The idea of buying high-quality stocks and holding onto them through thick and thin for the long haul has become so widely accepted that to do otherwise seems foolish.

But many long-term investors who have seen substantial amounts of their life savings disappear in the erratic stock market this year are probably wondering if they would have been better off selling their shares before the losses got too deep.

After all, that's what traders do.

"I don't think the average investor has the time or the tools required to be a good trader," said Larry Letterio, president of Peregrine Advisers Inc., a wealth management firm based in Pine. "They are better off buying and holding, but must redefine what they buy and hold.

"They need to integrate different asset classes they weren't accustomed to holding in the past, such as high yield bonds, emerging market bonds, preferred stock, commodities and alternative investment mutual funds," he said.

"What individual investors need to do from a long-term perspective is find companies within an industry they understand and has a strong historical track record," said Mike Saghy, director of investments for PNC Wealth Management. "Buy them and look to hold them for a long time but establish valuation parameters.

"Based on whatever purchase price they get for an asset, decide what is their tolerance for loss and how much rate of return they'll be happy with. But they need to monitor their investments as opposed to the old-fashioned, blind-eye buy and hold mentality."

If you're a long-term investor, you're not supposed to worry about the dramatic twists and turns of the stock market. On the other hand, changing times may call for changing strategies.

"I don't adhere to the buy and hold strategy," said Brenda Wenning, president of Wenning Investments LLC in Newton, Mass. "To see people down 40 percent is heart-wrenching. To me there's no excuse for it.

"I preach all the time that you must know when to cut your losses. If people had cut their losses to around 7 percent at the beginning of this year, their portfolios would look a lot differently today."

"For 20 years, the buy and hold strategy worked because the economy benefited from easy credit. What worked for 20 years isn't working now," said Mike Martin, chief investment officer for Financial Advantage Inc. in Columbia, Md. "Not only is there no more easy credit, [but also] people must start paying down their debt.

"What I see is earnings for business will be worse than analysts expect. That's why I don't think buy and hold is a good idea."

Mr. Martin said his firm was buying fewer stocks for its clients and more fixed income bond funds offered by companies such as PIMCO, Vanguard and T. Rowe Price.

In theory, buy and hold investors with a diversified portfolio can withstand a declining market by allocating investment to stocks, bonds and cash equivalents based on a set percentage. Stock holdings are further diversified with growth, value, small-cap, midcap, large-cap, foreign and domestic equities. The strategy is designed to avoid the pitfalls of playing the market.

In his newly released book, "The Cure For Money Madness," author Spencer Sherman examines the role that emotions play in people's ability to make rational decisions about their money.

With the advent of PDAs, the Internet and 24-hour financial channels such as CNBC, retail investors have access to information about what their investments are doing every minute of the trading day, which encourages them to react in a short-term emotional way even though time has proven most money is made by long-term investors, Mr. Sherman said.

"One of the benefits of stock is it's liquid," he said. "But that also causes people to sell at the wrong time. The largest inflow of capital comes into the stock market when it's high and more money leaves the market when it's low. People time their moves at the worst time."

This year, every major asset class except U.S. treasuries and money markets was hammered by the perfect storm that hit Wall Street. But the wild market swings have caused some investors to look for opportunities.

"You have to be able to trade the market and take advantage of the volatility," said Mark Goldwasser, chief executive officer of National Holdings Corp., a broker dealer based in New York. "There is a growing voice that says the game has changed. ... Some say this was an exceptional year, that it's too late to become a trader and this is the best opportunity for buy and hold since the 1970s. But I don't see this volatility ending for a long time."

Although he's not a fan of the long-term buy-and-hold method, James DiGeorgia, publisher of the Gold & Energy Advisor newsletter, doesn't recommend investors with full-time jobs and no financial education become traders either.

"You need to review your stock holdings every three months to make sure what you're holding isn't an outright gamble," he said. "We recommend companies with little or no debt, cash in the bank and a profit stream that can be reasonably expected to continue in a recessionary environment."

What it boils down to is having a game plan before making an investment, said Mike Freker, an investment manager at AXA Advisors, Downtown. "You need to know what you are investing for, your time line and how you feel about risk," he said.

In the general sense, Mr. Freker believes that the buy and hold style of investing is the winning strategy, especially when investors systematically buy stocks over time whether they are up or down.

"It's a difficult and painful time for people who had losses," he said. "If you bought some quality mutual funds early this year and they're down, you might be second-guessing the strategy. But trading is risky. The average investor should be investing rather than trading."