A look back at the Scrip stories that piqued the most interest for our readers in 2018. 

Interest in small cap stocks is dwindling on the part of buy-side funds., This is partly due to funds' need for liquidity. But last year's gain of over 50% by stocks of large pharmaceutical companies makes the smaller, riskier stocks even less attractive now. Portfolio manager Skip Klein of T. Rowe Price was a casualty of the relatively poor performance of small cap stocks.

Becton Dickinson's strength in medical devices has always been building large market shares in high volume lines and then managing for profitability through more efficient manufacturing. But the company has begun an aggressive growth campaign just as its core businesses have begun to stagnate. Customer consolidation and more aggressive competition is leading this cautious company to become a risk-taker.