In this holiday period, many investors lose sight of the market, and for many of them, that’s fine. But the best investors are always aware of the market, and always working to do better, and the first step to that is often research, like this between-the-holidays issue that profiles many of today’s top stocks as well as some that have the potential to join them. Also included is an optimistic look at long-term stock patterns that argues for great performance in 2013.