Chasing highfliers is a sucker's game. But tracking monthly trends across the market can lead to great investment ideas, as well as shed new light on stocks you already have in your portfolio.

Let's take a look at the biggest movers in the Small Caps. These stocks -- which include companies from the health care, apparel, pharmaceuticals, finance, and utilities industries -- have clocked some of the biggest gains during the last month.

Small Cap Market Movers

Company

Industry

CAPS Rating

30-Day Return

Market Cap

Price / Earnings

MedCath (Nasdaq: MDTH)

Health Care Providers & Services

***

88.91%

290.33M

29.16

Quiksilver (NYSE: ZQK)

Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods

**

71.31%

538.70M

N/A

Questcor Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: QCOR)

Pharmaceuticals

***

70.88%

469.48M

13

Southwest Water (Nasdaq: SWWC)

Water Utilities

**

54.87%

260.34M

4.76

Those returns are certainly eye catching. But do these high fliers have staying power?

Let's see what The Motley Fool CAPS community (more than 160,000 investors strong) has to say about the best plays in the small-cap market.

And the next big winners are ...
The following small-cap stocks are of similar size in comparable industries to the ones in the previous chart. However, these are companies CAPS members think have more promising future returns than the ones already making waves.

CAPS community small-cap favorites

Company

Industry

CAPS Rating

Market Cap

Price / Earnings

Fools Saying Outperform

Air Methods (Nasdaq: AIRM)

(Alternative for MDTH)

Health-care providers & services

*****

406.55M

29.16

188 of 201

The Warnaco Group (NYSE: WRC)

(Alternative for ZQK)

Textiles, apparel & luxury goods

*****

2.11B

21.03

108 of 116

SuperGen (Nasdaq: SUPG)

(Alternative for QCOR)

Pharmaceuticals

*****

195.10M

35

203 of 211

Cascal N.V.

(Alternative for SWWC)

Water utilities

****

215.22M

10.4

120 of 125

Of course, some of today's winners might continue to rack up outsize returns. But isn't it better to snag tomorrow's winners before they start running up?

Find out if your hot stocks still have sizzle
How do your stocks compare to the CAPS community's best investment ideas? Find out in an instant by plugging your tickers into the completely free Motley Fool Stocks 360 program. You'll also get a thorough analysis of how your investments are faring against multiple peer benchmarks. Find out whether you should trade in, trade up, or sit tight by getting a quick 360-degree diagnostic right now.