NEW YORK (AP) — Maybe the middle child really should be the favorite.

Just like families sometimes overlook the middle kid, investors all too often pay attention to just the smallest and largest stocks. Managers of mid-cap stock mutual funds say they’ve experienced the middle-child syndrome for years: Small-caps are young companies that offer the thrill of big growth, the thinking goes, while large-cap companies have well-established brands and can be more dependable.