Others use this time to make tactical, short-term bets on certain stocks or commodities.

According to Mr. Vick, the liquidation plan seems to have caught the attention of Mr. Buffett, who has made short-term bets in the past.

As the world gets more complex, as it's harder to see the long-term given the huge short-term bets that are made, as business gets less transparent ("which company made that, exactly?")

On the New York Stock Exchange, trading volume has rebounded to high levels, but there's a catch: most of that activity involves professionals, many of them making big, short-term bets.

The Coalition came to power to push out the horizons of government: no more short-term, all-or-nothing bets, with taxpayers providing the stake.

A number of Wall Street firms are urging investors to pay closer attention to Europe because they see the Continental stock markets as the safest short-term bet for investors.

"We would not advocate people investing in bear equity funds for the long term," Mr. Sapir said, adding that sophisticated individual investors might want to place short-term bets in them.

The small fund companies say they welcome frequent traders, known as market timers, who want to make short-term bets based on their sense of where the markets are headed.

But the experts are advising American investors to make long-term investment decisions instead of short-term bets on Europe.

FROM these findings, investors can conclude that value-oriented funds make sense only for relatively short-term bets that value stocks will outperform growth stocks.