READY TO ROLL; A NEW TEAM OF STOCK PICKERS WILL TEST THEIR MARKET KNOWHOW.

Byline: Chris Sieroty Staff Writer

The seventh semiannual Daily News Stock Picking Contest begins today with new rules and new contestants, but the same goal as always: Make lots of (fake) money.

Six investors from around the region were chosen to manage fictitious portfolios that currently stand at $100,000. Contestants can buy and sell daily, but each transaction costs $50.

To eliminate day-trading from the contest, all buy and sell orders will be priced at the next day's close. For example, any stock purchased on Tuesday will be priced at Wednesday's close.

Stocks chosen by the contestants are about as varied as the reasons are for purchasing them. The more well-known companies include the Good Guys, Rite Aid, Motorola, and Qualcomm.

But many others won't appear on the average investor's radar screen; they include Sytellect, Harmonic Lightwave, Ion Networks and Siebel System Inc. And in the offbeat stock category, welcome to the World Wrestling Federation.

Participants this time around come from Burbank, Camarillo, Panorama City, Granada Hills, Northridge and Palmdale. The payoff for all contestants is whoever has the largest portfolio at the end of June stands the tallest.

THE CONTESTANTS

NAME: Alan O'Hara 

STOCK PORTFOLIO: Commerce One, 100 shares; Siebel Systems, 100 shares; China.com, 97 shares; Broadcom, 200 shares.

O'Hara, 48, teaches at Rancho Avenue Elementary School in Panorama City. He said his investment philosophy is the Will Rodgers way: ``Buy a stock and wait for it to go up. If it doesn't go up, don't buy it.''

Among the stocks the Granada Hills resident likes is Sibel Systems Inc. The San Mateo, Calif.-based company provides eBusiness applications software that helps companies manage their clients' business.

Other companies that O'Hara hopes will lead him to stock-picking glory are Commerce One, Broadcom Corp, and China.com.

Based in Hong Kong, China.com is the first pan-Asian Internet company listed in the United States on the Nasdaq National Market. The company, which is partially owned by Xinhua, China's official news agency, provides local content and services in an effort to facilitate the growth of business and exports in China.

Overall, O'Hara is bullish when it comes to Wall Street. ``I believe the U.S. economy will continue to dominate the world markets and the best place to be is in the stock market. My confidence in the economy will be reflected in the price of stocks.''

NAME: Sean Williams 

STOCK PORTFOLIO: Syntellect Inc., 10,667 shares; Harmonic Lightwave, 308 shares; Ion Networks Inc., 893 shares.

Williams, a 19-year-old college student from Panorama City, says Ion Networks has been a favorite of his for about a year. ``They are an up- and-coming Web security company,'' he said. In December, the Piscataway, N.J.-based company moved up to the Nasdaq National Market from the Nasdaq SmallCap Market.

Williams' other stock picks include Harmonic Inc. and Syntellect Inc. Based in Phoenix, Syntellect provides software and related services to customer call centers.

Harmonic, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., moves all types of information over cable, satellite and wireless networks. ``It's a very little-known stock, and trades at an absolute discount,'' said Williams.

NAME: Charlotte Brown

STOCK PORTFOLIO: All Cash

``I go for growth only,'' said Brown. The Camarillo resident says since she began investing five years ago, she only purchases blue-chip stocks - ``none that haven't met a certain criteria.''

``There are several indicators that I reference, including moving averages before investing,'' she said.

Brown said she's sticking with cash until she can find value in those companies.

NAME: Ronald Schulkin

STOCK PORTFOLIO: Good Guys, 2015 shares; Rite Aid, 2025 shares; World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, 1000 shares; THQ Inc., 950 shares; Motorola, 150 shares; and Comdial, 850 shares.

Schulkin, who has been investing in the stock market since 1974, said he invests for the long term, because ``you're going to lose'' if you get caught up in day trading.

As long-term investments, the 53-year-old certified public accountant sees potential in Rite Aid Corp. and World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc.

A lifelong wrestling fan, Schulkin said the WWF has great potential for increased revenues because of sold-out events at major arenas nationwide. For example, Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, N.J., sold out in a record-setting 41 minutes for the Feb. 29 television taping of WWF Smackdown!

The WWF also benefits from the sale of merchandise, he said. ``I can only see huge profits, followed by growth in the price of the stock,'' said Schulkin, a Northridge resident.

On the other end of the investment scale is Rite Aid.

Despite the company's recent announcement that same-store sales in the West decreased by 0.9 percent, Schulkin said, ``The nation's third largest drugstore chain is right for a takeover.''

NAME: Nick P. Cruz

STOCK PORTFOLIO: JDS Uniphase Corp. 200 shares; Finisar Corp., 200 shares; Qualcomm Inc., 65 shares; Retek Inc., 150 shares; Globalstar Telecommunications, 100 shares.

Cruz, a mechanical engineer with the city of Glendale, describes himself as a selective and long-term investor, but is willing to take a chance on a company.

One of those companies is JDS Uniphase Corp.

``I like this stock being the dominant supplier of components in the fiber optic networks,'' said Cruz. ``They have a good research and development team that are mostly scientists and experts in their field. The management has done a good job buying companies that will help them in meeting their backlog of demands. This is a long-term buy.''

A safer investment was Qualcomm. The San Diego-based company is the pioneer of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital wireless technology.

``Qualcomm has just been beaten lately and this is the time to get on board,'' he said. ``CDMA will be used for the third generation wireless communication and royalties will just keep on coming. In the next six months, I believe it will be a $200 stock.''

NAME: Wilbert Brewer

STOCK PORTFOLIO: Microsoft, 96 shares; AOL, 153 shares; Go.com, 234 shares; Lucent Technologies, 113 shares; Lycos, 62 shares; Cisco, 69 shares; Vertel, 320 shares; Time Warner, 54 shares; IBM, 82 shares; Qualcomm, 64 shares; Vitesse Semicondutor Corp., 94 shares; Viacom Inc., 121 shares; and NetZero Inc., 271 shares.

Brewer says he's been actively involved in the stock market for the last 11 years and wants to invest several thousand of his fake dollars in a couple of local companies.

The 59-year-old aerospace worker bought 271 shares of NetZero Inc., a Westlake Village-based company that provides free Internet access to those who don't mind a steady stream of ads. As of Jan. 1, NetZero had more than 3 million users in 2000 cities across the United States.

He also likes Vitesse Semiconductor, a Camarillo-based company that makes digital gallium arsenide integrated circuits, which are faster than silicon chips.

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Charlotte Brown/Camarillo

(2 -- color) Wilbert Brewer/Palmdale

(3 -- color) Nick P. Cruz/Burbank

(4 -- color) Ronald Schulkin/Northridge

(5 -- color) Sean Williams/Panorama City

(6 -- color) Alan O'Hara/Granada Hills