Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of battery specialist Valence Technologies (Nasdaq: VLNC) surged more than 10% in intraday trading today on huge volume.

So what: Often when a stock makes a big move, there's a very clear reason for it. Sometimes though, especially when talking about smaller companies like Valence, you can see the stock make a big jump or pitch downward without any news at all. Today's move in Valence didn't seem to be driven by a particular news release, but the 2.1 million shares traded -- which is well above the three-month average of less than 600,000 -- suggests that somebody may be taking a big bite of the stock today.

Now what: We could speculate all day on why somebody might be moving in on Valence right now, and no doubt many investors are doing just that. In fact, the move in Valence may even be encouraging the upward action today in fellow battery makers China BAK Battery (Nasdaq: CBAK) and Advanced Battery (Nasdaq: ABAT). But it's unlikely we'll come up with any solid answers, and Valence is still a pretty dicey play -- perhaps it has an interesting story, but it's spent its entire history burning cash. There's no reason why today's move should encourage investors to change direction -- unless they want to take advantage of the quick pop and hop off the stock.

Interested in more info on Valence? Add it to your watchlist by clicking here.