10 Stocks to Shake the Market

In music they're called one-hit wonders, singers who belt out tunes but are never able to regain the magic of their big hit song. Think Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" or Brownsville Station's "Smokin' in the Boys Room." Monster hits never to be repeated.

We have seen similar one-hit wonders in stocks, too, like Pets.com or drkoop.com. Companies that burst on the scene -- many during the tech bubble heyday -- and never to live up to the promise they held.

Whole lotta shakin' going on
While nostalgia's fun, "10 Stocks to Shake the Market" isn't about finding stocks that can't repeat their success, it's about looking at those that have made big moves and are likely to continue doing so.

To do that, we're looking at 10 stocks that made some of the biggest moves up over the past month. We'll then pair that with the ratings issued by our Motley Fool CAPS community. Those that rate higher suggest that the members believe they'll continue to move higher in the future and outperform the market.

In the first 20 months since we first began tracking the collective intelligence at CAPS in late 2006, the data shows that newly minted five-star stocks offer the best opportunities for investors, whereas the lowest-rated companies fared the worst. Four-star stocks outperformed the market by seven percentage points, and five-star stocks -- top honors in CAPS -- did even better.

Data as of Dec. 30th.

With half of the stocks carrying three stars or more, let's see why the CAPS community thinks even some of their lesser lights might outperform the market.

Silver Wheaton
If silver looks a bit like the Dr. Doolittle animal pushmi-pullyu, the two-headed antelope that tried to go in opposite directions at the same time, there's probably a good reason. Silver is being forced in two directions by the competing urges of inflation and lower oil prices. On the one hand, silver wants to go higher because of the Fed cutting interest rates, and in fact, Silver Wheaton's shares have soared since they reached their low points in October and November. On the other hand, falling oil prices are keeping silver prices depressed. They're still off 27% for the year.

CAPS member patrickcounihan looks like he might be tugging on the pushmi side as he thinks silver will continue to rise over the next two years as inflation wins out: "Precious metals are going much higher as inflation kicks in during 2009/2010 and as the dollar finally begins to collapse after it's fake rally as a result of deleveraging."

Chico's FAS
With holiday sales typically accounting for 30% to 50% of retailers' sales, there were undoubtedly many who felt they got a lump of coal in their Christmas stockings this year: According to a SpendingPulse report, retail sales fell 2% to 4% from last year. CAPS member MsPrudence suggests it may be a while before Chico's FAS and other retailers see anything different occurring at their cash registers:

I have lots of Chico's clothing in my wardrobe. But with the economy in the doldrums, I'm not buying more of any type of clothing until things improve. Chico's clothing is expensive when it's not on sale, and there's lots of competition out there from Coldwater Creek, Talbots, etc, for my wardrobe dollars. It'll be a while before babyboomers like me open up our wallets in any meaningful way.

Shake, rattle, and roll
With these shaking the market this past month, it pays to start your own research on them at Motley Fool CAPS. Read a company's financial reports, scrutinize key data and charts, and examine the comments your fellow investors have made -- all from a stock's CAPS page.

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