With all the volatility in the markets today, there's no shortage of market seers attempting to call a bottom. Bernanke called a bottomnot once, but twice. Heck, even Keanu Reeves laid out what a world-ending market bottomlooks like.

Investors should consider buying stocks after a big decline, when pessimism has unduly beaten good companies down to great prices. That's why we here at the Fool -- and 145,000-plus investors like us -- look to the Motley Fool CAPScommunity to help sniff out the real opportunities from languishing companies driven by speculation.

A real bottom, or another leg down?
Of course, there's no foolproof method for timing a market bottom. But CAPS has a great balance of both quantitative and qualitative resources available on 5,300 stocks, and even a nifty stock screening toolto help investors quickly zero in on potential investment opportunities. Once we've rounded up our candidates, we can use all the information in CAPS to test whether each company has already hit bottom, or simply primed shareholders for further pain.

I've used the CAPS screener to filter out $100 million-plus companies that have seen their stock price appreciate by at least 15% in the past 13 weeks, even while they remain at least 40% below their 52-week high. If you'd like, run this screen yourself-- just keep in mind that results may change as the market does.

Company

CAPS Rating
(out of 5)

13-Week
Price Change

% Below 52-week High

Akorn (Nasdaq: AKRX)

****

24.8%

46.2%

iStar Financial (NYSE: SFI)

***

15.8%

40%

Sunrise Senior Living (NYSE: SRZ) Continued...