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"The bigger they are, the harder they fall." It's the worst nightmare of every investor in today's market -- buying a rocket stock just before it takes a nosedive.

Now I readily admit that sometimes, stocks rise for a reason. But sometimes, the rise becomes the reason. No matter how often we caution them not to, investors do have a habit of buying "hot" stocks and trusting momentum to keep 'em moving up.

Problem is, if the price goes up too much, even a great company can turn into a lousy investment (and if the company was less than great in the first place...). Below I list a few stocks that may have done just this. These stocks, according to the smart folks at finviz.com, have more than doubled over the past year and just might be ripe to fall back to earth.

Company

Recent Price

CAPS Rating

(out of 5)

Companies are selected by screening for 100% and higher price appreciation over the last 12 months on finviz.com. Five stars = highest possible CAPS rating; one star = lowest. Current pricing provided by Yahoo! Finance. CAPS ratings from Motley Fool CAPS.

Question: What do iron mining, searching for a cure for cancer, and seismic oil exploration have in common? One answer might be that they're all a bit of a gamble. Another -- that the companies behind these ideas are some of the hottest stocks on the Street.

And maybe, rightly so. Shares of Cliffs Natural Resources have more than doubled over the past year, and CAPS member gtucker7848 thinks this is only the beginning, calling Cliffs Natural a "great play on slow, steady international recovery." Even as revenues slipped into decline at mining giants Vale (Nasdaq: VALE) and Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP), Cliffs managed to triple its revenues last quarter.