He said that since the final quarter of 1988, when it become "obvious" that the economy was starting to slow, investors "gravitated toward the safe stocks."

As competition for commercial real estate has intensified, investors are gravitating toward self-storage because it offers initial yields of 7 percent or more, well above apartment buildings.

Mr. Mortensen concurred that while investors have gravitated in a conservative direction - his staff is selling many more fixed annuities these days - risk aversion has prompted no general exodus from stocks.

More self-reliant investors might gravitate toward no-load or low-load funds: the Vanguard, Fidelity, Dreyfus and other groups, which sell primarily by telephone and mail.

"As the market broadens out and diversifies away from large-cap growth stocks," said Mr. von der Linde, 40, "investors have gravitated to the types of stocks that we buy."

So companies and investors will gravitate toward the next big buzzword, proteomics, the study of the proteins.

He advised investors to "gravitate to higher quality," rather than "reaching for yield and getting equity-like risk."

And Mr. Bogle said investors should gravitate toward funds that have expense ratios in the bottom quarter of similar funds.

Focused on real estate fundamentals, they had not counted on the bond market troubles' widening the spread between their products and Treasury securities as investors gravitated to less risky investments.

With American shares at generally high prices, stock-oriented investors have gravitated to foreign funds and more conservative stock funds.