10 Small-Cap Stocks With Big Prospects

We've got an oil shortage. A corn shortage. An honest-politician shortage.

Now you can add a shortage of small-cap growth stocks with potential strangleholds on fast-growing niches. Yep, this year I've had a hard struggle to find enough stocks like that to fill out my annual revision to my Future Fantastic 50.

That's disappointing, because for the fourth year in row, that portfolio beat both the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500. Since last July, the Future 50 is up 31%, whereas the S&P and Nasdaq have gained 26% and 25%, respectively.

This portfolio is volatile, and these stocks are best suited for aggressive investors. Even then, they should be owned as the edge surrounding a more conservative growth core. By casting my net even farther overseas this year, I've been able to keep to my goal of replacing 20% of the stocks in this portfolio in my annual revision.

The 10 stocks I'm adding to the Future 50 portfolio this year are:

• Alvarion (ALVR)
• Itron (ITRI)
• DaVita (DVA)
• Devon Energy (DVN)
• Embraer (ERJ)
• First Solar (FSLR)
• Gamesa Tecnologica (GCTAF)
• Oshkosh Truck (OSK)
• Plum Creek Timber (PCL)
• Suntech Power Holdings (STP)

I'm also deleting 10 stocks from the portfolio. Two of those, VNU and Color Kinetics (CLRK), are dropping off because they've been or are being acquired. Of the other eight I'm deleting, these four will be added to my 50 Best Stocks in the World portfolio when I revise that list in September: Accor (ACRFF), EMC (EMC), Nvidia (NVDA) and VeriSign (VRSN).