Let’s have a rousing ovation for our investment gurus . . .

Alright, in this investment climate, polite applause will suffice.

For three months, these brave souls have been dancing through the minefield that the stock market has become. And, in their Three-Star picks for the column, not all of our experts have been blown to bits.

If you invested and held the 33 picks by 11 pros from the fourth quarter of 2000, you’d have lost 6.7 per cent, not so bad considering the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 index was down about 18 per cent in the quarter (26 of the picks were TSE stocks, seven Canadian Venture and one Montreal Exchange).

The CDNX composite is down 20 per cent in the past three months and the Nasdaq composite, the bellwether for tech stocks, down 38 per cent. Obviously, some tough old crow will be served at this awards banquet. However, in fairness to our prognosticators, they made their picks with long-term views and any predictions without a year’s maturity should be taken with a grain of salt.

The 11 pros all avoided the disastrous high-profile plays such as Nortel, Cell-Loc and Wi-LAN and five of them boast gains — Gord Currie of Canaccord Capital; Rob van Doorn of Loewen, Ondaatje and McCutcheon; Peter Linder of Research Capital; Elvis Picardo of Global Securities; and Andrew Boland of Peters & Co. take a bow.

We should point out that investors should only use analyst recommendations as a guideline while doing their own research or consulting a professional adviser.

The awards:

* THREE STAR PLAYS (based on performance to Jan. 5): Fuel-injected PanCanadian Petroleum (PCP-TSE) ran 26 per cent to $39.60 since it was touted by Calgary-based oil-and-gas analyst Currie of Canaccord Capital in the Nov. 8 issue.

CAE Inc. (CAE-TSE), a manufacturer of flight simulators, soared 21 per cent to $23 after getting the thumbs up from Calgary investment guru Fred Pynn of Bissett & Associates, and Pacific Northwest (PFN-CDNX), a palladium/platinum exploration company, gained 19 per cent to .70 since being boosted by Vancouver mining analyst Van Doorn a month ago.

* THREE FALLING STARS: Burt Reynolds and Videoflicks.com (YVF.U-CDNX), an online marketer of videos of which Reynolds is a director and spokesperson, took the worst hit. Soon after Anna Beukes of Edmonton’s Roche Securities raved over the 25-cent (US) stock, it tanked and now is an illiquid dime stock, down 60 per cent. Envoy Communications Group (ECG-TSE), an online advertising company, is down 53 per cent to $3.67 since getting the nod from Toronto’s Bob Leshchyshyn of Northern Securities and VisuaLabs, a Calgary imaging technology company, is down 47 per cent to $7.00 since it was touted as a speculative buy by Calgary technology analyst Brian Pow of Acumen Capital.

* THREE PRO STARS: Currie rode skyrocketing natural-gas prices to a 19 per cent gain with his three picks two months ago — PanCanadian (+26 per cent), Anderson Exploration (AXL-TSE, +16 per cent) and Talisman Energy (TLM-TSE, +15 per cent). Even with mining stocks out of favour, Van Doorn managed an eight-per-cent gain with Pacific Northwest (+19 per cent), Eldorado Gold (ELD-TSE, +16 per cent) and Great Basin Gold (GBG-TSE, -10 per cent). Linder, the Calgary oil-and-gas analyst who was trumpeting gas-weighted stocks back in October before it became fashionable, boasts a five per cent gain with Anderson, Bonavista Petroleum (BNP-TSE, +5 per cent) and Ketch Energy (KCH-TSE, +4 per cent).

* THE ALSO-RANS: Those experts bringing up the rear at the quarter pole are all carrying the weight of technology stocks. Pow is the only one in this group who specializes in technology stocks and his picks have run in lock-step with Nasdaq — down 42 per cent with MediSolution (MSH-TSE, -32 per cent), RightsMarket (RTS-CDNX, -46 per cent) and VisuaLabs (VLI-CDNX, -47 per cent).

Beukes has a winner in Churchill Corporation (CUQ-TSE, +16 per cent) but is still down 38 per cent overall with battered techs Videoflicks.com and Photochannel Networks (PNI-Montreal Exchange, -39 per cent). Leshchyshyn has lost 29 per cent with Envoy, Mosaic Group (MGX-TSE, -27 per cent) and FirstService (FSV-TSE, -7 per cent).

We’ll check back on these and our latest picks in three months.

PRO'S THREE STARS

Toronto-based Mal Spooner, portfolio manager for the YMG Growth Fund at YMG Capital Management, is bullish on one of Calgary’s up and comers, EMG Manufacturing Group (EMY-CDNX).

EMG had a recent price of $4.50 and a year range of $3.50-$8.95. Spooner’s target? “Ten dollars — in no time.”

Spooner also covets Calgary-based Baytex Energy (BTE-TSE, recent price, $9.60, year range, $9-$16.70). His 12-month target is $15.

He believes West Fraser Timber (WFT-TSE) will benefit from rising lumber prices. His target is $50 “in six to nine months” for the stock (recent price, $16.40, year range, $21-$39.50).

HOT STOCK: CANADIAN DENTAL PARTNERS CDI-CDNX .45 Up .26 (+137%) on 4,500 shares (for week ending Jan. 5)

Up 137 per cent, you say. Boy, I coulda been richer’n my dentist. Hold the phone, Vern. Check the volume. Even if you’d owned this illiquid play at .19, you’d have had a heck of a time selling it at .26 with the stock averaging 1,125 shares a day. This Calgary provider of dental and medical practice management services isn’t exactly setting the world on fire. Owning this one has been about as much fun as a root canal with a 70-per-cent swoon from its year high of .83.

COLD STOCK: ZI CORPORATION ZIC-TSE $8.75

Down $3 (-26%) on 158,600 shares (for week ending Jan. 5)

In the previous week, Zi was toast of the town with a 57-per-cent gain as CEO Michael Lobsinger assured investors that the software company would be profitable this year. This past week, the stock gave back almost half of its gains. Nobody said this has to make sense. It’s a volatile tech stock. And this is the new world order.