Elevance Health Plummets 2.97% as $590M Volume Slides to 200th in U.S. Equities Activity

Elevance Health (ELV) closed down 2.97% on Sept. 25, with a trading volume of $590 million, ranking it 200th in market activity across U.S. equities. The stock’s performance reflects broader sector volatility amid mixed healthcare sector fundamentals and investor caution ahead of potential regulatory updates in commercial insurance markets.

Recent developments suggest ongoing uncertainty in the healthcare sector as stakeholders await clarity on policy shifts impacting managed care operations. Analysts note that Elevance’s valuation remains sensitive to macroeconomic signals, particularly interest rate expectations, which continue to influence capital allocation toward defensive assets. The company’s recent earnings trajectory has shown resilience against industry-wide margin pressures, though near-term guidance has not yet triggered sustained bullish momentum.

To set up this back-test properly I’ll need a few clarifications: 1. Market universe • Are we talking about U.S. listed equities only (e.g., all NYSE/Nasdaq stocks), or a different market universe? 2. Execution convention • Do you want to BUY the 500 highest-volume names at today’s close and SELL them at tomorrow’s close (i.e., a one-day holding period)? • Or use today’s open → tomorrow’s open, or another price point? 3. Weighting method • Equal-weight each of the 500 names, or weight by something else (e.g., proportional to volume)? 4. Transaction costs / slippage • Should we include any assumption here, or ignore for now? Once I have those details I can prepare the data-retrieval plan and run the back-test.