Our content this month are as follows:-

• Thank You
• Quotes of the Month
• Calming Turbulent Waters
• Books We Have Read

It is that time of year again when we reflect upon the past 12 months and all that has passed in that time. It has been a very successful year for Index Wealth Management and we would like to thank everyone who has contributed to that success.

A great big thank you to you, our clients, for your continued support; it goes without saying that without you we would not have a business and we hope it is clear that we never take you for granted.

For those of you who have referred friends and colleagues this year an additional thank you; we do not advertise or market ourselves in any way and referrals are very important to us.

To those professionals who have referred their clients, we understand what a precious relationship that is and thank you for your confidence in us.
A huge thank you to our staff who have worked extremely hard to maintain and improve the service we give clients.

A Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to you all

We do not read the newspapers much these days and recommend that you do the same; you will find that you cease to suffer from information overload, your blood pressure will reduce and the gabble of noise that they make will recede into the distance.

One article caught our eye this week however, The "Investment Column" in The Daily Telegraph by Tom Stevenson. It was headlined "My best and worst calls over the past year" and went on to lament the lack of success of a particular approach he had tried this year. The article is peppered with phrases like "I am just about on the right side of evens" (how often have you heard gamblers say that?), "the best bang for your buck" and "spread bets". If that is an investment column then, in the words of Ian Hislop, I am a banana. This stuff should really be on the horse racing and gambling page.

Investment is about following rigorous principles, relying on asset allocation and diversification and getting the risk and return equation right at the outset for each individual client. It is not about calls, spread bets, suspicions and gut feelings. Get your portfolio right at the outset and you need not fear the occasional turbulence the market will throw at you.

It's Christmas, so no books this month -- Eat Drink and Be Merry instead!

"Christmas begins about the 1st of December with an office party and ends when you finally realise what you spent, around April 15 of the next year."

PJ O'Rourke

"It will be a very traditional Christmas, with presents, crackers, doors slamming and people bursting into tears, but without the big dead thing in the middle."

Victoria Wood (about a vegetarian Christmas)

"A Merry Christmas to all my friends except two."

WC Fields