Knowing what you own in order to get a handle on expected risk and return is essential for successful investing in the long run. No one accidentally generates attractive risk-adjusted results through time (well, almost no one). There are many ingredients for minimizing the mystery of what’s driving results, but for equity portfolios the capitalization factor is probably the first factor to review. Small stocks tend to behave differently than large caps. A close second, and perhaps the dominant factor at times is the value/growth distinction. Numerous studies remind that companies with low valuations have different expected return and risk characteristics compared with their highly valued counterparts. What’s more, the relationship is far from constant. That’s old news, of course, as are the implications for number crunching, a.k.a. style analysis. The details, however, can get messy, as a recent essay by investment consultant Ron Surz of PPCA, Inc. reminds.