Joel Greenblatt wrote a book called The Little Book that Beats the Market. In it, he divulges his "magic formula" – a strategy that, over the last 17 years, has returned 30.8% versus only 12.4% for the S&P 500.
The companies the Magic Formula turns up "are not popular names, and indeed many of them have short-term clouds hanging over their heads. This makes sense, since it explains why they are so cheap."
Greenblatt's website, magicformulainvesting.com, it couldn't be easier to get a list of stocks that meet his Magic Formula criteria. And it's free as well. Finding great investment opportunities is tough... so you want to at least start with a narrowed-down list of possibilities.