If you've had CNBC on today, you have undoubtedly heard that today is the 5-year anniversary of Google's (GOOG) IPO. Someone on the channel even called it the most important IPO of all time. While buyers of GOOG's IPO have certainly made money (+423%), to call it the most important IPO of all time is a bit of hyperbole. Historically, there have been plenty of IPOs that have made investors more money over similar or shorter periods of time. BIDU and FSLR are just two examples of IPOs that have returned more than 800% in a shorter period of time. Additionally, of the current Russell 3000 stocks that were around at the time of GOOG's IPO, 38 have returned more to shareholders over the same time period.

The 38 stocks that are up more than Google over the last five years aren't all penny stocks either. Many of the names highlighted below have market caps of more than $10 billion. The only stock on the list that is larger than GOOG, however, is Apple Computer (AAPL), which has gained more than twice GOOG's 423%. Hmm. Maybe it was a case of stock envy that recently caused GOOG CEO Eric Schmidt to resign from Apple's board.

In this post I'll name some stocks that I think are worthy of adding to the stock watch list and some I may be speculating with in the weeks to come.

I'm a firm believer of stocks which have had significant moves higher, on big volume, and these are the stocks I'm seeking to find in this post. Some of these stocks will sell off, and some will continue to move higher, it is important to use caution when purchasing and use discipline when selling. All of these stocks have had nice moves higher on big volume (% volume increase compare to 50 day average).

Business Update Call

January 26, 2009; 12:00 pm ET

F4Q08 Earnings Call

September 11, 2008 11:00 am ET

And history shows that such periods can be the worst for investors to navigate - especially when they follow a record stock-market run, such as the all-time-highs that U.S. share prices reached last fall.

From the Great Crash, fast-forward 60 years, to 1989 Japan. On Dec. 29 of that year, the Nikkei 225 Index topped out at 38,957.44, before closing at 38,915.87. By the following September, stock prices had nearly been halved - and there was still much more bloodletting to go. (Despite several subsequent rallies up over the 20,000 threshold, the Nikkei ultimately bottomed at 7,830 in April 2003. It closed yesterday - Thursday - at 12,887.95, still down 67% from its trading high 19 years ago).

ETF provider WisdomTree (WSDT.PK) and Dreyfus Corporation announced the launch of four currency income ETFs yesterday based on the Chinese Yuan (CYB), Indian Rupee (ICN), Brazilian Real (BZF) and the Euro (EU), with a Japanese (JYF) one in the pipeline. Investing in these funds would be similar to investing in money market funds in these countries. As discussed in the recent Fortune article titled Is Your Money Fund Safe?, most money market funds maintain a constant share price like $1 and the firms running these funds go to great lengths to ensure that the share price does not drop.

Unlike money market funds, these WisdomTree funds may not maintain a constant value on account of the investment instruments they are using to simulate money market like returns. With Brazil's central bank raising its benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points in April, the Selic rate now stands at 11.75% and is probably very appealing to income investors despite the currency risk. Indian banks tend to offer higher interest rates to domestic accounts when compared to Non-Resident accounts. I wonder what the yield on the WisdomTree Dreyfus Indian Rupee Fund (ICN) is going to be as I could not find that information on the WisdomTree website or on ETFConnect.com.

F3Q08 (Qtr End 3/31/08) Earnings Call

May 9, 2008 11:00 am ET

F2Q08 (Qtr End 12/31/07) Earnings Call

February 11, 2008 11:00 am ET

"Infrastructure: A Global Opportunity" Conference Call

Those wanting to make sense of this move can point to a slew of industry positive news this week: the proposed three way merger between AUY, NTO and MDG, good drilling results from EGO and SLW, and last but not least, NEM clearing its hedge book. It all seems logical, but one can just as well point to the wave structure of this PM bull, and view this flutter of activity as no less predestined than phases of the moon. Now that’s food for thought.

What is clear is that PM stocks are breaking out big time. Volume was very high in big caps such as NEM and AEM, indicating institutional interest. A daily chart of HUI is shown below; similar set-ups are repeated in almost all its components. Perhaps more importantly, the HUI:GOLD ratio has also broken out cleanly in the weekly chart. I can now say with a high degree of confidence that the correction since last May was over.

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U.S. Global Investors (GROW)
"Rise of the Chinese Consumer" Conference Call
June 7, 2007 4:30 pm ET