With every homogeneous quadratic system of ODEs one can associate a commutative real algebra. In this paper we study which properties of the corresponding algebra would characterize whether the origin is a stable critical point of the original system of ODEs. We treat the fully two-dimensional case and the case of those three-dimensional systems which have a plane of critical points. Based on this analysis we are able to formulate a conjecture for the general case of Bbb Rn.