Are Small Caps Twice as Good as Large Caps?

Alan Brochstein, CFA submits: If you wanted a real simple strategy to beat the S&P 500 this year, there was a single decision you might have made that would have succeeded handsomely: Buy Small-Caps.

By Gary Gordon: Over the last 3 months, U.S. small cap stocks as well as foreign and emerging market small caps logged spectacular profits. Moreover, they beat the pants off of larger-cap competition.

Michael Albert submits: Over the past week I've published two articles (click here and here) on Seeking Alpha arguing that the market may undergo a “Summer Crash” given 1) the magnitude of outperformance in recent months in defensive sectors such as consumer staples (

Alan Brochstein, CFA submits: For the first time in a very long time, healthcare is starting to show some leadership. Through 4/13, the sector is up 6.05% YTD, just behind Industrials but still trailing energy.

By Alan Brochstein, CFA: After sharing overly bullish outlooks for the S&P 500 (SPY) in 2011 (1500 target) and 2012 (1600 target) but at least getting it directionally correct,

By Bard Luippold:Volatility has returned. After breaking an important medium term trend line on Friday (10/19), the S&P 500 (SPY) followed through Tuesday with a major gap down, breaking through its 50-day moving average and finding support at its April 2012 highs (see chart). (Click to enlarge)

By Gerry Fowler:(Note that the following analysis was done using the underlying S&P 500 and Russell 2000 indices. The SPY and IWM are investable ETFs that replicate the indices with very low tracking error.)

Value Expectations submits: In the last two years, investors have sought the safety of stable Large Cap stocks amid a rough economic environment to limit downside risk, while avoiding smaller cap companies that have a higher chance of failing. Despite that fact, we believe there are a select numbers of small caps that provide a compelling investment opportunity and are worth considering.