3 Huge Stocks Everyone Is Talking About

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.

Top 5 Defense Stocks To Invest In Right Now

Vale

Nearest Resistance: $14

Nearest Support: $11

Catalyst: Technical Setup

Brazilian miner Vale (VALE) saw big trading volume Friday thanks to a technical move lower that dragged a handful of miners down.

Despite buyers' best efforts of late, this stock remains stuck in a well-defined downtrend, slammed lower on every successive test of trend line resistance. So, as shares get swatted down again, it makes sense to stay on the sidelines. Until the downtrend gets broken in Vale, lower levels look more likely from here.

MannKind

Nearest Resistance: $50

Nearest Support: $42

Catalyst: PDUFA Date

MannKind (MNKD) was up on Friday, tacking even more new highs onto its price chart as investors get excited about the June 15 Prescription Drug User Fee Action (PDUFA) date. The date represents a deadline for the FDA to approve MNKD's Afrezza diabetes insulin inhaler, an action that could potentially be a huge revenue catalyst for the firm. Make no mistake, there's considerable event risk in MNKD right now, but for investors who aren't risk-averse, buying these new successive breakouts in shares makes sense.

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.

Twitter

Nearest Resistance: $35

Nearest Support: $30

Catalyst: Technical Setup

Next up on our list of high-volume names is Twitter (TWTR). This social networking stock has been a perennially high-volume issue since it went public at the end of last year, and it's the technical factors that were driving TWTR's drop Friday afternoon. Twitter was getting sold off after hitting its head on $35 resistance for the second time in May.

While support at $30 is holding strong for now, this is a name that's best avoided unless it can break its downtrend. That happens when TWTR can catch a bid above its 50-day moving average again.

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