WORLDS APART; EVEN IN INVESTING, IT'S MARS VS. VENUS.

Byline: Deborah Adamson Daily News Staff Writer

Julie Stav knew her seminar in front of a roomful of men was going to be different from her women-only seminars almost the minute it began.

The men questioned her credentials. One man even asked her about her net worth. She countered with a volley of technical terms only those with investment savvy would understand.

``It was a problem that I'm a woman and that I'm blond,'' the Calabasas financial planner said later. ``I noticed that I had been categorized . . . as a bimbo.''

Mike Saunders experienced the flip side of the same subtle sexism. He was showered with attention - and even a gift for his dog - at the women-only investment classes he taught through Learning Tree University.

Men, on the other hand, treated the PaineWebber vice president more as an equal than a teacher from whom they could learn, he said. Acceptance came only after he proved himself.

``I found women to be more open-minded. In the class, they exchanged a lot of ideas together. They work well together,'' Saunders said. ``With men, they did not want as much direction. They wanted to make their own decisions.''

Even on Wall Street, it seems, men and women are on different sides of the road. In fact, experts say that while it would be unfair to stereotype, certain general characteristics can be drawn along gender lines. And of course, there are always exceptions, they emphasize.

But who's kidding whom? Everyone knows, men are from Mars and women are from Venus.

Men `abrupt, impulsive'

Investment experts and surveys find male investors to be more independent and less afraid to take risks than women. Female investors tend to do better research and to remain faithful to their investment strategy.

Men are more ``abrupt and impulsive'' in investing, Stav said, while women take their time to consider their purchases.

But making decisions faster has its advantages.

``Once we get past the ego thing with the men, they are more assertive and it's easier to get things done,'' she said. ``With women, they need more hand-holding and reassurance. That's hard when the market does not do what you want it to do. . . . Women move slower and may lose out on opportunities.''

Men want the bottom line. They see issues as black or white - and buy or sell - she said. Women see the black and white but they also see the two colors blur.

``Women say yes, but the gray areas drive them crazy,'' Stav said. ``It's yes, but what if? We like to weigh a lot of factors.''

Such indecisiveness can lead to ``paralysis by analysis,'' she said.

Men and women don't just make decisions differently, they research their decisions differently as well.

Saunders said men are more interested in getting hot tips and viewing the market by up-and-coming industries. Women, on the other hand, want to learn about the stock market and often seek help in developing a long-term financial plan.

Women avoid risk

Once they invest, women still tend to risk less than men.

The average monthly investment for all-male investment clubs was $850, according to the National Association of Investors Corp., a Madison Heights, Mich. nonprofit group for investment clubs.

Female clubs put in an average of $624 a month while coed clubs shelled out $800. The average is $722 for all NAIC investment clubs, which is still 16 percent higher than the amount risked by women-only clubs.

Women also tend to gravitate toward less risky funds compared to men - such as growth rather than aggressive growth funds - according to the Investment Company Institute, a Washington, D.C. trade group for mutual fund firms.

This less aggressive stance is caused by a misconception: Regardless of actual performance, women tend to see themselves as novices while men consider themselves experts, said Gerry Myers, president of the Myers Group, a Dallas firm that specializes in marketing to women.

She cited a survey where nine out of 10 women questioned didn't know what level the Dow Jones industrial average closed at on a given day. But seven out of 10 men also didn't know.

``That's not great either,'' she said.

However, lack of knowledge doesn't seem to punch a hole in the male ego.

``Men are four times more likely to consider themselves as experts than women,'' Myers said. ``Women know a lot more than they give themselves credit for. But that's changing.''

This relative lack of knowledge can have serious consequences.

It could lead women to shy away from risks they don't fully understand such as the stock market, said Alexandra Bernasek, an economics professor at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, who is co-authoring a study on gender differences in investing.

Since women tend to have smaller incomes and pensions and outlive men, if they stick to safer but low-return investments such as certificates of deposit and money market accounts, they could run out of money before they die.

Women lag behind men in the learning curve because even today, many women of all ages still tend to leave investment decisions to others, Bernasek said.

Women also don't take enough risks because they have a greater fear of losing the principal.

``Men worry about getting a good return for their money,'' Stav said. ``Women are more worried about getting their money returned to them.''

They're wild animals 

Stav acknowledged that women can use a boost in confidence.

``Women just don't have enough self-confidence in financial matters,'' Stav said. ``Once we do, we become wild animals. You can't hold us back.''

Just ask novice investor Ruth Hidalgo of Lancaster.

Before she took an investment class, she was naive about stocks.

``I knew perfectly close to nothing,'' the business owner confided. ``I had no investing experience whatsoever.''

However, after winning a stock-picking contest held by the class, she confidently bought two stocks on her own: 50 shares each of Nextel and Brightpoint Inc.

In the end, despite distinctions between male and female investing habits, the bottom line is still performance.

Here, the difference is obvious as well: Women have performed better than men.

Female investment clubs had an average 18 percent annual return since inception compared with 15.6 percent for men, according to the NAIC.

Coed clubs did better than all-male groups, with a return of 17.3 percent.

Female mutual fund managers also have outperformed their male counterparts over the past three years, according to a survey by rating agency Morningstar.

Funds managed by one or two women had slightly higher returns than those managed by one or two men in five categories: U.S. diversified stocks (23.29 percent for women, 22.07 percent for men), international stocks (7.52 vs. 6.02), taxable bonds (8.33 vs. 8.27), municipal bonds (6.95 vs. 6.71) and hybrid funds (17.87 vs. 17.23).

Stav agrees that women are better investors.

``Hands down, statistically, women do better than men,'' she said.

Saunders doesn't quite see it that way.

``The thought process of women vs. men are different,'' he says, but ``I can't say that men or women are better investors.''

Just different. Very different.

WISHING ON DIFFERENT STARS

Number of investors: 60 million

Male: 63 percentx

Female: 37 percentx

Investing habits:

Male: Tends to trade more frequently

Female: Tends to buy and hold

Investment club performance:

(Average annual return since inception)

All male clubs: 15.6 percent

All female clubs: 18 percent

Who's the better investor?

``Hands down, statistically, women do better than men.'' -- Julie Stav, a Calabasas financial planner.

``The thought process of women versus men are different. I can't say that men or women are better investors.'' -- Mike Saunders, a vice president at PaineWebber.

xThe most recent NYSE figure, from a 1990 survey.

SOURCE: New York Stock Exchange, National Association of Investors Corp., Daily News Research

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, Box

Photo: (1) Mike Saunders, a vice president at PaineWebber, has been treated differently by all-male or all-female investment classes.

Tina Gerson/Daily News

(2--Color) Velasquez's ``Mars''

(3--Color) Botticelli's ``Venus''

Box: WISHING ON DIFFERENT STARS (See text)