Bespoke has a fascinating chart of 26 Russell 3000 (NYSE:IWV) stocks that could have made you mad money if you took the plunge in spring 2009.  Bespoke says the average stock return in the Russell 3000 (NYSE:IWV) since March 9th is 260%, which if true shows a major outperformance in small and mid caps versus large caps.  But you could have had 10x the return of the average if you were willing to buy stocks in the $1 or $2 (or less) range back then. ;)

Quite a few of these are auto suppliers, (Dana (DAN), Arvin Meritor (NYSE:ARM), American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL), Tenneco (NYSE:TEN), TRW Automotive (NYSE:TRW)) which frankly if the federal government had not come in to save GM (NYSE:GM) and Chrysler, would have gone out of business.

In addition to auto suppliers, here are the other companies mention in the chart above: Dollar Thrify Automotive (NYSE:DTG), Pier 1 Imports (NYSE:PIR), General Growth Properties (NYSE:GGP), Select Comfort Corp (NASDAQ:SCSS), Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:JAZZ), Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ:HGSI), Avis Budget Group (NYSE:CAR), Air Transport Services (NASDAQ:ATSG), Boise (NYSE:BZ), Sunrise Senior Living (NYSE:SRZ), Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KERX), Commercial Vehicle Group (NASDAQ:CVGI), Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS), Kodiak Oil and Gas (AMEX:KOG), IDT Group (NYSE:IDT), Magnum Hunter Resources (NYSE:MHR), Brigham Exploration (NASDAQ:BEXP), Valassis Communications (NYSE:VCI), Newcastle Investment (NYSE:NCT), Power-One (NASDAQ:PWER) and Polypore International (NYSE:PPO).

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This is a guest post written by Trader Mark who runs the blog Fund My Mutual Fund.

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