When to forgive a stock's illiquidity

For many stockpickers, bigger is better. Though their fortunes might ebb and flow, blue chips are well-understood, easily traded and more likely to enjoy a balance of market optimism and pessimism. The crowd, while prone to mood swings, can feel like a safe place.

But some take the opposite view. If, after asset allocation, the price you pay for an asset is one of the biggest drivers of returns, then it makes sense to look for prices that are radically out of kilter. The crowd, by sticking to the same ideas, will fail to unearth such situations.

So how do you find them? One way to do this is to simply turn over more rocks and look. In our results pages, we now aim to cover many more UK-listed companies with a market capitalisation of at least £50mn. That means lots of equities that receive next to no coverage in the mainstream business press, and where relatively few investors pay attention.