This summer, the pattern has become familiar. The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops as much as 150 points in the morning, then finishes the day 150 points in the black.

        Such 300-point swings are just one symptom of the continued volatility on Wall Street that has been fed by accounting scandals, a sluggish economy and continued threats of war.

        “And the volatility is probably here to stay,” said Sunil Reddy, equity analyst and portfolio manager at Fifth Third Bank, and member of The Cincinnati Enquirer's Portfolio Panel.

        The Enquirer convened the panel — investment advisers and market analysts from across Greater Cincinnati — in spring 2000 just as the bear market was starting. Since then, broad stock indexes have fallen by more than a third.

        Every three months, the panel has gotten together over sandwiches in an Enquirer conference room to discuss the state of the market and how Tristate investors can survive — or even profit — from it.

        Their message this week: Get used to the volatility. Information availability means it's not going away.

        But don't get wrapped up in it or worried about it. It might actually be a good thing.

        “Lots of academic evidence shows that volatility is higher in bear markets and often reaches a peak near or at the bottom,” said Dan Seiver, economics professor at Miami University. “But we ain't going back to the quiet days of the 1960s ever again — the speed of economic change and information flow is just too fast to have quiet markets.”

        Another source for the volatility the panelists pointed to are the short-term traders, such as people who manage hedge funds and sell stock short, betting the prices will keep going down. These momentum traders are having a greater influence on the market because it's in a down cycle right now.

        “It's the tail wagging the dog,” said Madelynn Matlock, vice president and director of international investments at Huntington Bank. “And there's a lot more money managed that way.”

        Corporate governance and accounting issues that earlier this summer scared many investors out of the market are mostly waning, panelists said. Executives certifying their books earlier this month may have helped, as indexes rebounded from five-year lows.

        “The market made the statement that, in general, corporate America is OK — with a few bad apples,” Mr. Reddy said.

        But a lingering drag on stock prices continues among fears of terrorism and renewed threats of an attack on Iraq.

        Greg Weirich, vice president at PNC Advisors, said a potential war is already somewhat factored into prices. Mr. Seiver agreed, adding that an actual war would drive them down further.

        “War would knock the market down, because what is priced in is the probability of war,” he said. “When it happens — I hope it doesn't — prices will then decline to reflect the certainty of it.”

        But investor confidence and threats of war are constant throughout the day, and don't affect the roller coaster that CNBC watchers feel from the opening to closing bells.

        War or not, that queasiness will likely continue.

        “I can't see anything causing the volatility to go away at this point,” said Denise Ingersoll, vice president of investments at Robert W. Baird Private Investment Management Group.

        That's why she recommends investors take out the emotion from their investment decisions and not try to ride any waves as they did in the late 1990s. It's just too unpredictable in the short term.

        Mr. Weirich agrees.

        “If you're a long-term investor, these things happen,” he said. “People who make money are people who keep investing when things get rough.”

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