Tuesday, October 21, 2014

How to Trade the Market's Most Active Stocks

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.

Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 10 Dividend Stocks

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.

Must Read: 10 Stocks George Soros Is Buying

BlackBerry

Nearest Resistance: $11

Nearest Support: $9

Catalyst: Acquisition Rumors

Handset maker BlackBerry (BBRY) is seeing a 6.5% pop this afternoon, rallying on speculation that Chinese PC maker Lenovo might be ready to make an acquisition offer for the long-suffering cell phone stock. While an anonymous source at Sina.com has said that there's no truth to the rumors, it's not stopping BBRY from moving up over the course of today's session.

The price action in BBRY still looks very attractive long-term. Shares have been forming an inverse head and shoulders setup all year long, with a breakout level at $11. Put simply, if BlackBerry manages to catch a bid above $11, it becomes a buy.

Must Read: 10 Stocks Carl Icahn Loves in 2014

NCR


Nearest Resistance: $28

Nearest Support: N/A

Catalyst: Forecast Cut

Shares of NCR (NCR) are getting shellacked this afternoon, down more than 20% following a cut in the firm's full year 2014 outlook due to expected challenges in the retail environment. The firm reported preliminary third quarter earnings of 67 cents per share, falling a few pennies shy of the 71-cent analyst consensus, but it's that forecast cut that's really taking shares to task this afternoon.

Technically speaking NCR's chart has looked ugly for a while now, but today's big gap down means that it's only getting uglier. With support at $38 now broken, there's still more downside risk in shares. NCR is a name that's best avoided in the near-term.

Must Read: 7 Stocks Warren Buffett Is Selling in 2014

Delta Air Lines


Nearest Resistance: $40

Nearest Support: $32

Catalyst: Passenger Data
Delta Air Lines (DAL) is catching a bid today, after getting knocked lower with its peers following concerns of travel reductions over Ebola fears. Shares of DAL are up more than 3% this afternoon, up following positive passenger data that saw yield growth in the firm's lucrative trans-Atlantic routes.

Shares managed to stage a textbook bounce off of intermediate-term support at $32, an indication that now is a pretty attractive time to build a position in DAL from a risk/reward standpoint. If you decide to buy here, I'd recommend putting a protective stop underneath last week's lows.

Must Read: 10 Stocks Billionaire John Paulson Loves in 2014

-- Written by Jonas Elmerraji in Baltimore.

Follow Stockpickr on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

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


No comments:

Post a Comment