Even though September was supposed to be a weak month, so far we have seen solid gains for equities. One part of the market doing really well is small caps, where the average stock in the Russell 2000 is up over 3.5%. Propping that average up, 256 stocks in the index are up over 10% MTD, and of those 72 are up over 20%.

In the first table below, we list the 25 top performing stocks in the Russell 2000 so far in September. All 25 of these stocks are up over 30% so far this month, but amazingly, a handful are up by multiples of that. Leading the way higher, Veritone (VERI) has surged by over 150% (and that’s after today’s 13% decline) as investors plow into Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays. VERI went public in May and offers a platform which it says can be used to run various AI tasks. Behind VERI, Insmed (INSM) has also seen its share price more than double this month as the company announced positive trial results related to one of its lung disease treatments. Looking at the list of biggest winners, you would likely be hard pressed to find more than a couple of names that you have never even heard of, but if they continue to rally like they have so far this month, it’s only a matter of time before you start hearing about them more and more.

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To the downside, over 500 stocks in the Russell 2000 are down so far this month, and of those 71 are down over 10%. The table below lists the 25 of those that are down the most. Leading the way to the downside, shares of Tintri (TNTR) have lost over 40% of their value after the company lowered guidance earlier this month. Close on the heels of TNTR, shares of Synchronoss (SNCR) are also down over 40% this month and all of that decline came on Tuesday when Siris Capital said it was no longer interested in acquiring the company. Here again, the majority of the names listed below are probably names you’ve never heard of, which is a good thing because the less familiar you are with these names, the less likely it is that you have been impacted by their declines.

On a final note, looking at both the lists of biggest winners and losers really drives home the point about how volatile stocks in the Health Care sector can be. In both the list of biggest winners and biggest losers, stocks from the Health Care sector make up over half of the names on the list with 13 on the list of biggest winners and 16 of the biggest losers.

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