The saying that little fish are sweetest applied to the Australian stockmarket in 2002. As most stockbrokers and clients concentrated on the top 200 stocks - for modest returns or outright losses - the best business was at the small end of town, where Schaffer Corporation, ahead of a pack of medium-size companies, became the best share-price performer among stocks in the All Ordinaries index.

From January 2 to November 29, Schaffer's share price rose from $4.25 to $12.28, a gain of 188.9%. Next, with a gain of 187.7%, was the gold miner Croesus Mining, followed by another gold stock, Kingsgate Consolidated, up 148.1%, Sam's Seafoods (116.1%), and the labor-hire firm Skilled Engineering (107.8%). The thread linking the top five is that all fall beneath the size criteria of the big stockbrokers, which have a fixation with the top 200 listed companies, rarely researching - even more rarely making investment recommendations on - smaller companies.