The Globe and Mail attempts to identify steady stocks showing consistency in turbulent times in its Thursday, Feb. 11, edition. The Globe's Ian Tam writes in the Number Cruncher column that he focused on liquid stocks that have exhibited characteristics of consistency over the medium to long term. He ranked stocks on the following factors such as earnings variability (where a lower score is preferred), consistency of analyst expectations for earnings (a lower spread indicates that analysts have a more consistent view of the stock), five-year earnings per share growth, annual earnings momentum and annual cash flow momentum. To qualify, stocks needed have an average daily trading volume of at least $2-million. Only stocks with a debt-to-equity ratio of less than 0.4 and a cash-flow-to-debt ratio of more than 0.2 were considered. Stocks showing consistency during volatile times are Magna International, CCL Industries, Toromont Industries, Linamar, Saputo and Stantec. Mr. Tam recommends investors conduct their own independent research before acting on any of his investment recommendations.