If you are are fascinated by the gains and losses on the stock market, but are afraid to jump in, a mock portfolio is a good way to learn how investing should be done -- without getting your feet wet.

Here it is, the beginning of the Moneywise Mock Portfolio.

Listed in the table are our starting five stocks.

We will track these stocks, adding more each week, over the next six months with the ultimate goal of producing a well-diversified portfolio. Notice that I said we will be tracking these stocks, even though it indicates in the cost column we own around $1,000 of each. The list reflects about one week of tumultous activity with the closing prices of March 15 as the market value.

We are not recommending that any of these be purchased until we have learned to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses (fundamentals) of each company and then we'll decide whether we want them in a permanent portfolio.

Uh, oh! With that all momentum traders out there will put down this article and walk away. Momentum traders are not the slightest bit interested in who the company is or what it does, they focus on whether the price is moving -- preferably, upward; although, they like to bet on downward, too.

Readers, we need your input and questions: Give us a reason to include a stock that you like.

Or give a good reason to dump one you don't like.

Tell us what you think is a reasonable rate of return on a stock portfolio over six months should be.

Tell us how much risk you think the average investor should take when buying stocks in the market.

Let us know if you are not sure what the real value of a stock is.

Let us know if you have never invested.

Let us know if you have invested; what your experience has been, and be honest now, we want to know about the losses as well as the gains. In sharing these experiences with the column, we can establish a dialogue between readers on learning about investing. All questions and comments remain confidential, and if you really wish to protect your identity, send us a no-return address letter.

At this point, before I discuss the reasons why I picked these stocks to start off with, I need to say the following: "Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or to sell any of the stocks discussed. At the time of this publication, MMCPA did not hold any single individual position in any of the stocks listed above.'' Why did I pick these five stocks? Well, Warner Lambert for us aging baby-boomers; Nokia for all the phone compulsives; The Gap, well because it is, but their bland look is going out of favour; Puma Technology, because it is a high-tech stock that we know nothing about; you have to guess what the mystery stock is! Quiz for you readers, 1. Identify the mystery stock; 2. Internet junkies cruise the Web and tell me why we should keep Nokia and the Gap? 3. Does anyone know what Puma did last year? Focus on Warner-Lambert: Warner-Lambert is an "old economy'' large-cap (more than $1 billion in capital) growth company with a truly massive pharmaceutical research department. It produces Lipitor, the number one cholesterol reduction drug in the US and expects to do $10 billion globally this year, the greatest volume ever by a drug company. This company has had years and years of solid growth, nothing exciting, readers, but dependable and stable.

One way that financial analysts (those brilliant mathematics minds) typically rate pharmaceuticals is by the length and breadth of their "pipeline''. That is, how many new drugs is the company bringing to the market and when. Even more critical is the timeline when current brand names like Lipitor go off patent and generic companies are legally allowed to copy the drugs and sell them, usually at a discount. Generic companies never had to pay the research costs.

Because of the staggering costs in time and developing drugs (ten years or more and $1 billion), when a new brand name hits the marketplace for consumers it has patent protection against "copycats'' for about three to five years.

Otherwise, the developing drug company could see "copycat''' drugs immediately and never recoup the cost of the research, let alone make a profit on this new miracle drug.

So, Warner Lambert is probably a good choice for the baby-boomer set (and anyone who might have to look after us)! As we age, we may have more reliance on medications, just to keep us going.

Fundamental analysis of our other (and some technical analysis) of our stocks will continue next week. Other criteria used to rate a company involve looking at inventory turns, cash flow, debt service, pending and future liabilities (very important in say cigarette stocks), insider trading, price earnings rations, book value, "creative accounting'', investment in human capital, and analyst expectations.

Some of this stuff can get pretty tedious and at the end of the day, no matter how wonderful the company is, if its quarterly report does not meet expected earnings, the free market can inflict severe damage. Proctor and Gamble learned this on Tuesday, March 7, as its stock price dropped to one half of its 52-week high! Next week: More stocks and their performances; Risk and diversification in the market place.