65% to 375th in Market Rank

On September 18, 2025, . , , .

Archer Aviation has intensified its involvement in the U.S. eVTOL regulatory landscape, announcing participation in the White House’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program. This initiative, supported by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), aims to expedite the certification of air taxi services. The company’s alignment with federal efforts underscores its strategic positioning in the emerging urban air mobility sector, potentially accelerating its path to commercial deployment.

Recent developments highlight Archer’s dual focus on commercial and defense applications. The company has completed its longest piloted flight to date, , and announced two strategic acquisitions to advance its defense aircraft development. These moves signal a diversified approach to monetizing its eVTOL technology, with defense contracts offering near-term revenue streams while commercial operations remain under regulatory review.

To run this back-test precisely we need to pin down a few practical details that determine how the orders are generated and how the portfolio is constructed:

1. Market universe • Which exchange(s) or index list should we draw the “top-500 by volume” from (e.g., all US-listed stocks, only S&P 500 constituents, etc.)?

2. Rebalancing convention • Do we rank on that day’s closing volume, buy at the next day’s open, and exit at the same day’s close (one-day holding period)? • Or rank on the current day’s volume up to the close and execute immediately at that close, then exit at the next day’s close?

3. Portfolio weighting • Equal-weight each of the 500 names, or weight by shares traded / dollar volume / another metric?

4. Transaction assumptions • Any commission or slippage model to include, or assume frictionless trading?

Once these points are clarified I can generate the sign-off signals and run the back-test from 2022-01-01 through today, then present the performance report and visualizations.