Affirm's 2.45% Drop and 219th U.S. Turnover Rank Signal BNPL Sector Struggles

Affirm Holdings (AFRM) closed at a 2.45% decline on Sept. 26, with a trading volume of $470 million, ranking 219th among U.S. equities in daily turnover. The stock’s performance followed mixed market sentiment ahead of earnings reports from major fintech peers. A recent partnership announcement with a major U.S. bank to expand its buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) offerings failed to offset broader sector-wide profit-taking pressures. Analysts noted the volume surge indicated heightened short-term positioning but cautioned against overestimating the partnership’s immediate revenue impact.

Internal filings revealed Affirm’s Q3 gross merchandise value (GMV) growth slowed to 12% year-over-year, below the 18% expansion seen in Q2. The deceleration, attributed to tighter credit underwriting standards and reduced consumer spending on discretionary categories, raised questions about the sustainability of its market share gains. Institutional selling pressure intensified after a top-tier investment bank downgraded the stock to “market weight” in a late-August report, citing valuation gaps relative to its BNPL peers.

To run this test rigorously I need to pin down a few implementation details that can materially change the result. Could you confirm (or modify) the following so I can proceed without making unintended assumptions?

1. Universe • Should the ranking include every U.S.-listed common stock, only the S&P 500 constituents, or another specific universe?

2. Trade-price convention • Buy at today’s close and sell at tomorrow’s close (close-to-close)? • Buy at tomorrow’s open and sell at tomorrow’s close (open-to-close)? • Another convention?

3. Data vendor preference (if any) • The platform has consolidated U.S. equities data by default; let me know if you need a different feed.

Once I have those clarifications, I can generate the data-retrieval plan and run the back-test.