Tim Stevenson of Evergreen Special Equity Fund (ma

STEVENSON: We sell when a stock loses relative attractiveness in our universe. We assess expected returns and excess returns versus our benchmark. If it drops down to a negative range it is an automatic sell.

We can also employ kind of a “pairs” trading strategy, knowing that there are always alternatives. We may own a semiconductor company, but there may be a buy for one that we don’t own. We then try to decide which is a better opportunity for us. We will look at them fundamentally with subjectivity. As long as they are of relatively equal attractiveness, purely on a quantitative basis, we can make a subjective decision on news, corporate events, or accounting issues that we discover, and then swap.

S&P: Do you visit management?

STEVENSON: We do not. The team is too small with four individuals, and with the push on (SEC) Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure), we don’t know how valuable that is. People are very successful meeting with management, I am assuming still, but everyone is complaining about Reg. FD with the approach. (Regulation FD restricts “selective disclosure” of material, nonpublic information about a company.)

S&P: There is a school of thought that it makes sense to meet with management of smaller companies, which aren’t as widely followed, while mid- and large-cap stock managers may be less inclined to visit management.

STEVENSON: When they are smaller it makes a lot of sense, since they don’t have the coverage from the Street. What we found after Reg. FD, in many cases, is that the managers just clamed up completely. They did not have the big compliance departments or PR departments that sort of govern what they could and could not say.

S&P: As a result of Reg. FD have you taken further measures or precautions with the portfolio?

STEVENSON: No. But we question earnings surprises as a factor in driving a stock’s price down, as well as momentum from earnings estimates. Some of these things used to work very well from a quantitative perspective. We question how effective they are going to be going forward.

S&P: How is the portfolio positioned now? Are you lighter in technology than you have been historically?

STEVENSON: Actually, the opposite is true. The catch phrases that we now use in small-growth land are “out-of-favor” and “unloved” — labels that were applied to value investing.

Up until about the third quarter we were very defensive, cheating towards the core box in small-cap asset class. In the October-November time frame, we started becoming much more aggressive. We saw more and more technology companies in our screen. Information technology is now closer to the 30% level in the fund. Biotech was an addition here in the last couple of months, too.

S&P: Is it fair to say your are contrarian at the moment?

STEVENSON: I think we are taking more of a contrarian approach. Stepping up to tech and biotech here makes us feel more comfortable. We think there is going to be a huge move up in small-cap growth stocks, if, for no other reason, because everyone is in love with small-cap value right now.

Things go to extremes. How long did it take for small-cap value to come back? People thought that growth would go on forever.

S&P: Why do you think small-cap growth will come back?

STEVENSON: Pessimism. We have tried to develop models to identify when the shift will occur. Over the last several years, people were calling for small stocks to do well for a long time. It took a while for it to happen. It is hard to predict.

We see lots of money flowing to small-cap value managers now. The cash levels are building, and they are having to cheat up to the mid-cap range. The large-cap guys are cheating down a little bit. One group that no one really wants right now is small-cap growth. Whenever you start to question any asset class you are getting to the point where it is going to do very well.

S&P: Have you noticed any macro trends that have come through your analysis?

STEVENSON: One of the themes that seems to come through in all our work has been the consumer spending and leisure time entertainment. Everything from Hollywood entertainment to video sort of things, to stocks of boating companies, to autos. The consumer has had the confidence to stay pretty high in all this.

S&P: Is that something you would expect to continue going forward?

STEVENSON: I don’t see any reason for it to be shaken up if unemployment doesn’t get out of whack. We are pretty positive on the economy. We have got a relatively positive market outlook — a high single-digit positive return. From these levels that’s pretty good. Twenty percent-plus return years are a thing of the past.