3 heavy volume stocks marlins surface despite calm waters yesterday

HollyFrontier Corp, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp, Valero Energy Corp and others reached higher-than-usual trading volumes.

Here's an update with information from the last trading session: Markets did not have a clear cut direction — Nasdaq closed 12,072 after a stable day. Dow Jones closed at 33,800 after a flat day.

Why Trading Volume Matters

Trading volume is simply the total number of shares traded including both buy and sell orders. If a stock has appreciated on high volume, it is more likely to be a sustained move compared to an appreciation with low volume. Typically, high volume trading sessions are considered significant occurrences and closely watched by traders.

While trading was mostly sideways yesterday, several energy stocks were actively traded. Here's an update:

HollyFrontier | 119% slightly greater than rolling average

Trading volume was 4.78 million shares yesterday — beating the daily average by a mammoth 119%.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp | 219% higher than rolling average

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp is currently trading with a market cap of $17 billion with an average daily trading volume of 8.56 million shares.

Yesterday's trading volume was 18.76 million shares (surpassing the daily average by 219%).

Valero | 156% higher than rolling average

Valero went down to $119.63 (2.7%), adding to its nine days of losses. The energy company has fallen back around 18% over the past 2 months, from a notable high of $149.96. Currently, the energy company has a market capitalization of $44 billion with an average daily volume of 4.27 million shares.

Valero outpaced its average daily trading volume (4.27 million) with 6.64 million shares traded yesterday.

— Average trading volume refers to a 21-day rolling average.