While a billionaire investor like Warren Buffett has a number of advantages over most investors, the little guys still have some things working in their favor, Validea CEO John Reese writes in his latest Forbes.com column.

“Make no mistake,” says Reese. “As an individual investor, you have at least one advantage over Buffett, and it’s a very big one. The advantage: Buffett is constrained by the size of his Berkshire Hathaway empire. Because the company has a market cap of nearly $300 billion and an investment portfolio of more than $90 billion, the universe of stocks from which Buffett can choose is dramatically smaller than the universe from which you and I can choose.”

Reese explains how Berkshire needs to invest primarily in very large firms because only very large investments can “move the needle” on its portfolio returns. “You, on the other hand, can make the small-cap universe a big chunk of your portfolio, if that’s where you see the best opportunities,” Reese says. “(And, over the long haul, many studies have shown that small caps tend to outperform their larger peers.)”

Reese looks at five small caps that get high marks from his Buffett-inspired “Guru Strategy”, which is based on the published approach Buffett used to build his empire. Among them: sporting goods retailer Hibbett Sports.