Surveys: Investors Sanguine About Market

Investors have not been wringing their hands amid the stock market's recent gyrations, according to two recent surveys.

Sixty-six percent of retail investors who trade through Fleet Financial Group's Quick & Reilly unit expect the market to rebound within the next six months, according to a survey released this week.

This group expects the Dow Jones industrial average to surpass 9,400, despite the stock market's recent volatility. The Dow is hovering around 8,700.

Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the Securities Industry Association, a Washington trade group, revealed that 95% of investors are "satisfied" with the services provided by their brokers.

The trade group's fourth annual poll, conducted by Yankelovich Partners, questioned 1,504 investors between Aug. 21 and Sept. 21, when the Dow shed 7% of its value.

Quick & Reilly's survey, conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide, polled 500 of the brokerage's most active traders in late October.

Some 23% of those self-directed customers said that the recent market correction indicates that the Dow will remain in a low range, under 7,500, for a period of at least six months.

Quick & Reilly conducted a similar survey in the second quarter, just before the market took a nosedive at the end of August. In that poll, 73% of investors predicted a 20% market correction.

"They were remarkably prescient," said a spokesman for Quick & Reilly in New York.

The investors also said they would view a correction as a buying opportunity.

"They actually put their money where their mouth was," the spokesman said. "They were net buyers."

The trade group's poll found that 89% of investors are satisfied with the fees and commissions paid to brokers, and a similar percentage said they get good investment advice from representatives.

However, 77% said the securities industry could do more to educate investors on how to make good investments.

Meanwhile, six out of 10 investors said they know "some" or "very few" of the things necessary to make investment decisions.

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