Fast growing small companies provide big profits for well informed investors each year. Quite often, a share price takes off and it's surprising that nobody had thought of it before. Here at Sharewatch, we specialise in discovering exactly those kinds of companies before they become widely followed. Each issue gives recommendations on individual shares to buy and sell.

Last year, stock markets went into freefall and this affected our performance statistics. A virtual portfolio based on all 106 main buy recommendations and 35 New Year NAPS in Sharewatch between 1st January 2005 and 31st July 2009 rose by an average of 5.9% on a mid-to-mid price basis, excluding dividends and dealing costs (as calculated at 4/8/09). This was the period of maximum credit crunch nastiness including the collapse of Northern Rock and Lehman Brothers. But since then we have been picking up speed. Across all 21 main buy recommendations in 2009 to date, the gain is already 36.3% and some of these companies haven't even had time to perform yet.  

To see a full list of the recommendations included in the data above, please click here. 

The secret of success is to choose your stocks carefully, buy a spread and take a medium-term view. To illustrate this in action, we operate a portfolio within the pages of the newsletter.

Since its launch in November 1994, shares in Growth Portfolio 1, a virtual portfolio based only on selections in the newsletter with a starting capital of £25,000, delivered stunning growth of 1089% before being terminated in July 2001.

Growth Portfolio ll was launched in March 2001 and has so far risen by 294.0% versus the FTSE-100, which has fallen 19.0% over the same period and the FTSE-All Share, which has fallen 11.6% (as at 31st July - August '09 issue publish date).