You don't have to head for the hills, but you should head for some sort of safety in the turbulent stock market. Advisers and analysts who took part in the Enquirer's first investment chat forum through Cincinnati.Com Thursday and Friday recommended that investors protect themselves by:

        • Sticking mostly to mutual funds. “They provide diversification and you can dollar cost average into them over time, taking advantage of breaks in the stock market,” said Denise Ingersoll, vice president of investments at Robert W. Baird Private Investment Management Group in Dayton, Ohio.

        Added Fred Brink, equity analyst with Johnson Investment Counsel: “They provide diversification and expert management of your money, so you don't have to worry about monitoring your holdings as much.”

        • Remembering time horizons. “Investing in stocks is a long-term deci sion, somewhat like purchasing a house,” said Andrew Adebonojo, senior research manager at Fort Washington Investment Advisors. “After all, you don't check the price of your house on a daily basis do you?”

        Ms. Ingersoll also said: “Remember when you begin an investment program, this should be money with a long-term time horizon and not funds that you expect to need in the short term.”

        • Investing in solid companies. “We would stick with high-quality stocks and have diversification across the sector,” Steve Mygrant, director of equity analysis at Fifth Third Bank, said of investing in technology companies. “Stocks we consider high quality include Cisco (Systems), Corning, Convergys, Tellabs and Microsoft.”

        Patrick Gibson, vice president and senior portfolio manager at PNC Bank, also recommended these companies for long-term in vestors: Cisco Systems, Texas Instruments, Sun Microsystems and EMC.

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