(Street Life is a regular feature that profiles what's playing in the stock market.)

Act I: Bonanza ore bust

* The players: Southwestern Resources Corp. (TSX:SWG)

* Action: Down 81 per cent from $6.34 July 18, 2007

* Recent Price: $1.20

* 52-week high/low: $10.60/1.16 Ugly allegations of lies and falsifying reports make for a good conspiracy movie, but aren't exactly bolstering for a stock price.

Shareholders lost more than half their money overnight when Vancouver-based gold miner Southwestern Resources announced the company was suing former CEO John Paterson for allegedly tampering with a database to increase the reported gold grades from drill results at the company's Boka project in China.

He is also accused of falsifying assay documents to match the manipulated drill grades.

Southwestern says it is also working on similar claims against John Zhang of China, a former general manager of the project.

Unhappy investors aren't just sitting idle watching the chips fall. Instead, they have launched a suit of their own against Southwestern and Paterson, alleging they issued misleading news releases such as one in 2002 that heralded "bonanza gold grades."

The stock dropped $0.34 to close at $1.70 the day of the suit announcement, continuing its slide from pre-scandal levels above $6 in mid-July.

Act II: On your way, U.S.A

* The player: Liquidation World (TSX:LQW)

* Action: Down 60 per cent or $4.45 from its 52-week high in October

* Recent Price: $3

* 52-week high/low: $7.45/2.90 Sometimes it's time to simply cut losses and pull the plug, and that's exactly what Liquidation World did for its U.S. operations.

After five years of bleeding money across the border, the Calgary-based retailer said enough is enough and announced it is closing 16 of its 18 American retail outlet stores over the next few months.

That will leave the company with around 100 stores.

Liquidation World USA has lost approximately Cdn$2 million year to date.

Revenue for the same period was $19.1 million. Consolidated revenue for Liquidation World for the 39 weeks ended July 1, 2007 was $159 million, and net loss was $4.1 million.

The wind-down of the U.S. business is expected to hit the fourth-quarter books as a special charge of somewhere between $1.5 and $2.5 million.

Act III: Burning gas

* The player: Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO)

* Action: Down 6 per cent or $4.35 from $70 July 18, 2007

* Recent Price: $65.65

* 52-week high/low: $72.75/52.03 The business of commodity trading is kind of like Hollywood: When everything is good and working well, the players make money and everyone is smiling (and driving Bentleys and Maseratis.)

But if your movie tanks at the box office, the whole world hears about it.

The Bank of Montreal recently reported third-quarter figures, and although the bank managed to avoid the mortgage problems hitting the financial markets, they took a big wallop on commodities.

Derivative contracts alone lost roughly $11.5 billion, and with other commodity losses, BMO took a $97-million hit in the quarter and $424 million year to date.

Losses in natural gas contracts were originally announced in late April when the share price was around $70, and two commodity executives are no longer with the bank.

BMO said it is co-operating fully with regulators and law enforcement authorities who have asked for documents related to the commodities trading losses.

Act IV: Not enough dough

* The player: General Mills Foods (NYSE:GIS)

* Action: Down nine per cent or $5.36 from its 52-week high in June

* Recent Price: US$56.16

* 52-week high/low: US$61.52/51.50 Have a look in your pantry or fridge and there's a good chance you have at least one General Mills product in there - whether it be Cheerios, Green Giant, Pillsbury or Yoplait.

But soon, the freezer contents may look a little different.

General Mills' frozen-dough products are currently made in a Trenton, Ont., plant the company took over when it acquired Pillsbury in 2001, but 470 employees will be out in the cold this fall when the company closes the plant and shifts production of those products to other plants.

Another 111 employees in Pennsylvania got the news that they will have to find another line of work when the company closes the frozen waffle plant there and exits the frozen waffle business altogether.

NOTE: The above is not intended as investment advice to buy or sell any mentioned securities. Investors should do due diligence before investing. Quotes are based on results through Aug. 28, 2007.

(Nicole Strandlund can be reached at nicole@businessedge.ca)