Individual stocks can surge by 10%, 25%, or even more in a short time. And they can fall just as far, just as quickly. For example, shares of United Airlines parent UAL (Nasdaq: UAUA) fell by 21% one day last week, when it announced that, like several of its competitors, it would dilute shares to raise more money.

Big drops in share price can sometimes signal material defects or new risks. But at other times, they're simply pullbacks that go along with the larger pessimism facing the market today. Fortunately, we have Motley Fool CAPS, a great resource to help us understand the bigger picture behind big price drops.

Is the sky falling?
CAPS contains more than just the crowd's opinions. Its best-performing members' votes count more in shaping each company's ratingthan do the picks of their poorer-performing peers. That way, investors can intelligently use the collective wisdom of more than 140,000 CAPS members to make better decisions.

We'll use CAPS' handy stock screening toolto quickly zero in on companies that have been slashed by at least 20% in the last four weeks and have a market cap greater than $100 million and a beta of less than 3. If you want to run this screen for yourself, please do. Just keep in mind that the results will update with the market.

Company

CAPS Rating
(out of 5)

4-Week
Price Change

Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK)

**

(26.9%)

MannKind (Nasdaq: MNKD)

**

(30.4%)

Arena Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ARNA)

*** Continued...