Small is supposed to be beautiful. Not only does historical evidence show that smaller companies tend to outperform their larger peers over the long term, but in the present Brexit climate more compact operators are widely regarded as better able to weather the economic challenges that lie ahead.
Perhaps all this will play to the strengths of the Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust. This £959 million investment vehicle is packed full of British businesses of modest market value, typically below £1.3 billion.
True, it has underperformed its benchmark over one, three and five years since its launch in 1990 and its shares have fallen by more than 28 per cent this year, also lagging its reference — but its performance over the three months to
