THE GREAT RACE

Our investment equines' fortunes are for the most part running retrograde to the seasons. As sunny summer slips into frigid fall, most investments are heating up. OTC is an exception. Though he remains in first, his worth drops with the temperature, falling $30. In second, 30-Year T-Bond has a warm feeling from his $120 gain. Third-place Blue Chip rains profits on his stockholders with a welcome $69 cloudburst. Fourth-place Lipper Mutual also relishes the change of seasons, which precipitated a $76 gain. They say every cloud has a silver lining. If true, that lining is worth $80 more this week, with Silver holding on to fifth. The savers are like the weather in Seattle - neither hot nor cold. Our lukewarm racers EE bonds, Money Market and 90-Day CD stay in sixth, seventh and eighth with respective gains of $12, $10 and $8. Lipper Mutual's fortunes cooled off a bit this week. His $1 profit won't pull him out of ninth, but he still fares better than Gold, whose $10 loss has him frozen in tenth.