With Halloween coming up this weekend, what better time to reflect on the stock market’s recent ups and downs? After all, the market headlines have been a little scary lately.

If you don’t like big changes, you may feel a little spooked this fall.

Check out this chart of the VIX Index, the commonly accepted measure of S&P 500 volatility. After a long period of relative tranquility, volatility jumped in August and took a while to calm down.

There are many reasons for the volatility.

Leading the list are signs of weakness in the U.S. economy, concerns about slowing growth rates for China’s economy, uncertainty about the Fed’s intentions regarding short-term interest rates and worse-than-expected earnings from some prominent companies.

Despite these negatives, stocks have overcome their August-September swoon with an impressive rebound in October, as investors snatched up high-quality stocks.

I’ve advised keeping cash out of the S&P 500 during periods of high volatility. In addition, the overall market’s valuation remains a little high relative to earnings, and all of the concerns listed above remain valid.

Don’t Let Fear Blind You To The Real Opportunities In The Stock Market
Now, I don’t want you to worry. Because while the market in aggregate might not offer a lot of optimism right now, there are still tons of great buys insofar as individual stocks are concerned.

After all, there were stocks that finished in the win column even after the ’29 Crash. Dozens of stocks generated triple-digit wins after the most-recent bloodletting in 2008. This is still true, and there are still plenty of pheasants in the field.

And I try and find those opportunities and bring them to my readers in every issue of my premium advisory, Game-Changing Stocks.

Take Esperion (Nasdaq: ESPR) for example.  Esperion is a development-stage drug company, an area I usually shy away from. Absent a significant mitigating factor, there is simply too much risk with these companies. In this case, however, the lead scientist changes things. Roger Newton was the man behind Lipitor, which is the best-selling drug of all time. He developed a novel cholesterol-lowering treatment, and the drug was undergoing trials. I first recommended these shares in August 2013:

Shares remained stagnant for about a year, but investors that had the confidence to stick with the company were amply rewarded with a 500%+ gain.

Now of course, not every investment is going to hit it this big. You have to be careful which ones you pick.

So what’s the next big investment? Well, my expertise is in identifying technological breakthroughs. And I’ve just found one that could disrupt several sectors, sending them into a freefall… But there will be winners too.

It’s an energy play not related to fracking, coal, or even biofuel.

You see, a group of scientists in California have built an energy storage device capable of harnessing massive amounts of energy. And it’s got me thinking about what other developments have been made in this space.

I’ve written a new special report about my picks for profiting on the latest breakthroughs in this area.  I think they could be BIG. Click here to learn more.