Daily Screen: The Best Small-Cap Growth Funds

Ah, the feast-or-famine world of small-cap investing.

Today the Daily Screen checks out the small-cap growth fund category, which is showing investors its fickle personality. Some of last year's highest fliers were tech-heavy small-cap growth funds, which posted a 62% return on average, according to Morningstar. But this year they're up just 0.9% on average, illustrating the tired-but-true tenet that small-cap investing requires patience and a strong stomach.

So, what do we mean by small-cap growth, anyway? These funds invest primarily in small-capitalization stocks, typically defined as those with a market capitalization of $1.5 billion or less. Growth stocks are typically those of fast-growing companies, often in hot sectors like technology or biotechnology, that sell at high valuations relative to the overall market. ...