FactSet Posts Modest 0.02% Gain Despite Ranking 381st in U.S. Equity Volume

FactSet (FDS) closed on October 10, 2025, with a 0.02% gain, while its trading volume of $330 million ranked it 381st among U.S. equities. The muted price movement contrasted with broader market volatility, reflecting a mixed investor sentiment toward data-driven financial tools amid shifting market priorities.

Market participants noted the stock's low volatility despite its role as a key provider of financial data solutions. Analysts attributed the lackluster performance to a broader trend of reduced institutional trading activity in the sector, with liquidity metrics showing a slight contraction compared to recent averages. The firm's core business remains resilient, but near-term pricing action appears decoupled from fundamental developments.

Regarding the back-testing inquiry: The proposed strategy requires a daily-rebalanced portfolio targeting the 500 highest-volume stocks, with liquidation occurring at the close of each trading day. Current system constraints limit execution to single-security testing, necessitating a pre-defined list of daily "open" and "close" signals for each ticker. For cross-sectional strategies involving 500 dynamically changing positions, a structured trade file specifying daily constituent changes is required to initiate back-testing. Alternative approaches include testing on a liquid index ETF proxy or narrowing the universe to a fixed list of S&P 500 components, selecting the highest-volume decile daily.