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. That's especially true now that earnings season is officially underway. And when there's a big catalyst, there's often a trading opportunity.
Without further ado, here's a look at today's stocks.
Cisco Systems
Nearest Resistance: $21
Nearest Support: N/A
Catalyst: Lowered Growth Targets
Yesterday, Cisco Systems (CSCO) hosted its annual Financial Analyst Conference in New York, an event that's attended by the Wall Street research departments that cover the $108 billion IP networking hardware and software firm. During the conference, CFO Frank Calderoni announced that CSCO expected lower growth outlooks than Wall Street had been pricing in, spurring a small loss on high volume today.
The news is just the latest in a series of negative fundamentals from Cisco -- and you can see it in the chart. CSCO is at the bottom of a downtrending channel, a bearish setup that points to little buying activity in this stock.
I'd suggest staying away from shares.
Adobe Systems
Nearest Resistance: N/A
Nearest Support: $57
Catalyst: Q4 Earnings
The exact opposite is happening in shares of Adobe Systems (ADBE). The $30 billion creative software company is up more than 11% this afternoon following positive fourth-quarter earnings that proved bullish enough to shove shares to new highs. In recent years, Adobe's decision to move from a conventional software model to a cloud-based recurring subscription model made some shareholders anxious – but it's clearly delivering impressive performance in ADBE right now. Today's breakout is a buying opportunity for momentum traders.
Qualcomm
Nearest Resistance: $74
Nearest Support: $72
Catalyst: CEO Shakeup
Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm (QCOM) is getting high-volume attention today following news that COO Steve Mollenkopf was taking the CEO's desk after being courted for the chief executive role over at Microsoft (MSFT). Keeping Mollenkopf was important enough to QCOM that the firm is ousting current CEO Paul Jacobs on March 4 of next year to make room for Mollenkopf. That's not to say that Jacobs is against the move -- he had a big role in the decision. Jacobs will remain executive chairman of the board.
From a technical standpoint, Qualcomm is currently consolidating in a rectangle pattern with resistance at $74. Look for a breakout above that medium-term price ceiling as a buy signal in this mobile semiconductor giant.
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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