It is a solitary game the historian can play to his heart's content, for no one can call him winner or loser in any of his speculative plays.

It again featured speculative sacrificial play by Ranken, this time including a double rook sacrifice.

This took much speculative play away from the smaller world of warrants.

Some see the company as a speculative play, subject to the whims of game buyers.

Yet as a purely speculative play, buying into Indosat may make sense, analysts said.

A typical Bush venture of this period was Ponderosa Forest Apartments, a highly remunerative speculative play in real estate.

"This is more than a speculative play," Ms. Tatlock said.

Wealthy Friends A more speculative play is Telecom Asia, a Thai company that runs telephone and cable television operations in Bangkok.

Stock options, another speculative play, have done much better, on average.

They can also serve as a hedge against a falling dollar, or as a speculative play.