It was a year ago this very week that the stock market went into a freefall and sucked the wind out of many a long-term investor's sails — if only temporarily. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced earlier this week that the recession is "likely" over . . . far earlier than economists' original dire predictions.

The past, most bleak of economic years, curtailed consumer spending on luxuries ranging from restaurants to barber shops. But the real question on your inquisitive reporter's mind is: What did consumers cling to in even the worst of times?

Onto this week's headlines . . .

IS BEST BUY . . . A BUY?



Do Consumers Refuse to Give Up TV?

Consumers may indeed have cut back on dining out and haircuts. But when it comes to season premieres, it seems they remain on the edge of their (couch) seats . . .

"They sure are trying to be creative with their marketing," SC Member Lynn Brown noted on the Best Buy Forum last December. "I just read an article in the New York Times that said behavioral studies seem to indicate that people just won't adjust their standard of living but revert to what it has been. So I figure eventually they will all want a new TV, right?"

Maybe sooner than any of us ever expected, Lynn.

"Our club bought BBY at $21 on 11/12/08," SC Member Gayle Olson noted on the Forum last week. "My current SSG shows a buy up to $46."

What's your take? With the stock's price hovering within Gayle's buy range, is it indeed a buy?

A TRICK AND A TREAT



Adding a "Company Specific" Link to Toolkit 6

That spooky annual occasion when ghosts and goblins appear at your doorstep, begging for treats — not tricks, is just around the proverbial corner. Though your socially-conscious reporter deems it most inappropriate for her readers to don their own masks and hold out for the neighborhood's best chocolate, she does have a treat in her bag of tricks.

Guru Gerlach offered up a most tantalizing tidbit at the September meeting of his most dedicated Toolkit 6 User Group, which meets via webinar the first Tuesday evening of the month. The brouhaha, it seems, was over one of the software's latest features — the delightful ability to add a "company-specific" link to the program.

The long and short of it, per Gerlach's wise instructions,

• 
  First, get the address of the specific page where there is information about a stock. For instance, let's say you want to add a link for Zacks' earnings estimates. Go to the Zacks.com web site, enter a ticker symbol in the search box (let's use Microsoft, MSFT), then arrive at the page with information about the stock you entered. Then, copy the address. It will look something like this: http://www.zacks.com/research/report.php?t=MSFT&type=estimates
  

In this address I have highlighted Microsoft's ticker symbol. (Note: some web site addresses do not use the ticker symbol for these kinds of pages, so you won't easily be able to use these kinds of addresses. Uber-geeks can probably figure out how, though!)

• Next, return to the Manage Web Links window in Toolkit, and click the Add button.
• Type in a Name for the link, such as "Zacks EPS Estimates."
• Ignore the Ticker Symbol field (this is used if you were entering a company or investor relations web site, such as http://www.microsoft.com/msft/default.mspx).
• Paste the web site address from Zacks into the URL field, and then (and here's the really important part), replace MSFT in the link with $* (dollar sign-asterisk). It should look something like this: http://www.zacks.com/research/report.php?t=$*&type=estimates
• Click OK.
• Now, open a Stock Study, click the Web button, and you will see the Zacks EPS Estimates entry appear in the dropdown list of sites.

Walah! Mission accomplished! And some words of warning: Though your trusty reporter has given you a bit of a "cheat sheet," you dare not neglect to join in on the discussion — to share your insights and glean even more of the latest, most savory tidbits, on the Toolkit software.

One last treat . . . For more research sites that you can add to Toolkit, visit Bob Adams' website and download his list.

BEACH BOOK BACKLASH



Time to Toss the Paperback Novel

Though your most intellectually-minded reporter admits that even she spent a fair portion of her summer vacation brushing bits of sand from the pages of her favorite beach books, she is ready to pick up something a bit more, well, mindful. With perfect timing, she points you in the direction of the StockCentral Community's After Hours Book Forum.

There, you can participate and delight in book banter ranging from The Little Book of Value Investing by Christopher H. Browne to The Snowball, the Warren Buffett biography.

With chagrin, your dutiful reporter feels inclined to mention that the most dedicated among us, like SC Member Lynn Ostrem, did not spend the summer reading prose that atrophies the mind.

"I'd like to share with you my most recent summer read," she writes. "The book is brand new and it's called Investing — Starting From Scratch by Janet Holt. I was asked by a mutual friend to review the book for our community and beyond. When I received it in the mail, I thought to myself, 'Uh oh, it's a beginner's book. Probably won't be all that intriguing.'

"But I was pleasantly surprised. Between the catchy 'henhouse' analogies and a huge array of interesting facts and demographics, the book actually became a real page turner."

Check out the forum and be sure to chime in with a page turner or two of your own.

TODAY'S ENTIRELY RELEVANT QUOTATION



"
Even though from a technical perspective the recession is very likely over at this point, it's still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time.
"



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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke