This summer, as temperatures rise and petrol prices increase even more so, the proprietors of ICLUBcentral are happy to announce that prices have been reduced for both Investor's Toolkit 5 and myiclub.com in a most dramatic way. Were that enough, your StockCentral membership benefits you still further by providing an additional sawbuck (that's ten dollars in U.S. currency) discount on each.

Until the stroke of midnight on August 1st, 2008, Investor's Toolkit 5 is offered for sale at a discounted price of just $99.99 for StockCentral members. Previously available for $169, this sale price should entice all those investors who have procrastinated purchasing the program. (If this description doesn't fit you, do your friends and fellow club members a great service during these turbulent times and send them a quick note with words to the effect of "Can you afford to keep investing without Investor's Toolkit?")

Buy a copy of Investor's Toolkit 5 this very instant.

For investment club members, compelling savings are also being offered on myiclub.com. Clubs can now purchase two full years of the world's most popular investment club web site for the low, low price of just $99.99. Besides saving a bundle, you can avoid those nasty interruptions of service that can sometimes occur when your club's treasurer gets swept up in his or her own personal business instead of club matters. (Pshaw!) Renew your club subscription today for two-years and save!

THE WORD OF THE DAY IS "QUALITY"

When markets misbehave and share prices tumble, it behooves the smart investor to focus on the attributes that help to identify companies of the highest quality; these are the stocks that may be more likely to persevere through difficult times.

Using StockCentral's Stock Screener, it couldn't be any easier to identify those companies that meet your minimum standards of quality using Take Stock's unique Quality Rating system. On a 1 to 10 scale, Take Stock evaluates the strength and consistency of a company's historical earnings-per-share growth and pre-tax profit margins. Companies that are "acceptable" to Take Stock for consideration in a long-term investor's portfolio are rated 3.4 or higher; "desirable" companies are 6.7 or better.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate what constitutes a "quality" company is to open one of Take Stock's highly-rated stocks in Investor's Toolkit or Stock Analyst, and review the last five years of EPS growth on the front page, and the pre-tax profit margins at the top of the back page. The attractiveness of these companies should then become apparent!

Using StockCentral, there's an easy way to find quality candidates to consider for your portfolio. Log in to the StockCentral web site, click the Tools tab, and then select the Stock Screener.

Scroll down the Quality section of criteria, and select "Acceptable" or "Desirable" as the Minimum value for "Take Stock Quality Rating." Click the "Find Stocks" button, and all stocks that your minimum standard will be presented.

On the results page, click the Take Stock Quality column header to sort all the stocks from highest to lowest values. Using Morningstar's June 27, 2008 data, seven companies were rated a perfect 10 for quality! Of course, not all of these companies will be suitable for your personal portfolio or reasonably-priced at the present time (though there are likely some bargains to be found given the current market conditions).

StockCentral founder Doug Gerlach suggests starting at the top of the Quality Rating list and doing preliminary stock studies on companies as they catch your eye. (Those of you with a bit more experience under your belt -- or corset -- might also add some Value criteria to the screener to try to find stocks that are both highly-rated for quality and undervalued compared to their historical trends.) As you do your due diligence, sure to eliminate companies with recent quarterly trends that may indicate deteriorating fundamentals.

"The politicians were talking themselves red, white, and blue in the face."

-CLARE BOOTHE LUCE