The first was a buy-and-hold approach, in which they put $100 into each type of fund every month.

The "hot hands" brought the 15-year total to $489,023, compared with $345,838 for the buy-and-hold approach and $320,335 for the low-cost method.

In response, fund companies have been trying to encourage clients to become more successful by using a buy-and-hold approach.

Are you buying a buy-and-hold approach?

While Mr. Young says he is "greatly concerned" about the market's recent faltering, he is taking a buy-and-hold approach now.

We're told that the "buy-and-hold" approach to stock buying is the most effective of any market philosophy.

Mr. Perry has built an all-E.T.F. portfolio for the individual retirement account of his wife, Joncia, using a buy-and-hold approach.

It's hard to see how there can be a significant difference because of the buy-and-hold approach used by index funds in general.

But there is a big drawback to this buy-and-hold approach: The assets' value could go down, wiping out paper profits and creating a crisis if the investor had borrowed against those assets.

Pierre L. Schoenheimer, a New York money manager, has an 89-year-old client who has used a simple, buy-and-hold approach to market success without reaching for his beta blocker pills.