Sources used in this document:

Tim Hortons, Inc., a Canadian-based donut and coffee chain, is traded on the NYSE under the symbol THI. On September 13th, 2011, THI stock had a closing price of $45.92, a 52-week price range of $35.80 to $51.04, and a volume of 481,700 was traded; the P/E Ratio was 12.39 and the Earnings-per-share were $3.71. On the Nasdaq, the chip maker Nvidia (which trades as NVDA) is a fairly typical stock in many ways; the same figures for this stock on the same date of September 13th are a closing price of $14.52, 52-week price range of $10.30 to $26.17, trading volume of 44,257,800, a P/E Ratio of 16.17 and Earnings-per-share of $0.90. Tim Hortins trades at a higher price with much higher earnings and at a lower volume; Nvidia is more volatile and has a much higher trading volume with lower earnings and a higher P/E Ratio.

The balance sheet of a given company tells us about its current liquidity -- what its assets are compared to its liabilities and its equity. In other words, the balance sheet breaks down (into rather large components) the various holdings of the company in terms of its cash, property and equipment, collectable accounts, and other elements of the company worth a real dollar value, compared with the companies outstanding debts, losses from depreciation, and the amount of money that has been invested in the company from its owners -- the equity it would need to theoretically pay back to investors if the company were to sell all of its assets to pay its liabilities. The general rule of accounting is that assets always equals liabilities plus equity. The income statement helps to inform the balance sheet to some degree by presenting information regarding how money comes into and goes out of the company, listing (again in rather large components) the sources and amounts of revenue as well as the expenses that the company incurs during its operations. This can help investors determine how profitable the company is and is likely to be, based on how revenues compare to expenses and what projections are for changes in both areas of the income statement.

It is impossible to predict with any real certainty what companies will post returns over any period of time, or how consistent those returns will be. Selecting three individual stocks that will have increasing weekly returns through October would take a great deal of experience and calculation, and even then would ultimately rely on at least some level of guesswork.