Too fast, too soon. And before you could grasp, what, why and how…beyond reach. For three years, the stock markets have whizzed past milestones faster than most investors’ ability to understand and therefore encash.

Along with their blistering rise, stock prices left behind tears of regret—of missing so many money-making opportunities. But don’t kill yourself over it. The well has not dried up. Even at dizzying heights, markets offer opportunities galore.

Yes, money is in there. Always there really, in stocks that are somewhat delinked from market cycles. Picking them is not about timing the market (which investors should never do), but about spotting an opportunity. An opportunity that can be as rewarding now as it would have been when the Sensex was at 3000—some 11000 points lower than today. What are these stock types? Several actually. But we discuss in detail four.

A company which has had poor performance for an extended period of time and is experiencing a positive reversal is one. These are comeback (or turnaround) stocks. A novel business idea that just got listed on the market (concept stocks) could be another wealth booster. Then there are mid-caps and small-caps. The ones backed by strong company performance are the blue chips of tomorrow. Spot them and you know they are the key to your dream corpus.

Easier said than done. The challenge is to zero in on a to-be star or a star rerun. And who knows how to get accurate inputs on company management and policies, mid caps with great potential, future of an industry or the new kid on the block which is not all froth and but substance too?

This is exactly what we have done. Crunched numbers, put together apparently disparate factors, studied performances and tried to look into the future. For sticklers of the volatility game, we even analysed when and how you can turn fluctuations into fortunes. The result: a list of potential biggies, “almost there” winners and relatively safe bets for stable returns.

Not just that, we have put our own expertise to test, creating two model stock portfolios (two mutual funds of sorts) whose value will be tracked in the forthcoming issues. Maybe this is what you were waiting for — a near foolproof way of becoming richer.