Your Next Great Stock: How to Screen the Market for Tomorrow's Top Performers

Introduction

Over the next year, more than 100 stocks will double in price. Several hundred will produce gains of 50 percent or more. A tiny few stocks will soar fivefold in value.

Those are estimates, of course; they assume the next year will be an ordinary one for stocks. It may not. Perhaps only 40 stocks will double in price, or perhaps even fewer. Still, a small number of stocks will produce enviable returns.

I say "a small number" because there are a vast number of stocks to choose from. These figures are based on a survey of the 6,000 or so stocks listed on the big three U.S. trading venues: the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, and the Nasdaq. If we look at smaller venues and foreign exchanges, too, the list expands to more than 30,000 stocks.

This book is about finding stocks that are poised to become the market's next big gainers. It's more a detective manual than an investment book. You'll be able to find these companies because they've already left clues. The clues aren't much more complicated than the mustard stains and shoe scuffs Sherlock Holmes relied on. But whereas those clues told Holmes where a suspect had been, you'll use clues that tell you where companies are going.

One company's clue might be a slight quickening in its sales growth. Another's clue might be that its managers have suddenly started buying its shares. Still another company might look ripe for a takeover judging by the metrics that merger-and-acquisition experts use.

The best way ...