Contestants who steered clear did better. Alex Miles, managing director of the Charlotte office of Nashville, Tenn.-based WealthTrust Advisors, posted the best three-stock average total return. A big gain by the young drug company Targacept made up for a less-spectacular increase by Progress Energy and a loss by yellow-pages publisher R.H. Donnelley.

Some of our pros expect individual stocks to rebound from bad years, but the overall outlook for 2008 isn’t pretty. Some panelists think the country is heading for recession. Miles thinks it’s already there. On the fourth day after the contest started, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 350 points.

The self-proclaimed "greatest pro wrestler of the modern era" has swapped hot air with some of the world's best trash talkers, but he can't manufacture any venom for Alexander B. Miles, managing director of the Charlotte office of WealthTrust Advisors Inc. and the reigning champion of BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA'S annual stock-picking contest.

Martin Marietta Materials Inc.

Wrestler holds his tongue Ric Flair shows no emotion as he eyes his opponent's picture. Seconds pass, and the words just won't come. The self-proclaimed "greatest pro wrestler of the modern era" has swapped hot air with some of the world's best trash talkers, but he can't manufacture any venom for Alexander B. Miles, managing director of the Charlotte office of WealthTrust Advisors Inc. and the reigning champion of BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA'S annual stock-picking contest. Flair says he's learned over the years not to say unkind things about people he doesn't know. "They always take it too personally." What? Is this the same guy who routinely dismissed muscled-up challengers with his trademark line: "To be the man, you've got to beat the man"? Has "the dirtiest player in the game" lost his edge? Is it because the TV cameras aren't rolling? Or maybe he's just afraid people will find out he doesn't know Wall Street from Wal-Mart. "I'm very intimidated," he says finally. He's smiling, though. Apparently, a grinning investment adviser with thinning hair holds no real terror for a man who has tangled with the likes of Hulk Hogan — a man who, at 58, still mixes it up in the ring with younger men and has, by his estimate, been whacked on the back with a folding chair at least 1,500 times in the past 35 years. Truth is, the Nature Boy can be very different — polite and self-effacing — from his public persona. And besides, he's trying to cultivate a new image. He recently started an Internet business, Charlotte-based Ric Flair Finance LLC, to generate leads for Charlotte-based Huntington Beach, Calif .-based auto lender Triad Financial, so he wants to seem more corporate. That doesn't mean he plans to go easy on his foes in this year's stock-picking contest. As he explains his selections, it's clear that Flair has done some homework and brought some competitive juice to bear. But he also has a soft spot for businesses he knows well. One is Lowe's, the Mooresville-based hardware chain. Its share price at the end of October was down about 10% from a year earlier, but Flair is sanguine about its prospects. "Lowe's is in 49 of the 50 states and employs, I think, 210,000-plus people. And home improvement is what America is all about now. I think there are like 13 million people a week who go through Lowe's nationally." He occasionally is among them, but he admits that his home-improvement projects so far have been limited to changing light bulbs, putting up Christmas lights and, um, planting flowers. Well, he is the Nature Boy. He also loves stock-car racing, so he picked Speedway Motorsports, the Concord-based — for now, at least — racetrack owner. Its shares also were down a bit from a year earlier, but Flair is confident in the abilities of CEO Bruton Smith. "He doesn't do anything in a small way. I just don't think it's ever going to get smaller. I think it's going to continue to grow." His third pick strays a little farther from home — Ingles Markets, an Asheville-based grocery chain. Its stock surged past $40 earlier this year, but it ended the 52-week period where it began — about $28. After rattling off some stats, Flair gets to the heart of the matter. "They really appeal to the smaller towns. They're more accessible to people." What about competition from Wal-Mart? "Wal-Mart is the monster. Ingles has a more personal presence, which means a lot in a small town. She and I, we go to two stores." "He does all the grocery shopping," chimes in his wife and business partner, Tiffany. They own half of Ric Flair Finance. Chris Porter, CEO of Net-One Finance, a Charlotte-based software company, owns the rest. "We know the people," Flair continues. "We get along with them. I'll drive 20 miles to buy something from somebody I like, as opposed to driving five miles to buy from someone else." It shouldn't come as a surprise that a man who has been wrestling for 35 years likes to stick with what works. But he knows his ring career can't go on forever. Years of chop blocks, atomic drops and figure-four leg locks — his signature move — have taken a toll. So he's using his fame to move into another line of work. Ric Flair Finance, for example, touts its "Figure 4 Process" for getting a loan: Pick a loan, complete the application, submit the application and get the loan. And borrowers needn't fear, he insists, that there's a different Figure 4 Process for people who don't pay up. "I think that hangs over their heads," he says with a grin. "But there's nothing in writing."