When markets grow loud, progress often moves quietly. Thin trading volume, recycled headlines, and short-term reactions can hide meaningful execution happening below the surface. For busy investors, the challenge isn’t access to information—it’s filtering signal from distraction. Small-cap companies tend to reveal their strength not through hype, but through improving fundamentals. These businesses operate in massive markets, generate real revenue, and adapt faster than larger incumbents. Volatility here isn’t a warning—it’s often the entry point.

The final section shows how these companies continue compounding while attention drifts—and why perception usually catches up later than fundamentals.

Let’s embark on this transformative journey together and position your portfolio for success in this evolving market landscape!

Be sure to read through to the end to catch all the valuable insights this newsletter delivers to your inbox today.

From December 22 to January 1, you can upgrade your Snowball Analytics subscription plan with an exclusive 30% discount.

Snowball Analytics: Simple, and it works. Markets crash, but your ​dividends keep paying—month after month, year after year. Forget the spreadsheets; Snowball Analytics is my simple go-to for linking up your investments worldwide and uncovering the steady savings you didn't know were there. ​Straightforward tools, real results, no nonsense.​

1. Clear portfolio overview

Track all your accounts in one place and explore NEW features: “Why is it moving?” (price catalysts at a glance), Full Benchmarking, 10-year company data, and 30+ years of backtests.

2. Smarter analytics

Snowball reveals insights beyond your broker’s reports — from a full-year dividend forecast to sector, currency, and asset-class diversification, plus instant detection of weak spots in your portfolio.

3. Confident decision-making

Measure portfolio performance, compare with leading indexes, assess risks, and get optimization ideas.

4. Passive income planning

Visual dividend calendar helps you plan ahead and understand income stability.

5. Time-saving clarity

Forget endless manual calculations: Snowball turns raw reports into intuitive charts and metrics within minutes.

6. Responsive human support

A real team is ready to help you with any questions - not bots. Available on iOS and Android, so you stay in control anywhere.

Start the new year with powerful tools designed to help you manage your investments with confidence.

​​Free 14-day trial, no card​.​

Five years ago, Power Solutions International $PSIX ( ▼ 4.61% ) shares were trading around $3.15 each. Today, it's closed at $62.47—a massive 1,793% leap that comes from its focus on alternative-fuel engines, generators, and power systems for industrial, energy, and off-road uses. The chart shows a long quiet period through 2023, then a sharp rise in 2025 as demand for cleaner power solutions kicked in, with after-hours at $62.64. That 52-week high of $121.47 marks the peak strength so far.

To put it simply, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 82.24%. That's the average yearly push—calculated by raising the total growth factor to the 1/5 power and subtracting 1. It means nearly doubling your money each year, on average.

Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) keeps it steady: Invest $500 every month for five years, totaling $30,000. This buys more shares on dips and fewer on peaks, which helps through the quiet and busy times. Projecting forward at the same historical pace, with a monthly growth rate of about 5.31% from $62.47, your shares add up over time.

After 60 months, your total could reach $196,442. That's a gain of $166,442—a 554% return on your investment. The early buys get the biggest compounding boost, while later ones still ride the wave.

This is based on the past, which isn't a sure thing ahead—industrial engine stocks can swing with energy trends or regulations, but a P/E ratio of 11.89 shows reasonable pricing, and a $1.44B market cap gives room to grow. With that 52-week high of $121.47 as a recent top, PSIX has spark. If DCA matches your steady style, it could turn your $500 habit into a charged payoff by 2030. Ready to power on?

Right now, the market feels busy—but not productive. Holiday volume thins, headlines recycle the same macro fears, and most investors are reacting instead of positioning. This is usually when meaningful groundwork gets laid beneath the surface.

For investors juggling careers, families, and limited time, the hardest part isn’t finding information. It’s knowing what actually matters—and what can safely be ignored.

This is where smaller companies quietly separate themselves.

Small-cap businesses don’t move on hype alone. They move when execution compounds. They grow when markets are large, products solve real problems, and management adapts faster than incumbents. Volatility isn’t a flaw here—it’s the entry point.

The companies explored below operate in massive addressable markets: insurance, healthcare, payments, fintech, and medical technology. They already generate revenue. Several are already profitable. All are scaling into opportunity rather than experimenting their way toward relevance.

The common thread is simple: these are businesses improving fundamentals while their stock prices lag the narrative.

Insurance has long been priced in broad strokes. That model is breaking.

Root Insurance $ROOT ( ▲ 1.04% ) represents a shift toward individualized risk assessment, using real driving behavior rather than demographic assumptions. Its platform collects granular driving data multiple times per second, allowing it to price policies based on how someone actually drives—not how insurers assume they might.

This precision allows Root to do something traditional insurers can’t do efficiently: decline the riskiest drivers early, improving loss ratios over time. Strategic partnerships, including vehicle marketplaces, lower customer acquisition costs and improve underwriting quality.

Recent stock volatility hasn’t come from operational collapse. It came from profit-taking after strong earnings, increased investment in growth, and seasonal claims pressure. These are temporary stresses layered onto a business that is expanding policies in force and improving unit economics.

Meanwhile, the broader insurance landscape continues shifting toward usage-based pricing—a tailwind that favors technology-first operators.

Oscar Health $OSCR ( ▼ 2.55% ) operates in a different corner of insurance but follows a similar playbook: simplify complexity through technology. As a digital-native health insurer, Oscar has spent years refining cost controls, automating member engagement, and using AI to manage care pathways more efficiently.

Concerns around healthcare subsidies have dominated headlines, but Oscar has already priced its future assuming no policy extensions. That conservative positioning matters. It reduces downside risk while preserving upside if conditions improve.

Operational efficiency is already showing up: administrative expenses shrinking as revenue grows, utilization stabilizing, and margins gradually improving. With clear profitability targets ahead, Oscar isn’t betting on policy luck—it’s executing through uncertainty.

Both companies benefit from being small enough to adapt quickly, yet large enough to matter.

Shift4 $FOUR ( ▲ 0.49% ) operates where transactions happen—restaurants, hotels, stadiums, and global commerce. This is not a story about reinvention. It’s a story about integration.

Years of acquisitions have built a platform capable of processing massive payment volumes across geographies and verticals. Short-term pressure has come from higher investment, leadership transitions, and debt restructuring—but those moves cleaned up the balance sheet rather than weakened it.

Subscription revenue is rising, margins are stabilizing, and transaction volume continues to grow. Expansion into Europe and adjacent markets creates optionality that isn’t yet reflected in valuation. As profitability normalizes, perception tends to follow.

dLocal operates at the intersection of global commerce and emerging markets—an inherently volatile but deeply rewarding space. Payment infrastructure across Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia is fragmented. dLocal simplifies it.

Despite currency swings, regulatory noise, and short-term market panic, the fundamentals remain intact: transaction volumes growing over 50% year over year, retention well above 100%, and profitability already established.

Volatility in regions like Argentina and Egypt is part of the operating environment—not a thesis breaker. What matters is adaptation, and dLocal continues adjusting exposure while expanding its footprint. For investors who understand that emerging market growth isn’t linear, this is compounding at work.

Sezzle $SEZL ( ▼ 3.46% ) operates in the buy-now-pay-later space—but with a very different emphasis than most peers. Growth here is no longer about chasing volume. It’s about building durable customer relationships.

The shift toward subscriptions reflects maturity: higher lifetime value, stronger conversion, and better credit performance. Despite a sharp valuation reset, revenue growth, margins, and profitability remain strong.

AI-driven automation allows Sezzle to scale without bloated costs, while a potential banking charter could materially lower its cost of capital. The business is becoming structurally stronger, not weaker.

TransMedics stands apart entirely.

This is a medical technology company redefining organ transplantation logistics. Its system allows organs to be preserved and transported under near-physiological conditions, expanding transplant viability and improving outcomes.

Revenue growth remains strong, insider buying reinforces confidence, and long-term expansion into kidney transplantation opens an even larger market. Seasonal revenue fluctuations have occurred before—and resolved before.

This is execution-heavy medicine, not speculative biotech. Hospitals adopt because it works. Surgeons use it because outcomes improve. That combination compounds quietly.

None of these businesses require constant monitoring. They require conviction built on fundamentals.

They share key traits:

Small-cap investing isn’t about predicting the next headline. It’s about recognizing when execution outpaces perception.

While much of the market waits for clarity, these companies are building it—quarter by quarter, customer by customer, system by system.

For investors balancing real life with long-term goals, this is where patience pays. Not because outcomes are guaranteed—but because progress is measurable.

And when the market finally catches up, it rarely does so quietly.

Ready to Revolutionize Your Wealth?

Here's what's waiting for you:

With the world becoming increasingly digital, this question will be on the minds of millions of people looking for new income streams in 2025.

The answer is—Absolutely!

Thank you for taking the time to read today’s email! Your support is what allows me to send out this newsletter for free every day. 

 What do you think of the new format? Please provide your feedback in the poll below, and if you find the newsletter valuable, feel free to share it with other investors!

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Please consult with a financial advisor before making any investment decisions.