Simple economics dictates that supply and demand (volume) causes price fluctuation. It’s always wise to look at the volume of a particular stock when considering investing. Increasing levels of activity serves as a good starting point for further research on equities. With that in mind, here are five stocks, not in any particular order, that are trending on heavy volume today. An eclectic mix to be sure.

One of the prettier girls at the dance is Shutterstock Inc. (NYSE: SSTK), whose shares shot past resistance and set a record high today of $68.44 on unusually heavy trading. As of this writing, the stock has posted a hefty gain of 12.17 percent on its share price on a volume of approximately 2.56 million shares changing hands. Translation; a whopping 3458 percent volume change. The unusual activity came on the heels of the company’s announcement after close of market on Thursday that it has priced a follow-on offering of 4,600,000 shares of common stock at $60 per share.

Chinese-based JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE: JKS) is also having a pretty neat day. Shares are up almost 9 percent on 5.7 million shares traded thus far. That’s a spike of 956 percent above average volume for the company. JKS has not set a record for share price today, but it is flirting with its 52-week high. Frankly the stock has been all over the place this past year with price ranging from $3.16 to $20.06. The company did announce earlier in the week that it was offering 3,500,000 American Depositary Shares, each representing four ordinary shares of the company, at par value $0.00002 per share.

Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ICPT) gapped up sharply today, setting a record high share price of $63.45 on hefty trading. Intercept Pharmaceuticals has been on a steady upward trend for the past three weeks and has seen some insider trading this week. CEO Mark Pruzanski sold 25,000 shares of his company’s stock on 17 September. The shares were moved at price of $52.00, for a total of $1,300,000.00. Share volume soared 395 percent today on an average volume of 309,369.

Navios Maritime Partners LP (NYSE: NMM) has seen its shares tank today on unusually heavy trading. The shipping company said it plans to offer 5 million common shares in a public offering, but the enticement has done nothing to help it in today’s trading. Shares are down 5.43 percent on increase over average volume of 2198 percent. Over 5.7 million shares have traded hands today.

After a worse than expected fiscal first-quarter earnings, Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: DRI) is also having a bad day with its stock trading down 6.73 percent in heavy trading. The Olive Garden and Red Lobster owner couldn’t seem to find traction as shares tumbled.  Volume rose to 3.7 million over the company’s average volume of 1.26 million as the news spread that the company had posted a sharply lower quarterly profit. Investors just can’t seem to wrap themselves around the company today.

The bottom line is do your homework before investing. Something as simple as heavy or light share volume is a good indicator that something is up with the company. Due diligence is key to successful investing.

Disclosure: The author has no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.