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Every investor wants to know about the newest big money stocks, but how does someone go about finding those gems? While you need not be a financial expert to understand how to pick stocks on the rise, there are several financial factors that will lead to stocks that are set to soar with big moves.

The first tenet to remember for finding big money stocks is to look at the buying patterns of institutional investors. Institutional investors are those who manage money for large institutions, such as cities, school systems, hospitals and corporations. They invest just like individual investors by buying stocks, bonds and mutual funds. However, the capital institutional investors inject into the market with equity purchases--or remove when they sell a particular security--has significant impact on the attractiveness of individual investments. Thus, if a multi-billion-dollar institutional investor likes a particular company, it is soon to see a jump in price.

Reputable companies with solid balance sheets are typically behind the hot stocks. Investors are urged to investigate several financial aspects of big money stocks, including strong sales growth. Sales growth is essential for winning stocks because Wall Street significantly favors strong sales growth. Therefore, even if analysts are dissatisfied with a company's earnings, the stock is highly likely to stay in good standing with them if the company's sales growth figures are strong.

Another major consideration in picking winning stocks is estimating their earnings for the next few quarters. Stocks with extremely high growth-to-PE ratios are the most likely to make big moves in the near future. Major institutions that are looking to invest use these criteria to make their selections. For any big money stocks, it is important to research earnings momentum, even more so when earnings growth overall is declining. That makes it even more likely that stocks in companies with rapid earnings growth will move up strongly.

An increasingly recognized sign that a stock will move up its the ratio between its growth rate and its P/E ratio. Many energy and basic commodity companies, thanks to high growth rates in China and elsewhere, are seeing high demand for their products and thus strong growth rates, while their P/E ratios are still among the lowest on the stock exchanges.

Surprise earnings are another important factor when choosing hot stocks in the small and mid-cap sector, especially since stocks that exceed expectations create greater demand and additional buying pressure. All of these things are important for big money stocks, but there are other factors to consider as well when selecting your stocks, certain factors such as improved cash flow (often resulting in increased dividends), return on equity and expansion on profit margin.