3 Big Stocks on Traders' Radars

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.

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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.

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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.

OpenTable

Nearest Resistance: $105

Nearest Support: $103

Catalyst: Acquisition

News hit at the open on Friday that OpenTable (OPEN) was getting acquired by travel site Priceline (PCLN) for $103 per share in cash, a $2.6 billion valuation that represents a 46% premium over where OPEN closed on Thursday. The acquisition news is a big win for OpenTable shareholders, but late-to-the-game investors might as well move on. The money has already been made on this deal.

Yelp

Nearest Resistance: $100

Nearest Support: $70

Catalyst: OpenTable Sympathy Move

Online service rating site Yelp (YELP) got a boost from the competition on Friday, rallying close to 14% in the wake of OpenTable's acquisition news. Yelp buyers bid shares up hoping for a similar valuation to potentially get placed on YELP if a suitor were involved in a buyout. But Friday's rally wasn't the first sign of additional upside in Yelp.

That's because this stock has been forming an inverse head and shoulders bottom setup for the last two months, triggering a buy signal at the open on Friday. That move clears the way for another test of resistance at $100, a level that acted like a major price ceiling as recently as March. If you decide to buy here, keep a tight stop in place.

International Game Technology

Nearest Resistance: $16

Nearest Support: $14.50

Catalyst: Acquisition Rumors

The rumor mill is fueling upside in International Game Technology (IGT) from last week. Shares of the $4 billion slot machine maker rallied close to 11% on Friday following news that two firms were competing in a bidding war to acquire IGT. That's a follow-up from Monday, when reports surfaced that IGT had hired Morgan Stanley (MS) to help facilitate a sale.

From a technical standpoint, IGT's downtrend is clearly kaput, but there's still a lot of event risk in this name thanks to the implications that come alongside an acquisition. This isn't a trade for the risk-averse, but a breakout above $16 is an important signal that sellers are on the retreat.

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