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 firms can help you establish a winning portfolio.

Stalking the monster
To find tomorrow's winners, we've enlisted the help of more than 170,000 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 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 an idea why Brocade Communications stock will be offering monster returns in the near future: Business has been so bad that IBM (NYSE: IBM) wants to buy it up. With the stock up 20% in the past month and its financial metrics still breaking down, Brocade would normally be a stock you'd consider shorting. But don't.

The network storage sector is the hot sector these days, but just about anything in tech seems on the table. With Brocade in its weakened state, it's going to look a lot more attractive, though potential acquirers might also look at Emulex, QLogic, or industry peer Extreme Networks, all of whom sport relatively weak financials.

A buyout is certainly why many CAPS members are looking more closely at Brocade; jpj52  calls it "The next Tech takeover target!" With 94% of the more than 700 CAPS members rating Brocade Communications giving it the nod to outperform the broad market averages, you can add the network storage specialist to your My Watchlist page and follow along as all the Foolish news and analysis about this company gets compiled in just one place.

A good reception
Even though Ireland is willing to push its budget deficit to 32% of the country's GDP in an effort to save its stricken banking system, it keeps getting harder to believe Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE), or Anglo-Irish Banks will make a worthy investment.

The "final" cost for bailing out the Irish banking system (at least this week), is expected to top $54 billion. But the banks will have to raise new cash under the regulations, and Allied needs to come up with another $4 billion by the end of March. It wants to sell its M&T Bank unit to Banco Santander (NYSE: STD), but there are hurdles to accomplishing that, meaning it will likely resort to a placing and open offer to shareholders for around $7 billion, which will be underwritten by the country's National Pension Reserve Fund Commission.

CAPS member 21popsontop admits a bet here is a gamble, but Allied Irish Bank is Ireland's second largest lender and down the road will have appeared "insanely cheap" at current valuations.

This longshot is an Important financial institution that the market has decided to throw away,for now that is but down the road when this $20 Book valued institution turns it all around and starts to grow again like when it was $40 or $60 a share and buy buy buy was the word.

Inflating values
The laser dot from the scope of the Obama administration's high-powered rifle has been removed from the head of the for-profit education system, at least temporarily. The Department of Education had planned on implementing regulations that would have severely restricted the schools' access to federal financial aid, with default rates rising to 11.6% for students who were supposed to begin repaying loans in the 2008 fiscal year (the most current data available). Department officials say that if the proposed rules were in place today, 5% of all for-profit schools wouldn't qualify. Corinthian Colleges, Apollo Group (Nasdaq: APOL), and ITT Educational Services have all suffered dramatic declines over the past year, though most have bounced up since the regulations were delayed.

CAPS member pchop123 says that considering the need for their services, for-profit educators like Corinthian are oversold. Let us know on the Corinthian Colleges CAPS page whether its going to the head of the class or being sent to the corner to wear a dunce cap.

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 and find other opportunities with monster potential.