BlackRock Slumps 1.11% as Volume Plummets 33% to Rank 175th in U.S. Trading Activity

BlackRock (BLK) closed 10/7/2025 at a 1.11% decline with $0.61 billion in trading volume, representing a 33.09% drop from the previous day's activity. The asset manager ranked 175th in volume among U.S. equities, signaling reduced short-term liquidity interest. Recent market commentary highlights shifting investor behavior toward alternative risk management tools amid evolving macroeconomic signals.

Analysts noted that BlackRock's volume contraction coincided with broader sector rotation patterns. The firm's ESG-focused fund inflows continued to outperform industry averages, though market participants observed a temporary pullback in leveraged buyout activity across its active strategies. These factors contributed to a measured correction in its valuation multiples relative to peers.

To build and back-test this “Top 500-by-volume” strategy I first need to pin down a few practical details: 1. Universe of stocks • Do you want to rank all U.S. listed common stocks each day, or confine the universe to something like the current S&P 500 / Russell 3000 constituents? • If your data subscription has limits, ranking the full U.S. universe (~7,000 symbols) may not be feasible. 2. Data source & benchmark exchange • Should we use the consolidated (all-venue) volume for U.S. stocks, or volume on a specific exchange (e.g., NYSE + NASDAQ)? 3. Entry & exit mechanics • Buy at that day’s close and sell at the next day’s close (i.e., 1-day holding period)? • Equal-weight the 500 names each day? 4. Frictions • Include transaction costs or slippage, or keep the test frictionless? 5. Output granularity • Are daily portfolio NAV and key performance stats (CAGR, max drawdown, Sharpe, etc.) sufficient? Once we lock these in, I can automatically fetch the daily volume data, generate the daily “top-500” signal set, and run the back-test from 2022-01-03 (first trading day of 2022) through today.