The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that the last time small-cap stocks were this attractive was during the 2008 global financial crisis, says money manager David Barr, who has been snapping up some of his favourite names recently. In a Globe special, Brenda Bouw quotes Mr. Barr saying: "This is an excellent time to be investing. There are periods of time where you can find high-quality companies at a very good price -- and this is one of them." Mr. Barr is chief executive officer and portfolio manager at PenderFund Capital in Vancouver, which oversees about $2.2-billion in assets. Mr. Barr's firm has spent the past six months buying "high-quality names" for the portfolio, either as new buys or adding more to existing names. The fund's top holdings today include Par Technology, Spartan Delta, Saturn Oil, Sylogist and Maxar Technologies. The fund has declined 26.8 per cent in 2022, as of July 29, compared with a drop of 5.6 per cent for the S&P/TSX Composite Index over the same period, all based on total returns. The fund has seen an annualized total return of 15.4 per cent since its inception in June, 2009, compared with an annualized total return of 7.9 per cent for the S&P/TSX composite.