My pal Bre-Xer was in a terrible state when we bumped into each other at Liquidation World.

“Whatcha gonna do?” my pal cried, jumpier than CNBC announcer Maria Bartiromo at the Opening Bell at the New York Stock Exchange. “Didja see Maria the other day? She had that look in her eye. Scary stuff. I tell ya, the Bear’s knockin’ on the door!”

“Didn’t I tell you to hang your bathrobe over the TV when Maria’s on?” I scolded the poor chap.

“Your portfolio’s down five-and-a-half per cent already, ya gotta liquidate, sell everything!” spouted Bre-Xer, nervously shuffling in the Liquidation check-out line.

“Forget Maria. Your heart can’t take it. Relax. Watch a re-run of the interview with the Mark McGwire of analysts, the cleanup hitter at Goldman Sachs, Abby Joseph Cohen. If Abby’s bullish, I suspect the sky might not fall down after all.”

“Whatcha gonna do with that dog Brocker, down 26 per cent?” groans Bre-Xer.

“Actually, ol’ buddy, I’m thinking of averaging down on Brocker. I think it’s over-sold. For now, I’ll liquidate Liquidation World (LQW-TSE) at break-even, $4.85, and move the dough into Berkley Petroleum (BKP-TSE). I like Liquidation World and I’ll try and buy it back later but it may be dead money now. Berkley looks cheap at $8.40 with a huge upside and, more importantly, it’s a prime buy-out candidate in a consolidating oil-patch. It could pop 30-40 per cent with a buy-out.”

ANALYST'S THREE STARS:

“Yes, beer can be exciting,” says Calgary analyst Bill MacLachlan, partner at Mawer Investment Management. MacLachlan picks Molson Companies (MOL.A-TSE) as one of his three stars, citing new management, the sale of the Montreal Canadiens and its purchase of its brands in the U.S. from Miller. The stock has a recent price of $36 and a one-year range of $21.10-$37).

The other choices are Rogers Cantel Mobile Communications (RCM.B-TSE, $40.50, range $34.00-$79.60) and Regional Cablesystems (REG-TSE, $11.05, range $8.50-$20.95).

“Rogers is cheap compared to similar U.S. companies and has a strong financial position,” says MacLachlan of the wireless communications company. Regional provides cable to about 250,000 subscribers, primarily in smaller Canadian communities, and will soon be offering high-speed internet through a deal with AOL Canada.

“This is a low-risk way to invest in a high-growth market.”

TRADING TIP:

The first 45 minutes is crucial time in the market so you’d better come to the plate with your game face on. By the time the opening bell rings, you should have completed your mile run (two kilometres if you don’t know what a mile is), eaten your Wheaties, drunk your coffee, checked Maria Bartiromo’s pulse on CNBC and memorized pre-market bids.

If you’re still trying to sign on your computer at 7:35 because you can’t remember your password, move to Cow Head, Newfoundland. The markets open there at 11 a.m.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

RisgGrades.com If you’re losing sleep over your portfolio, this free site grades risk levels. Unfortunately, only TSE stocks are graded in Canada. For instance, Agrium (AGU-TSE) rates 152, meaning 77 per cent of TSE stocks are riskier. At the other end, MediSolution (MSH-TSE) rates 482 with only 21 per cent of TSE stocks riskier.

HOT STOCK:
Rightsmarket Inc. (TS - CDNX)

Back in March, when a hot tech stock was a double or a triple, Rightsmarket wouldn’t have made it on the radar screen with a 15-per-cent gain. But these are sobering times for techs, so we take our fedora off to Calgary-based Rightsmarket for advancing while most other small-cap techs continued to take a pounding. Rightsmarket ran on news that it had secured a strategic alliance with Fifth Era Knowledge. Calgary tech analyst Brian Pow of Acumen Capital made Rightsmarket one of his three stars in this space last week, rating it a speculative buy with a $5 target. (Prices based on Friday close)

COLD STOCK:
Big Picture technologies (BPI - CDNX)

The aggressive Calgary-based e-commerce software company continues to churn out news releases, the latest a revenue-sharing agreement with CommerceFlow Inc., but that just doesn’t cut it anymore with investors, who have focused on the big picture — profits. In its last quarterly report, Big Picture showed a net loss of $1.584 million. Big Picture is down 79 per cent from its March high of 7.55 but it’s not alone. A recent survey of 106 Canadian internet/software companies by Research Capital showed almost a third of them down at least 80 per cent from 52-week highs with gearunlimited.com showing the way, off 97 per cent! (Prices based on Friday close)