"Our annual 'Hot Hands' feature is a simple strategy: buy whichever fund has performed best in the previous year and hold onto it throughout the upcoming one," says fund expert Jim Lowell.

The editor of Fidelity Investor explains, "Over the long haul this strategy has delivered hedge fund-like gains without any of the hedge fund snafus.

"Buying the Hot Hands fund doesn't guarantee you are going to beat the index every year. That's worth repeating; this strategy has not beaten the market every year.

"It's not secret that small caps perform best coming out of recessions; further, if we want to ride the small-cap rally for maximum gains, we should similarly rotate into small-cap value stocks," says Louis Basense.

The contributing editor to The Oxford Club explains, "Thankfully, it's an easy transition to make. I say that because the most attractive small-cap value investment is sitting right under our noses. No one on Earth is better at discovering small-cap value investments than David Dreman.

"We include Price Small Cap Value (PRSVX) in all five of our Master portfolios as well as our Best Buy model portfolios," says Mark Salzinger.

In his The No-Load Fund Investor, the fund expert suggests, "Overall, we consider this fund to be an excellent core holding for small-cap exposure." Here's his bullish overview.

"The fund lost just 28.6% in 2008, vs. anearly 37% loss for the average small-cap-value fund. In 2009, though, that has reversed a bit: Price Small Cap Value has gained 19.6% to its average peer's 22.7% gain. Two reasons for the sluggish performance this year are rooted in the fund's basic composition.