Delta's $600M Surge Propels 179th Ranking Amid 2.8% Stock Slide and Sector Turbulence

On October 7, 2025, Delta Air Lines (DAL) reported a trading volume of $600 million, marking a 33.02% increase from the previous day and ranking 179th in overall market activity. Despite the surge in liquidity, the stock closed 2.80% lower, reflecting mixed investor sentiment amid sector-specific pressures.

Recent developments highlighted Delta’s operational challenges, including rising fuel costs and unseasonal weather disruptions affecting transcontinental routes. Analysts noted that the carrier’s revenue management strategies faced headwinds as premium cabin demand softened compared to earlier quarters, though cargo segment performance remained resilient. Labor negotiations also remained in focus, with ongoing discussions over pilot contract terms potentially influencing near-term cost structures.

To build and back-test the “top-500-by-volume” strategy rigorously, I need to pin down a few practical details: 1. Market universe • Should we use all U.S. listed equities (NYSE + NASDAQ)? • Any filters (e.g., minimum share price, exclude ETFs, ADRs, etc.)? 2. Weighting method • Equal-weight each position, or volume-weight / market-cap-weight? 3. Transaction assumptions • Slippage or commissions to include? • Buy at the next day’s open, close at that day’s close (1-day hold), or another convention? 4. Rebalancing days • Run the screen every trading day from 2022-01-01 to today and hold for exactly one session? Once I have these particulars, I can generate the daily buy/close signals and feed them into the back-test engine.