toledoblade.com --

Heading into the home stretch of The Blade's Stock Market Game, the leader remains comfortably ahead and a pair of sisters-in-law are neck-and-neck for second place.

Kathy Ansted of Holland extended her lead in October over Susan Darmofal of Toledo, who had led the stock contest as late as August before Ms. Ansted vaulted back ahead in September.

At the end of October, Ms. Ansted's imaginary portfolio stood at $124,592, up 211 percent since the contest began. Mrs. Darmofal's portfolio stood at $109,680, a 174 percent gain since Jan. 1. In third place was Mrs. Darmofal's sister-in-law, Eleanore Darmofal of Toledo, at $109,382 - just $297 back.

While most portfolios retreated slightly in October, the pullback was broad-based enough to keep the yearlong contest's leader board largely unchanged, said Andrew Weiner, a financial adviser at the Toledo office of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, which is a contest co-sponsor and tabulator of the monthly results.

"At least the second part of October, you got these triple-digit moves," Mr. Weiner said, discussing broad gains and losses in equity indexes last month. "Probably a lot [of the volatility] was earnings, and I think confidence started eroding a little bit too, when [investors] saw earnings coming out."

Ms. Ansted's portfolio includes Russian mining and steel producer Mechel OAO ADS, Canadian mining firm Teck Resources Ltd., and solar firms Solarfun Power Holdings and Ascent Solar Technologies.

The nearly 700 contestants entered with hypothetical portfolios made up of two New York Stock Exchange and two Nasdaq stocks that were worth at least $3 a share, by Dec. 31, 2008. They divided an imaginary $40,000 evenly among the four. The Blade's Business News desk's randomly selected portfolio is 508th at $42,481, up 6 percent.

At the end of October, 83 percent of participants were in the black for the year, Mr. Weiner said, reflecting the wild ride that equities have been on in 2009.

The top portfolio at year's end wins $200 and a trip to Chicago, Toronto, or Tampa, courtesy of contest co-sponsor Central Travel of Toledo. Second place gets $300, and third place gets $200.

Other contest leaders and their portfolio values are: Aaron Howell, Tiffin, $94,674; Jim Spotts, Petersburg, $93,922; Marlene Farkas, Toledo, $93,350; Ivan Finney, Sylvania, $90,921; Peter Genot, Sylvania, $90,102; John Kelley, Toledo, $82,461, and George Gusses, Toledo, $82,077.

- Larry P. Vellequette

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