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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Brian D. Pacampara :: Townhall.com Columnist
Tuesday's Biggest Stock Stars
by Brian D. Pacampara
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Hey there, Fools. I've summoned our Motley Fool CAPScommunity once again to highlight a few of Tuesday's biggest winners among the stocks with top ratingsof four or five stars:

Company

Yesterday's Gain

Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI)

27.51%

CapitalSource

13.10%

Energy Conversion Devices (Nasdaq: ENER)

10.96%

Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY)

8.05%

Union Pacific

7.90%

There's a reason I selected those notable gainers, as opposed to other winners making noise on Tuesday, like one-star stock AIG (NYSE: AIG): 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, 97.3% of the 2,228 members who've rated Burlington Northernhave a bullish opinion of the stock. In late January, one of those Fools, addedupon, brought some rather interesting Oracle activity to our community's attention:

[H]igh energy prices will return, increased [regulations], all contribute to the resurrection of the rails. In addition, something unusual is happening with Warren Buffett and [Burlington Northern]. He now owns well over 20% of [Burlington Northern] and continues buying. I know of no other stocks where Buffett owns > 20% without moving for controlling interest or an outright buyout.

Shares of the railroad giant are up 44% since that call. Of course, most of that gain came yesterday after Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B), in what he calls an "all-in" bet on the U.S. economy, agreed to buy the companyfor $44 billion -- consistent with addedupon's intuition.

The bullish lesson?
Learn to follow the smart money. By closely monitoring the moves of proven money masters, you can create a powerful source of "best ideas" for your own portfolio. As long as you understandthe investment case and can purchase the stock within a similar price range, riding a respected manager's coattails can be a great way to market-thumping gains.

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

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

Company

Yesterday's Loss

Cedar Fair, L.P. (NYSE: FUN)

26.58%

A123 Systems 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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