Short Takes: Salomon Offers Market-Volatility Seminars

Salomon Smith Barney will seek to calm investors' fears amid current market volatility with a series of seminars next month.

The seminars, which will be held at 400 locations nationwide, are to run for three weeks.

The program has been in the works for months and is not a knee-jerk reaction to the market's recent dizzying gyrations, said Tom Matthews, director of national sales.

"We looked at the markets in June and saw the discrepancy between the larger-cap stocks and broader markets," Mr. Matthews said. "We thought there would be this volatility."

Financial advisers will recommend capital preservation vehicles such as principal protection notes, which offer a guaranteed price at maturity and are tied to an equity derivative like a stock index, Mr. Matthews said.

He said Salomon Smith Barney is predicting the current volatility will persist through yearend. So financial consultants at the seminars will be preaching "time in the market not timing," he said.

This is the first seminar program set up specifically to deal with volatility, a spokeswoman said.

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