Discover the 3 highest volume stocks amid Friday's market sell-off

Terminix Global Holdings, Inc., Starwood Property Trust, Inc., US Foods Holding Corp. had the highest volumes Friday.

Friday's session summary: Leading equity indices in the US declined as Dow Jones slipped 1.19% and closed at 31,862. S&P 500 was down 1.1% before closing the session at 3,916.64.

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.

Though trading was down Friday, some stocks reached high volumes. Here is an update.

Terminix | 482% higher than rolling average

With 25.88 million shares traded Friday, Terminix Global Holdings, Inc. beat its daily average by 482% to cap off a frenetic trading day.

The residential and commercial pest control provider has shed 13.91% over the past six months. On a negative trend for around 5 months. Terminix's bearish run has lasted 19 days so far (-$2.92).

Starwood Property | 1,382% higher than rolling average

Starwood Property's bearish run has lasted 6 days so far (-$3.27). Friday's session continued the recent downtrend: during Friday's session, Starwood Property toiled and struggled for upward momentum before closing at $16.74. By the close, the the real estate investment company suffered a 55 cents or 3.18% loss.

Starwood Property outpaced its average daily trading volume (3.45 million) with 47.71 million shares traded Friday.

US Foods | 1,127% higher than rolling average

Currently up 48 cents today, US Foods is on course to break its five-day losing run. Having set a significant high of $40.1 13 days ago, the US food giant is trading 13.77% lower. Currently, the US food distributor has a market capitalization of $8.13 billion with an average daily trading volume of 2.32 million shares.

Friday's trading volume was 26.18 million shares (surpassing the daily average by 1,127%).

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