Craig Walters has spent the last ten years entrenched in the investment industry and doing what he loves best: performing financial research on scores of companies and writing about it.

After completing business school in the mid 1990s, he began his financial career at what was then the largest brokerage firm headquartered in Washington DC. There, he was systems director for a group led by the late Wall $treet Week All Star, Julius Westheimer.

A year and a half later, Craig made the move to the equity research department. His work there ushered in significant exposure to many industries, many varied companies, and personal contact with many management teams around the world.

His first area of focus was on the foodservice industry. At the time, there was a paradigm shift making people of virtually all income levels buy more prepared foods and increasingly go to restaurants. It was becoming less of an economically sensitive phenomenon - mostly because two working parents with one or more children were finding less time to cook meals at home, and also appeared less willing to do it.  There has been a lot of consolidation in this space over the last several years, but at the time, the companies that he was involved in covering included key names like Performance Food Group, International Multifoods, Michael Foods, and Universal Food Group.

A change in research focus brought with it the challenge of following some of the most volatile communications technology companies of the time. These included a lot of public firms trying to develop the best last-mile alternatives for broadband connectivity. This was when fiber optic prices made fiber connectivity anywhere near an individual's home completely out of the question. Some of the stocks Craig was involved with were Tollgrade Communications, DSP Group, DMC Stratex Networks and California Amplifier. 

All of this led up to leading the firm's research on diversified technology stocks. Now Craig was able to expand his view on a wider array of companies, which included some industrial laser companies at the forefront of manufacturing, some niche auto makers, and advanced medical device and drug testing companies.

It was over this decade that Craig became committed to small cap stocks. The evidence is wide spread of their ability to outperform over time - and he finds that really attractive. But he also likes that Wall Street can't make enough money following many small caps to justify paying much attention to them. Many are simply too illiquid for institutional traders to generate large profits from, and many investment bankers seek companies that can offer bigger and better deals.

Craig's interest in following small caps led him to Agora Financial, where he is now Managing Editor for many of the financial newsletters that the company publishes. He is also working along with James Boric on Small-Cap Strategy Report and Small-Cap Insider.

Craig is an editor of Small-Cap Strategy Report and Small-Cap Insider.