8 stocks that could have made you rich (BLOG)

In a rocky market, keep this in mind: Some stocks go up, and some go way up. Here are 8 that rose from 600% to more than 8,000% during the e...

In a rocky market, keep this in mind: Some stocks go up, and some go way up. Here are 8 that rose from 600% to more than 8,000% during the economic downturn of the past few years.
Defying tough times

Getting rich by investing these days can seem like a pipe dream. The S&P 500 ($INX) has gone virtually nowhere for more than a decade. And despite recent gains, problems in Europe and concerns about a slowdown in the U.S. have many analysts thinking stocks are in for more trouble.

So why keep trying? One reason is that times like these, when so many people are so scared, are some of the best times to find stocks that make you big profits. To see why, I recently went looking for stocks that could have made you rich -- or at least, made you some good money -- if you bought in during the last three to five years. (It's a follow-up to my earlier list of stocks that could have made you rich over a longer time frame.)

With help from Schaeffer's Investment Research, I came up with a list of stocks that would have made you anywhere from 600% to more than 8,000% had you purchased them at the right time, near the start of the economic crunch.

Then I talked with the companies and with analysts, to try to figure out why these stocks have done so well -- which might help us spot similar plays in the future.

What do these stocks have in common? Many were left-for-dead stocks that investors fled because of bankruptcy fears. Others are plays on hot consumer trends you probably noticed, like yoga, on simpler ways to make coffee or on more comfortable mattresses. One is a China growth play, and another is a hot biotech company that looks like it is well on the way to discovering new treatments for cancer.

Following are eight stocks that defied tough times and soared.