"We are still excluded from the short-term game," a prominent foreign broker said here recently.

The broker then arranges for a foreign broker to make the purchase.

"Investors get nervous when the Nikkei goes too high and take profits," said one foreign broker.

"People are very skittish now," a foreign broker said.

Program trading, though common among the foreign brokers, has been slow to catch on among Japanese firms.

The foreign brokers here are among the most active program traders.

"This has become the disappearing market," a foreign broker said.

The contracts are used to a large degree by foreign brokers, in particular a handful of American firms.

"Some fund managers have to deal with 32 tea chests of paper a day," a foreign broker said.

"People feel the investment environment has nothing to complain about," one foreign broker said.