CARY — At one time, going to market meant heading to the store for a loaf of bread or gallon of milk. Today, it means running with the bulls to a stock market that is red hot, and some Cary women are leading the charge.

They have been meeting once a month for a year, and now the group called the Cary Area Stockholders, or CASH, are finally ready to make an investment.

CASH members do not want to make a wrong move now. So before making their pick, they meet to make one last check on all of their options.

This group of women has put in $30 a month and countless hours of research on companies to feel good about the decision they make.

"I think the first step is like the first time you go into that water. It's cold, but then after that, you're OK with it," says CASH member Shield Barnes.

Barnes and other members say they knew little about investing before they joined this club. Their goal is to double their money in five years, but they say the information they are learning is an added benefit.

"The whole goal of an investment club is to pick up information you can use in your own personal investing, not to just make a mint of money within the club," says CASH president Angela French.

However, they admit that would not be too bad, either.

The winner, they hope, is Lucent Technologies. Time will tell if their painstaking planning pays off.

Like many clubs, CASH follows the guidelines of the National Association of Investment Clubs.