STAY CALM, INVESTORS TOLD ANALYSTS SAY PATIENCE TO PAY OFF IN THE FUTURE.

Byline: Chris Sieroty Staff Writer

Ron Schulken says despite Thursday's fallout on Wall Street, he remains an avid long-term investor and continues to search for buying opportunities.

``I'm anticipating the market going up at some point, but I don't have my crystal ball,'' the Northridge accountant said. ``The way the market is now would be a good time for an investor to replenish some of their holdings.''

Analysts say individual investors who, like Schulken, stay calm and adjust their portfolios during the ups and downs on Wall Street should see their patience pay off in the future with higher profits.

``The good thing about all of this turmoil is that investors will take a look at their portfolios and see the need to diversify,'' said Mario DeRose, a market strategist with Edward Jones in St. Louis. ``You need to invest in more than Internet stocks.''

DeRose said after several years in which investors were overly optimistic about the markets, those same investors now are being overly pessimistic after the recent string of disappointing earnings reports.

Uncertainty over the ongoing crisis in the Middle East has also caused already jittery investors to dump stocks, he said.

In other words, Bill Mann, senior analyst with The Motley Fool in Alexandria, Va., said, ``We are in the middle of a market phenomenon and not an economic one.''

``I think the average investor should not be really worried from a long- term perspective because the economy is still, at its roots, absolutely fine,'' he said. ``There are problems, corporate debt and higher oil prices, but we have a very high growth rate, which is important for investors to remember.''

Mann urged the average investors to remember that over the years the Dow has increased by an average of 11 percent per year. When it comes to the Nasdaq exchange, he said, ``we are still ahead of where we were two years ago.''

Eventually, analysts believe, the markets will decline to a level where investors feel comfortable enough to begin purchasing companies they never thought they'd own, including Intel and Home Depot.

``If you can look longer-term, you will look back down the road and see the current market situation allowed you to purchase those companies,'' DeRose said.

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photo, box

Photo: (color) Gary Vinciguerra of Pittsburgh, Penn., uses a terminal in the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Investment Center in New York's Times Square to check his stocks after the Dow Jones' major drop on Thursday.

Richard Drew/Associated Press

Box: CORPORATE UPS, DOWNS