Tomorrow's Monster Stock?

Stocks climbing to 10 times their original price are rare breeds -- but they're not impossible to find. Especially when you have Fools for friends.

The market's best stocks include companies that have risen dozens of times in value by taking advantage of the market's weaknesses. These aren't penny stocks; they're viable companies with sound business prospects that are achieving phenomenal returns. Finding just one or two of these monstrously successful companies can help you establish a winning portfolio.

Stalking the monster
To find tomorrow's winners, we've enlisted the help of more than 160,000 monster trackers at Motley Fool CAPS. We've compiled a list of the most successful CAPS members, dubbed All-Stars, whose picks have doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled in price. Then we've plucked out some of their recent picks for stocks they find equally promising.

Score is how many percentage points by which that pick is beating the S&P 500.

Of course, this is not a list of stocks to buy -- or, for those monster stocks that our CAPS All-Stars have already found, sell. Just consider them starting points for your own further research of extreme buying opportunities.

In search of Bigfoot
Here's a nugget of opportunity for you. A sustained gold price greater than $1,000 an ounce enabled Goldcorp to boost its cash margins beyond those of its rivals. It could then use that extra cash to fund growth opportunities, like its recent deal with New Gold (NYSE: NGD) for a 70% stake in the El Morro project. Its bid beat out Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) for the position previously held by Xstrata.

Spot gold prices have remained above Goldcorp's base price, at an elevated $1,100 an ounce, on news that the World Gold Council and China will actively promote demand for the precious metal in that country. Not coincidentally, the chairman of the council is also the chairman of Goldcorp.

Back in January, CAPS member jjc1970 acknowledged it might be premature to call for Goldcorp to rally, but saw no reason for gold prices to collapse, as some critics had predicted:

I may be early on this but I think GG has been oversold as of late. The price of gold should remain high (possibly hitting new highs) for the next year. I'd like to see $49.00 a share in the next 12 months.

A deep breath
It's tough being a biotech investor these days. GenVec failed to beat a placebo in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, and MannKind got a complete response letter from the Food and Drug Administration for its insulin inhaler Afrezza. The result has been the same in both cases: a world-class beating for each company's share price.

But while GenVec announced that it's shutting down production of TNFerade, MannKind wants to assure investors that there's still hope its therapy will not go the way of Pfizer's (NYSE: PFE) Exubera. For example, it said the FDA didn't request new trials in the letter, but rather requested updated safety data and changes to Afrezza's proposed labeling.

CAPS member TMFHelical says MannKind was aggressively pushing Afrezza before the letter. Even if it gets approved, there's no guarantee the company will hit it out of the park. Nonetheless, TMFHelical believes the reward outweighs the risk:

... Still, approval may be restrictive and partnership less than generous, so I'm not expecting a home run here and the market may react negatively to news that isn't positive, but restrictive. I'll take 20 points if I can get it.

A nice tailwind
Somaxon Pharmaceuticals investors can understand what MannKind investors are going through. They had to endure two FDA rejections of Somaxon's insomnia drug Silenor before it won approval. But as TMFHelical noted, approval doesn't mean an easy victory. Somaxon is now going up against industry heavyweight sanofi-aventis (NYSE: SNY), which produces the well-known sleep-inducer Ambien.

CAPS member egobasher, though, expects Somaxon to capture at least some of the insomnia market, which ought to be a boost to its market capitalization:

Blockbuster new drug for insomnia. Currently a $2 billion market while SOMX has a market cap of around $200 million. It should double in price very quickly.

A chance for scary growth
It takes more than a few All-Star picks and a quick pitch to make buy or sell decisions, so start your own research on these stocks on Motley Fool CAPS. If you want additional ideas with monster potential -- fully researched and vetted -- check out Motley Fool Stock Advisor for 30 days, risk-free.