Trading The Rebound: 2010's Biggest Comeback Stocks

All in all, 2010's been a pretty good year, seeing a pretty fair share of Wall Street winners. But there were also plenty of disappointments, with a number of companies ending the year in the red. These downtrodden stocks may not look so hot to investors right now -- but don't be so quick to count them out ...

Time after time, companies have risen from the ashes to stage dramatic rebounds. Just look at footwear maker Steve Madden: They bounced back from a securities fraud scandal to see profits increase by over 20% in each of the past nine quarters. Or automaker General Motors, pulling a complete 180 from where it was circa 2009 bailout. Investors who bought these stocks cheap were able to reap tremendous rewards.

The gain potential in an underdog is great -- but only if the stock makes a comeback. And there's always a good chance that an ailing stock will never fully recover. While there are no guarantees, there are a few things you can look for in a company profile: efforts to makeover its brands, the introduction of quality products, lower expenses, decision-making restructuring.

And if their stocks are already starting to see a turnaround, it might be a good sign of things to come.

Here's a list of stocks that had negative returns over the last year, but saw sharp rebounds over the last six months. These are the rebound kids of 2010 -- will these companies continue their rally in 2011? What do you think? (Click here to access free, interactive tools to analyze these ideas.)

Interactive Chart: Press Play to see how analyst ratings have changed for all the stocks mentioned below.

Kapitall's Eben Esterhuizen and Alicia Sellitti do not own shares of any companies mentioned.