In the very long run, small stocks have outperformed their larger brethren.

"At the end of last year, we thought the odds were 2 to 1 that stocks would outperform bonds," he said.

"These stocks have historically outperformed as the economy moves toward a recovery."

And financial stocks have outperformed the market over the last two months.

Such stocks, on average, outperformed the market over the next four quarters, according to the professors.

"These stocks could very well outperform the market over the rest of the year," he said.

The stock outperformed the Nasdaq, which lost nearly 7 percent.

Smaller stocks have far outperformed their larger peers in recent weeks.

That is because stocks have outperformed other holdings over periods of several years.

As a group, year-2000 stocks outperformed the market by a wide margin in 1996 and 1997.