Tiny Titans


"Tiny Titans" is the strategy with the highest compund annual returns in the 2005 edition of "What Works on Wall Street".

The strategy is not given any name in "What Works On Wall Street" but we can easilly recognize it at the top of the table named "Strategies ranked by Compound Annual Average Returns". O'Shaughnessy named it "Tiny Titans" in his subsequent book "Predicting the Markets of tomorrow".

We'll use the thematic stock screening process to pick Tiny Titans stocks.

Investing Universe

Tiny Titans is a Small Cap (in fact Micro Cap) version of Reasonable Runaways.

Stocks with Market Capitalization < 25M are excluded as nobody can easily buy or sell them.


  • Market Cap: 25 Millions to 250 Millions

Even by eliminating market cap <25M, liquidity and Bid-Ask spread could be an issue. It could be a good idea to add some extra liquidity criterion:
  • Daily Volume > 10,000

  • Share Price > 1

Primary Theme Go back to Top

"Tiny Titans" is a Value-Momentum strategy. The momentum is used as ranking. The primary theme focuses then on Value.

  • Price/Sales < 1

Although Reasonable Runaways works with other value criteria such as Price/Earnings <20 or Price/Book < 1... it is preferable to stick to the Price/Sales criterion for small micro caps as this ratio is less volatile.

Secondary Theme Go back to Top

There is no secondary theme.

Ranking and Holding Period Go back to Top

As with most of his mechanical strategies, O'Shaughnessy uses the 12 months Relative Strength as Ranking parameter.


Regarding holding period:
  • O'Shaughnessy rebalances on a yearly basis which is the maximum reasonable for strategies using Relative Strength.


  • AAII tracks the performances of Tiny Titans with monthly rebalancing since 1998 and this is one of their most successful stock screens.
Therefore holding periods between 1 month and 1 year are possible.

Tiny Titans Stock Screen Go back to Top

Here is a summary of Tiny Titans screening parameters.


Screening Theme Tiny Titans
Investing Universe 25M < Market Cap < 250M
Primary Theme Price/Sales < 1
Secondary Theme(s)  
Ranking 12 months Relative Strength
Number Of Holdings 25
Holding Period 1 month to 1 year




You can screen for Tiny Titans stocks at the mechanical investing stock screener.
Choose "Select a Market Cap = Small", then "Select a Style = Value", and "Select a Strategy = Tiny Titans".

I would not recommend a portfolio exclusively made of Tiny Titans stocks. However, it could be a good candidate for your Small Cap portion in an Asset Allocation strategy.

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