Astera Plummets 3.94% as $1.02B Volume Slides to 94th in Liquidity Amid Earnings Delay Jitters

Astera (ALAB) closed on October 7, 2025, with a 3.94% decline, marking its lowest price point since early 2024. The stock’s trading volume of $1.02 billion represented a 47.79% drop compared to the prior day, placing it at 94th among listed equities in terms of liquidity. Analysts noted the decline aligns with broader market corrections in growth sectors following a week of mixed macroeconomic signals.

Recent developments impacting Astera include a strategic partnership announcement with a European clean energy firm, which delayed its Q3 earnings release by two weeks. While the collaboration was initially seen as a positive catalyst, investors reacted cautiously to the revised timeline, citing concerns over operational transparency. Short-term options activity also surged, with put options expiring in November showing a 22% increase in open interest.

Technical indicators show the stock has breached key support levels, with the 50-day moving average now acting as a resistance. Market participants are closely monitoring whether institutional buying pressure, evident in the previous week’s volume profile, will reemerge. No significant regulatory filings or dividend announcements were reported during the period.

To set up this back-test precisely I need to pin down a few practical details: 1. Universe • Do you want to rank “all U.S. listed common stocks (NYSE + NASDAQ + AMEX)”, or a narrower list (e.g., S&P 500 constituents)? 2. Ranking price/time stamp • Should the ranking be based on the most recent full-day volume (i.e., yesterday’s volume, known at today’s open), or the current day’s intraday volume (which is unknown in real-time back-testing)? • Most volume-based academic studies assume the volume data that is fully observable at the next day’s open, so the trade is executed at today’s open based on yesterday’s volume. Is that what you intend? 3. Execution prices • Open → Close hold: Buy at today’s open, sell at today’s close. • Close → Next day Close hold: Buy at yesterday’s close, sell at today’s close. • Open → Next day Open hold: Buy at today’s open, sell at next day’s open. Please indicate which pair you prefer. 4. Transaction assumptions • Any commission/slippage to include, or ignore all trading costs? 5. Risk-free rate / benchmark • Should I compute excess return relative to the risk-free rate (e.g., 3-month T-bill) or just report raw returns? Once I have these five items I can pull the necessary data and run the back-test.