BALTIMORE (Stockpickr) -- Put down the 10-K filings and the stock screeners. It's time to take a break from the traditional methods of generating investment ideas. Instead, let the crowd do it for you.
From hedge funds to individual investors, scores of market participants are turning to social media to figure out which stocks are worth watching. It's a concept that's known as "crowdsourcing," and it uses the masses to identify emerging trends in the market.
Crowdsourcing has long been a popular tool for the advertising industry, but it also makes a lot of sense as an investment tool. After all, the market is completely driven by the supply and demand, so it can be valuable to see what names are trending among the crowd.
While some fund managers are already trying to leverage social media resources like Twitter to find algorithmic trading opportunities, for most investors, crowdsourcing works best as a starting point for investors who want a starting point in their analysis. Today, we'll leverage the power of the crowd to take a look at some of the most active stocks on the market today.
These "most active" names are the most heavily-traded names on the market -- and often, uber-active names have some sort of a technical or fundamental catalyst driving investors' attention on shares. And when there's a big catalyst, there's often a trading opportunity.
Without further ado, here's a look at today's stocks.
National Bank of Greece
Nearest Resistance: $3
Nearest Support: $2.90
Catalyst: Technical Setup
National Bank of Greece (NBG) has had a challenging run in 2014: since the start of the year, the big Greek bank has nearly been halved. Most recently, shares of NBG got hit last week after economic data from Athens indicated that the Greek economy shrank 1.1% in the first quarter. The data was enough to spark a double-digit selloff in shares of NBG.
From a technical standpoint, there's no question that NBG's chart is broken. Shares may be bouncing off of support at $2.90, but an abundance of resistance levels makes this setup best avoided until buyers can establish some semblance of support again.
Gogo
Nearest Resistance: $16
Nearest Support: $14
Catalyst: Analyst Upgrade
Inflight internet provider Gogo (GOGO) is up more than 9% this afternoon, following an analyst upgrade from UBS. The bank pegged a $23 price target on the stock, upping its rating from neutral to buy. After selling off hard earlier this month on competition fears, the upgrade is proving to be enough of a catalyst to break shares out above $14.
After trading lower for all of 2014, GOGO was starting to look "bottomy" at the start of May thanks to a short-term inverse head and shoulders pattern -- that pattern is getting triggered by today's upgrade news. While the downtrend is still very much intact for GOGO, the near-term trajectory for shares is pointing higher from here.
InterMune Pharmaceuticals
Nearest Resistance: $N/A
Nearest Support: $37.50
Catalyst: Drug Trial Results
Last up is InterMune Pharmaceuticals (ITMN), a pharma name that's up more than 14% this afternoon following news that the firm's lung disease treatment saw success in a late-stage study. Now, the firm plans to resubmit its flagship drug for approval with the FDA. The news is breaking shares of ITMN out to new highs today.
New highs are significant from an investor psychology standpoint because they mean that everyone who has bought shares in the last year is sitting on gains. As a result, the "back to even" mentality is less of a concern than it would be for a name with a higher proportion of shareholders sitting on losses. If you decide to be a buyer here, it makes sense to keep a tight protective stop in place.
To see these stocks in action, check out the at Most-Active Stocks portfolio on Stockpickr.
-- Written by Jonas Elmerraji in Baltimore.
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At the time of publication, author had no positions in the names mentioned.
Jonas Elmerraji, CMT, is a senior market analyst at Agora Financial in Baltimore and a contributor to TheStreet. Before that, he managed a portfolio of stocks for an investment advisory returned 15% in 2008. He has been featured in Forbes , Investor's Business Daily, and on CNBC.com. Jonas holds a degree in financial economics from UMBC and the Chartered Market Technician designation.
Follow Jonas on Twitter @JonasElmerraji
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