(New York)

Small cap stocks have done well this year, and many are growing more interested in the area following underperformance in the last few years. With that in mind, here are some picks from a top global small caps fund manager. The first thing to know is that international small caps are one of the few areas where active management adds value because many companies are poorly covered by analysts. The other thing to know is that at small caps the CEO really makes a difference in a way that is impossible at much larger organizations. The manager picks shares like Japan’s Horiba, or ABC-MART, or Britain’s Electrocomponents.

FINSUM: Picking international small caps is definitely an area where management needs to be outsourced to a specialist, and to be honest, this fund’s (Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Small-Cap) picks and approach were to us impressive.