But hand-picking companies based on their first letter might throw up some interesting results. In this third race week, stocks that began with the letter A, such as AMP (AMP) and Austar United (AUN), were up. Those with the letter W, like Westpac(WBC), Wesfarmers (WES), Woolworths (WOW), Woodside Petroleum (WPL), and WorleyParsons (WOR), all fell.

But this theory was debunked with O - Australia's third-largest, diversified miner, OZ Minerals (OZL), was down more than 20 per cent, while Origin Energy (ORG), was up 7 per cent. Other gold stocks, such as Lihir (LGL) and Newcrest (NCM) shared OZ's pain, as rapid strengthening of the US dollar forced more selling - it was down to 11-month lows.

The $9.6 billion purchase of half of Origin's coal seam gas assets from US energy giant ConocoPhillips was last week's biggest price-driver.

Origin peer, Queensland Gas (QGC) was the biggest winner from the deal, rising 30 per cent after Monday's announcement. And it was one of our best stocks, pushing David Potts into second, after Doreen. Even if he's not a big Rolling Stones fan, Potts will be prancing to victory, if this week is as much of a gas as last week.