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Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Brian D. Pacampara :: Townhall.com Columnist
Monday's Biggest Stock Stars
by Brian D. Pacampara
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Will the Dems' health care Christmas Present to America be an improvement or detriment to our health care system?


Hey there, Fools. I've summoned our Motley Fool CAPScommunity once again to highlight a few of Monday's biggest winners among the stocks with top ratingsof four or five stars:

Company

Yesterday's Gain

Manitowoc (NYSE: MTW)

6.78%

Terra Industries (NYSE: TRA)

6.74%

Coventry Health Care

5.40%

A-Power Energy (Nasdaq: APWR)

4.81%

Melco Crown Entertainment

4.64%

There's a reason I selected those notable gainers, as opposed to other winners making noise on Monday, like low-rated Ford Motor (NYSE: F): Stocks go up all the time, but unless you were able to predict the pop, what does it matter?  

Our community of more than 140,000 CAPS Fools considers its high-star stocks the most likely to outperform the market.

Written in the (five) stars?
For example, 96.6% of the 1,225 members who've rated Terrahave a bullish opinion of the stock. Just last month, one of those Fools, barnettech, thought that it was a particularly fertilized time to dig in:

People have to eat even during hard times, and with population growth and a limited amount of land to grow food. Agriculture is a great place to invest. The fundamentals on this stock are great right now.

Consistent with that call, shares of Terra spiked yesterday after CF Industries upped its bid to acquire the fertilizer producer by adding a cash portion to its last offer.

The bullish lesson?
Learn to think like a business owner, not a stock trader. All sorts of noise can depress a stock's price in the short term, but the true investor is able to focus on the factors that reallycount over time. As CAPS' barnettech demonstrates, by buying into high-quality companieswith attractive trends working in their favor, you give yourself plenty of "upside" opportunities -- including getting bought by one of the bigger boys -- to earn an outsized return.

And now for the losers ...
Of course, winning isn't everything in the stock market.

Here are five of Monday's biggest decliners with one- or two-star ratings:   

Company

Yesterday's Loss

PMI Group (NYSE: PMI)

15.70%

Geron Continued...

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About The Author

Brian D. Pacampara is an investment expert and analyst for the Motley Fool.

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